It's no secret that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is faltering a bit lately, no longer having the guaranteed hit status it used to. Many of its movies and shows have been underperforming lately, and The Marvels continues that record. With a lackluster critical reception and the worst box office performance in MCU history, this film is looking to be yet another new low in Marvel's descent to the bottom.

The movie has a number of issues holding it down. It's following a general dropoff in interest in the MCU as a whole, suffering due to what came before it. Given the film's astonishing 78% second week box office dropoff, however, the film itself has to be responsible for at least some of the blame. The Marvels is not receiving positive word of mouth, and a large part of its poor reception is likely due to the film's unfortunate lack of character development.

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The Marvels: Ms. Marvel Actress Iman Vellani Refuses To Watch One Of Marvel's Biggest Bombs

The Marvels star Iman Vellani didn't shy away from sharing which Marvel movie she refuses to watch, and sadly, it belongs to a big franchise.

Kamala Khan Is Still Obsessed With Captain Marvel

One of Kamala Khan's defining traits is her admiration for Captain Marvel. Her room is decked out with Captain Marvel drawings and merchandise, she runs a Captain Marvel-themed blog, and of course, her name is blatantly inspired by Captain Marvel. The latter is something she even apologizes to Carol for in The Marvels. She's not alone in her fandom, either. In the MCU's recent worldbuilding, Captain Marvel is an incredibly popular superhero in-universe. On the surface, this move makes total sense. In a traditional, Superman kind of way, Captain Marvel might be the most classical superhero character currently in the MCU.

Upon first meeting Captain Marvel, Kamala is understandably over the moon. She is excited to the point of barely being able to speak with her at first, and follows her lead faithfully. Carol responds to this with relative nonchalance, being somewhat dismissive towards Kamala and yelling at her to stay out of the way while she does battle. She does apologize for this later, but still does not want to engage with Kamala much. Both Carol and Monica show a strong refusal to become part of a team.

As the film progresses, Carol's perfect image begins to fall apart as her mistakes start to come to light. While saving a Skrull refugee colony from their collapsing planet, Kamala is momentarily appalled by Carol's decision to abandon some of the refugees to ensure the survival of the Skrull on their ship. Later, Carol reveals that she is the cause of the Kree civil war which left their planet barren and inhospitable. This in turn led the Kree to seek out resources from other worlds and steal them. Carol also tells Monica that the reason she never returned was because she was ashamed of her actions. In her confidence, she felt as though she knew best how to help the Kree, but her decision only worsened the problem. She never returned to her Earth family, as she wanted to fix her mistake before she faced them.

Kamala's Fandom Should Have Been Thrown Into Question

This all feels like it should lead up to a moment where Kamala questions her worship of Captain Marvel. She's seen that Carol is not the untouchable goddess Kamala believed her to be, but just another person with great power who is capable of making mistakes. She would grow to see herself as a hero independent of her greatest idol and contribute to the team effort, coming to see Captain Marvel as an equal and a colleague rather than as a superior.

None of this really happens, though. In spite of any mistakes she makes, Captain Marvel never falters in Kamala's eyes. Kamala remains fully dedicated to following her lead and never questions her. Her shock at seeing Carol abandon some refugees only lasts for the remainder of that scene, and is never brought up again. The only real response she has to learning about Carol's past is to comfort her and tell her that she is not defined by her mistakes.

Kamala finishes the movie in more or less the same position she was in when it began. She is wholly obsessed with Captain Marvel and believes her to be incapable of fault. That remains true from when she is an onlooking fan, all the way until she gets to know her hero personally.

The Marvels Didn't Develop Any Characters That Well

Kamala's lack of a real character arc is emblematic of one of the biggest issues in The Marvels, which is that no one really has a character arc. The Marvels feels toothless and low impact, in large part because no character goes through any significant change.

Captain Marvel is all over the place, as the movie seems to have no idea what lesson she's supposed to be learning. She starts off opposed to being a part of a team for no clear reason, even though she had no issue working with others in Captain Marvel. Yet, she gets over that hangup through a training montage rather than character development. Her triumphant final act is reigniting the sun of the Kree planet, which was extinguished due to the civil war she accidentally started. This act feels disconnected from any kind of lesson she's learned, given that she was already wholly dedicated to helping others. It also seems like something she should have been capable of doing at any given point.

Monica, at minimum, gets closure from Captain Marvel as to why she never came back to see her. But nothing else in the film seems to indicate that Monica is trying to move on from this betrayal or the broader past. If anything, her final act of sacrifice indicates that the lesson she is supposed to have learned is one of giving up her own well-being for the sake of others. The issue is, again, Monica is clearly already willing to do this. Not only is she engaged in superhero work, putting her life on the line in order to keep other people safe, but the film has an early scene where Monica uses her untested ability to fly in order to save Kamala from falling. Being willing to sacrifice her life for the sake of the universe doesn't feel like something Monica had to learn. It's something she was willing to do from the moment she appeared onscreen.

The Marvels

Release Date

November 10, 2023

Director

Nia DaCosta

Cast

Brie Larson , Teyonah Parris , Iman Vellani , Zawe Ashton , Samuel L. Jackson

Studio

Marvel Studios

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