'The Marvels' Makes Marvel Satisfying Again

The post-Endgame world has not been kind to Marvel Studios. Outside of a few hits, their strategy of launching new characters in both movies and TV shows overwhelmed an audience looking for a reprieve after the culmination of their blockbuster cinematic universe. Disney, of course, wasn’t interested in pumping the brakes, and it remains a bit rich to hear current CEO Bob Iger say that they “diluted” the audience’s focus as if they also hadn’t demanded a glut of Marvel shows to buoy their new streaming service. Even without the TV shows, audiences didn’t seem particularly interested in the new movies, with this year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania being a nadir for the studio.

However, to believe that everything Marvel touched used to turn to gold is to only look at box office receipts rather than the movies themselves. Marvel’s success came because it found a formula and tone that resulted in something enjoyable by the vaunted four-quadrant audience. While they also managed a few gems, the majority of the studio’s first three phases are populated with movies that are the cinematic equivalent of satisfying fast food. You shouldn’t treat it like it’s the only cuisine in the world, but it has its place as something comforting and easy. I like movies that challenge me. I also like movies I can chill out with on a Sunday afternoon, and Marvel excelled at making those.

The Marvels feels like a return to that kind of movie. I’d be lying if I said it were great or flawless, but it occupies that same space as movies like Iron Man 3 or Spider-Man: Homecoming, where it’s pretty easy to overlook the flaws because it’s doing the main things we ask of a Marvel movie: likable characters, solid set pieces, breezy charm. Rather than trying to argue that this movie is essential in setting up future movies (although those post-credits scenes are there), the bulk of the film is throwing Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) together and sending them on an adventure to stop a disposable bad guy (Zawe Ashton).

Running at a scant 1 hour and 45 minutes, the movie throws in just enough character conflict to ground the relationships (Monica feels like she was abandoned by Carol, Kamala worships Carol but only knows her as the heroic Captain Marvel, and Carol isn’t quite sure how to reconnect with humanity again) even if it feels like loads of stuff was left on the cutting room floor to make the film run as fast as possible. Some may feel like the characters are being short-changed, but the film does belong to these three superheroes, and letting them bounce off each other is why the film shines.

It may seem like I’m setting a low bar for a powerful studio, but I feel like Marvel disappeared into its own lofty expectations while losing sight of why their movies worked in the first place. You can call Eternals a “family drama” all day, but that doesn’t really matter if we don’t connect with the characters and the world they inhabit. It’s fine if you want to set up your big bad villain, but you also can’t have him lose a fistfight to Ant-Man, a guy you’ve established as the most normal, everyman character of all your superheroes. Marvel has focused so much on rapid expansion that they ceased to ask, “Does this make sense?” The Marvels makes sense because it’s upbeat, straightforward, and carries little baggage. Even if you’ve never seen Monica or Kamala’s origins in the series WandaVision and Ms. Marvel, respectively, The Marvels catches you up quickly, and doesn’t worry too much about getting bogged down in lore.

I’m not going to pretend “Marvel is back” or that The Marvels rights a ship that’s going to need a lot more fixing than one movie can accomplish. But it’s at least stripped down in a way that feels inviting to newcomers rather than punishing them for not doing their homework. It’s not an airtight picture, and I’m sure that those who have grown tired of the Marvel machine will find plenty to dismiss. But for me, it’s the first post-Endgame movie that’s more fun than frustrating to watch.

Perhaps that’s damning the film with faint praise, but if Marvel Studios is going to rebound, they need a reset of not only the way they make movies, but the expectations they set for audiences. The Marvels may head to the stars, but it’s not bad to see the MCU come back down to Earth.

Recommendations

I’m a longtime reader of Pajiba, and I’m excited that they’re getting into Substack with their top-notch politics coverage. What I appreciate about Pajiba is that they’re pretty level-headed. For example, while The New York Times has been trying to set every Democrat’s hair on fire with their latest polling, Dustin Rowles pointed out how bad the Times’ polling has been in the past and how shoddy the current poll is. That’s not to say that Democrats won’t have a fight on their hands in 2024, but it’s also journalistic malpractice to argue there’s a chance that 22% of all Black voters are going to break for Trump.

Anyway, this is a very easy recommendation:

What I’m Watching

Too much stuff, I suppose. I’m trying to work in some noirs for Noirvember. I’m trying to finish making my way through Michael Mann and Hayao Miyazaki’s filmographies. I want to get through the last few Walt Disney Animation Studios movies I’ve never seen from the mid-2000s. Oh, and it’s also awards season, so I’m trying to get to all of that stuff. None of this is to say “Woe is me,” as much as to ask, “Why do I do this to myself?”

Oh, and I’m about to start watching The Curse this week because I can’t say no to a new Nathan Fielder show.

What I’m Reading

Still grinding through the MCU book. It’s just not the captivating read I had hoped for, even though I wouldn’t say it’s poorly written or anything like that. I guess in some ways, my overall Marvel fatigue has reached the point where I’m not exactly aching to know what went on behind the scenes on Thor: The Dark World. That being said, as I noted in my Substack last week, I’m uniquely aware of everything that went down at Marvel due to reporting on them over the years. Your mileage may vary.

Thankfully, I’m also reading some Shirley Jackson short stories, and those are very good, so that’s a nice change of pace.

What I’m Hearing

Of course the new Beatles song is very divisive because most things are in the Internet age. For my part, I quite like “Now and Then” even though no one would rank it among the best Beatles songs. But I also feel like it’s clumsy to rush to judgment against Peter Jackson of all people. If anything, I feel like the song and its construction is about Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr wrestling with their mortality. It’s an attempt to reach into the past through cutting-edge technology and reunite with their lost bandmates for one last song. I find that extremely touching and poignant regardless of what you think of the song or its construction.

What I’m Playing

I beat Spider-Man 2, and I’ll have more on that in Sunday’s issue. In the meantime, I’m still making my way through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It’s kind of amazing that a game I first played in 1997 holds up so well. I rarely replay video games after I've beaten them, but I tend to come back to SOTN every few years.