The Marvels (2023, Nia DaCosta)

The Marvels is a sequel to Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson, which came out four years before but takes place thirty years before. It’s also a sequel to the TV shows “WandaVision,” which introduced Teyonah Parris (though her character appeared as a little kid in Captain), and “Ms. Marvel,” which introduced Iman Vellani as a teenage hero who idolizes Larson.

Through celeritous convenience and contrivance, Marvels gets the three together, along with Samuel L. Jackson (who also starred in Captain, CGI de-aged, and is back here in a combination comedic relief and exposition provider role) and Vellani’s family, also coming back from the “Ms. Marvel” show. Marvels spotlights mom Zenobia Shroff and dad Mohan Kapur the most, but does give older brother Saagar Shaikh some great comedic bits. Shaikh’s wife is mysteriously absent like they filmed Marvels before all of “Ms.”

It doesn’t matter, of course, because the point’s getting the trio together. Fangirl but still professional superhero Vellani, government scientific investigator turned reluctant metahuman Harris, and intergalactic world-saver (and world destroyer) Larson, who’s not really aware of how her celebrity works on her home planet. Thanks to villain Zawe Ashton, Vellani, Harris, and Larson find their powers intertwined; if one uses their power, they change locations—across the galaxy—with another. While the film does an excellent montage sequence with the three learning how to use the “Marvels leaping” to their advantage (the movie doesn’t make that joke; I made that joke, blame me), it never explains the rules.

Marvels opens with Ashton and her sidekick Daniel Ings (who supposedly has a name in the movie, but I don’t think so) finding an ancient space artifact—a bangle like the one from “Ms. Marvel,” now streaming exclusively on Disney Plus. It never occurred to Ashton one of the bangles would end up on a desolate planetoid, and the other would just be on planet Earth in Pakistan. One of Marvels’s subtlest recurring plot points is how little people look at things from the other person’s perspective. See, Ashton might not have been in Captain Marvel, but only because they didn’t know they would need to have a character mad at Larson for what she did at the end of that movie.

Thirty years ago in story time. In between, there was half the universe disappearing and coming back, which features into Parris’s backstory but no one else’s. It presumably would have also affected Ashton’s scheme. Ashton’s scheme is unclear for a while. When we find out exactly what she’s got planned, it’s maybe Marvels’s biggest plot contrivance. The film runs a nimble 105 minutes, with profoundly precise cutting by Catrin Hedström and Evan Schiff. Director DaCosta likes doing some nice sci-fi establishing shots, too—lots of space superhero grandeur on display, but she never holds the shot too long. Marvels is clearly on a schedule, and DaCosta doesn’t miss any stops.

Things get a little clunky in the second act, which has Jackson dealing with a grim and gritty tribbles “Star Trek” episode. At the same time, Parris and Vellani discover Larson’s space adventures are a lot weirder (and more “Doctor Who,” frankly) than they were expecting.

But then the third act’s a powerhouse. Even as the film ignores plot thread after plot thread—I’m not sure any of the outstanding ones get resolved, the movie instead just floors it, relying on Vellani, Parris, and Larson to get the finale through. And it works just right, even though the film’s got three cameos from elsewhere in the franchise, with one deep—but modern—cut and then another deep and surprising one. They’re all effective—though only the surprising one doesn’t require franchise literacy. It can stand alone, whereas the first two only make sense if you’re up on the lore.

But there’s not much lore otherwise. It’s like the screenwriters—director DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik—all realized there’s just no way to do a straight sequel to Captain Marvel so they might as well treat it as a legacy crossover sequel. With Vellani’s family playing such a large part (besides them, the only other regular characters are Leila Farzad and Abraham Popoola as Jackson’s flunkies), it feels a little like a legacy sequel, a little like “Ms. Marvel Goes to the Movies,” and then… well, no, just those two things. It does feel like there were cuts, whether filmed material or just cut from the script and while some of them were undoubtedly delightful, Marvels works better as a leaner picture.

Larson, Parris, and Vellani are trying to save the universe, after all; they’re going to be in a rush to get it done.

Vellani’s delightful, Larson and Parris are both good—Larson gets the least to do of the three; she’s the stoic one. Jackson’s always funny, even when he’s stretching the bit; Shroff, Kapur, and Shaikh are great. Ashton’s fine. Could she be better? Sure. Does the movie need her to be better? Nah. She’s a good foil, but not too good of one because it’s not about anyone and their nemesis; it’s about people and their… friends, family, country-people? None of the terms really work, but it’s about people who care about one another working together (which makes Jackson’s secret space military organization even weirder since they’re just a bunch of lovable nerds).

Anyway.

The Marvels is a great time.

Also, if you like cats, you’ll have an even better one.

Unless you want the thread resolved, of course. No time for tidying up here, just warping ahead.

Sorry, wrong franchise.

Ms. Marvel (2022) s01e06 – No Normal

“Ms. Marvel” wraps up with its inevitable MCU third act finish, with Iman Vellani teaming up with her friends to save Rish Shah from the racist Damage Control agent (Alysia Reiner, who seems strangely unconcerned with the type-casting). Reiner starts the episode explaining it’s not just brown people she doesn’t like; it’s teenage brown people especially. She escalates from trying to take the teens down with non-lethal rounds to just shooting her service pistol at them. In front of the neighborhood. “Ms. Marvel” ends with a superhero with public support sequence.

Obviously, coming after Vellani’s trip to Pakistan with mom Zenobia Shroff to visit her grandma (who sadly doesn’t appear this episode) and find out her superhero origin, this episode’s a letdown. Shroff’s gone immediately from an over-concerned, controlling parent to the proud mom of a superhero. There’s a brief scene getting dad Mohan Kapur on board, with brother Saagar Shaikh amusingly whining in the background. But they needed another episode. Especially once the high school action sequence starts, Vellani and best guy friend Matt Lintz figure out the science, while everyone else runs around to confuse the federal agents. Who are shooting pulse rifles at the teenagers. They’re the non-lethal weapons, but they take out chunks of concrete.

“Ms. Marvel”’s message is very much, “The U.S. government will kill your white kids if they have Muslim friends.” They’re not wrong, obviously; it’s just a lot for a Disney show. And it doesn’t get addressed in the epilogues. There’s no accountability for Reiner. It’s a little too realistic.

Shah’s got the biggest arc in the episode; he doesn’t know his mom is dead, doesn’t know she’s zapped him full of energy, so he’s almost as powerful as Vellani. It too could’ve been a couple episodes. Like I said before, the biggest disappointment of “Ms. Marvel” is it not being a real show, instead a (very) extended cut of a feature film.

Vellani gets some excellent superhero origin moments, with Kapur and Shroff helping out at different times, which is really nice. Laurel Marsden returns, entirely shoehorned, for the high school action conclusion. Yasmeen Fletcher has a little bit more to do, but she and Vellani’s friendship repairs incredibly conveniently so as not to give the episode any subplots or character development. It’s a rush job for everyone. Particularly Lintz, who’s second-billed on “Ms. Marvel” but hasn’t made any significant contributions since the first couple of episodes.

Though he does get to drop an MCU-relevant reveal on Vellani. It’s a cute moment, but it’s there to avoid any resolution to their relationship. Vellani still doesn’t know Lintz’s mad-crushing on her. Maybe in the movie.

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are back directing. They do an adequate job. However, while they handle some of the action better than the other series directors, they don’t handle the characters better.

The credits scene setup for Vellani’s big screen adventure, The Marvels, is decent. It’s going to be a long year waiting for “Ms. Marvel” to return.

Ms. Marvel (2022) s01e05 – Time and Again

While director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy continues to have action scene problems, the rest of the episode’s direction is so spectacular it doesn’t matter. There are only a couple minutes of superhero action, with the rest being child-missing-in-crowd stuff. Obaid-Chinoy’s perfectly fine with the latter; it’s just the superhero stuff.

Last episode left Iman Vellani stranded in the past; the cute boy she likes has an evil mom, Nimra Bucha, who tracked Vellani to Pakistan to force her to open a rift between worlds. Vellani didn’t want to destroy the space-time continuum and refused; they tussled; Vellani ended up in 1947 India, witnessing her grandmother (as a child) trying to make it on the last train out during the partitioning.

All of that setup will be important for Vellani, but she doesn’t start the episode. Instead, it follows her great-grandmother, Mehwish Hayat, from her arrival in a small Indian village to the train station action event. Hayat’s an otherworldly magical being, but once she meets local Muslim farmer Fawad Khan, she’s delighted to settle into a human role.

The episode tracks their meet-cute, which is cute, and the salad days of their marriage. Right up until Bucha arrives, vaguely threatening Hayat. It just happens to coincide with the partitioning, making now the time to run.

The show’s been talking about Hayat for ages, so there’s built-in curiosity to see her story realized. Especially once her path crosses with visiting Vellani, it gets very emotional, with some interesting contrasts (Vellani’s emotional because she knows she’s Marty McFlyed into family history, and Hayat’s emotional because she’s scared of losing her family). It’s a beautiful protagonist hand-off.

Then comes the two-part action sequence, past and present, where the punchline involves Vellani’s mom, Zenobia Shroff, and grandma, Samina Ahmed, tracking her down during her big superhero origin battle. Then, after a potentially too brief farewell to Aramis Knight, the local superhero who’d been helping Vellani, the episode focuses on the three generations of women, Vellani, Shroff, and Ahmed, for bonding.

They’ve got regular stuff to bond over—Vellani not knowing mom’s teenage rebellious years—the historical stuff to bond over—Ahmed finding closure with her past–and the fantastical stuff to bond over—Vellani is, after all, literally magic. It’s beautifully paced, with gentle timing from Obaid-Chinoy, and fantastic performances from the three stars.

Fatimah Asghar gets the script credit. It’s outstanding.

The only place the episode slips—besides, obviously, the superhero action—is the end setup. Once again, the MCU is the easiest place to travel around the literal globe, in this case setting up Matt Lintz and Rish Shah for next episode’s action thrills. Shah seemingly takes four hours to get from Pakistan to New Jersey. It’s a good scene for Lintz and Shah, arguably long overdue, but it’s a functional tack-on compared to the otherwise sublime episode.

Ms. Marvel (2022) s01e04 – Seeing Red

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is not an action director but in an okay enough way. This episode’s mostly well-directed; Obaid-Chinoy just doesn’t know what to do with the first superhero fight or the chase scene. But, the chase scene works out. There’s the chaos aspect, and it being Iman Vellani’s first Bond movie chase scene through exotic locales, though pin in the locale. So it’s okay.

The first superhero fight against Aramis Knight goes on too long. It passes through its awkwardness—Knight attacks tourist Vellani in a deserted train station—into comfortable banter but then drags on some more. Because Knight’s a good guy too. He just thought Vellani was an evil djinn.

The episode begins with Vellani and mom Zenobia Shroff flying to Karachi almost immediately after the last episode. In between, Vellani’s grandmother, Samina Ahmed, has apparently told Shroff she’s sick and needs them to come over directly. It’s actually subterfuge; Ahmed knows something’s up with Vellani and the superhero business because they share visions. The previous episodes used Ahmed as a grandparent-on-FaceTime gag, but once they establish her, the character’s entirely different. In addition to Vellani finding out some of her superhero origin stuff, the episode’s a mothers and daughters piece contrasting Shroff and Ahmed’s relationship with Shroff and Vellani’s. Vellani gets to find out fun family secrets about Shroff for once.

Okay, the locale stuff. The episode takes place in Karachi, where Vellani wants to confab with Ahmed about the djinn magic superhero stuff and then look around for the locations of her visions. Her cousins want to goof off, and mom Shroff wants to deep clean Ahmed’s apartment, but Vellani’s on a superhero mission. Her visions reference the 1947 split of India and Pakistan, which figures into Ahmed and Shroff’s joint (and separate) histories. It bundles superhero origin, historical event, and family event. It’s really good.

And it shows how this thirty-to-forty-minute episode format is hurting “Ms. Marvel.” This episode’s got a cliffhanger, so it’s a two-parter amid the greater series, but it should’ve been its own thing. “Ms. Marvel” would’ve worked better as ninety-ish minute movies or two forty-five-minute two-parters. There’s just so much content.

The episode didn’t film in Karachi; instead using Bangkok. Director Obaid-Chinoy does a fantastic job showing the visit from Vellani’s perspective; she’s a returning visitor who’s better able to appreciate it than the last time she was there. She’s older, she’s got agency, plus she’s a superhero. The city showcase isn’t about its colonial-minded exoticism; it’s about Vellani seeing the difference between here and home. I initially thought the trip to Karachi would be a layover in the series, but it’s a great character development arc for Vellani.

And it lets Shroff do a whole bunch more than she gets to do at home.

In addition to Ahmed, guest star Farhan Akhtar is also outstanding. He’s the leader of the anti-djinn secret society who mentors Vellani a little. Nimra Bucha and the bad djinns are back, too—the MCU Supermax is a joke (I forgot, that scene is another where Obaid-Chinoy’s action directing is a problem). They’re undistinguished villains but still very dangerous.

Even with the unsteady action sequences—the finale action is an improvement—Seeing Red is probably the best “Ms. Marvel” episode so far. It’s not exactly a fair comparison to the others; it’s “Ms. Marvel Vacation” with all sorts of new stakes, and it’s excellent.

Ms. Marvel (2022) s01e03 – Destined

This episode feels oddly short like they knew they needed to keep the big action finale, so they cut material from before it. It’s a good episode—much better than I’d have been expecting had I known A.C. Bradley’s name was on the writing credits (she wrote a lot of “What If,” which is a very poorly written show). But it’s uneven. The episode gets away with it thanks to director Meera Menon, who got a fabulous grounding for the big action sequence.

But does everything need to do a Jurassic Park raptors-in-the-kitchen reference now?

Anyway. The too-short episode.

The episode opens with a flashback to 1940s India and the discovery of the bangle bracelet, along with a Captain Mar-Vell nod (I figured the blue arm was a nod, I didn’t realize to who, thanks IMDb trivia). It’s an Indiana Jones-ish archeology scene with a diverse, affable cast. First, it made me worried they were going to tie in “Moon Knight,” then I realized no one was thinking hard enough on “Moon Knight” for them to do it.

In addition to the Norse Gods and the Egyptian Gods being real, we’ll find out some supernatural creatures from Muslim mythology are real too. In the comics, Ms. Marvel is an Inhuman. In the MCU, “Inhumans” was a major flop and the last gasp of the pre-Disney+ TV unit. It seemed unlikely the origin would carry; the replacement is solid. Though, again, the MCU’s going to run out of gods to literalize at some point.

Cute and apparently very good guy Rish Shah’s mom, Nimra Bucha, knows all about lead Iman Vellani’s origin. Including Vellani’s great-grandmother, played by Mehwish Hayat in the flashback. Vellani’s only got so much time to process her secret origin before Bucha asks her to magic her and her friends into their home dimension. Did they know Peter Parker was Spider-Man from somewhere across the Spider-Verse and got dumped in the Tri-State Region? Probably not. Wouldn’t be terrible, though.

Okay, so. Vellani’s best (non-Muslim) friend Matt Lintz is jealous of Shah and worried about Vellani after her first public night out as a superhero, but still very interested in the origin and the don’t-call-them-Eternals Vellani’s pals with now.

He’s going to start researching Islamic mythology and running experiments on Vellani’s power vectors or something, but he also—apropos of maybe a cut scene—makes her a Robin mask. It’s a good scene when Vellani gets the mask because she’s about to talk about superheroing with her understanding mosque sheikh Laith Nakli, but it makes as much sense in the moment as Lintz getting her a sandwich.

They never talk about the mask for the rest of the episode. It’s like something got shuffled and never fixed. Because Lintz and Vellani have big scenes together. Lintz tells her he’s going away to Cal-Tech, he tells her helping Bucha will destroy the fabric of the space-time continuum, but he doesn’t tell her how or why on the mask.

Of course, Vellani’s also very busy getting ready for brother Saagar Shaikh’s wedding, which will be the backdrop for the main plot. Important subplots include Vellani’s best friend Yasmeen Fletcher winning her mosque council campaign and dealing with racist federal agent Alysia Reiner. That plot at least lasts a few scenes; there’s another subplot about ace YouTube video producer Vellani going viral with her first night out fiascos. It goes nowhere.

It’s seriously like they had an episode, cut half of it, and tacked it on to another episode. Destined’s only got about forty minutes of actual content. So it’s short by all metrics.

So, the wedding preparation, then the wedding. There’s a big action sequence at the wedding, with the don’t-call-them-The Old Guard attacking Vellani, which has significant repercussions for Lintz and Fletcher as well. Not to mention Shaikh and Travina Springer’s wedding getting interrupted.

It’s a great tone shift. Like, the wedding preparation stuff is strong. Good material for Vellani, Fletcher, and mom Zenobia Shroff. It fudges the first act being truncated. And the wedding, with some great dance sequences and very nice, light, lovable family drama, comes out of that preparation run-up.

But the public attack and superhero fight in the reception hall? It’s a sharp turn. And very well-executed.

The resolution’s a little less complicated than it ought to be but still good—the show knows to just focus on Vellani, and it’ll get through—with an intriguing, albeit seat-of-its-pants cliffhanger.

This episode should’ve been the longest, not the shortest.

Ms. Marvel (2022) s01e02 – Crushed

So, there was an end credits scene in the first episode of “Ms. Marvel.” It gets recapped in this one’s intro; there’s no end credit scene in this episode. Marvel/Disney+ needs some consistency, warning, or not to drag out the end credits to make the run times look longer.

The scene introduces Damage Control agents Arian Moayed and Alysia Reiner. Reiner’s a racist; Moayed knows she’s a racist and tries to manage it internally. Not much else to the characters.

We don’t find out Reiner’s a racist until this episode when it’s a lengthy scene beat. I actually wasn’t expecting “Ms. Marvel” to be so blunt about the U.S. government being racist against Brown people, especially Muslim ones. I also wasn’t expecting them to do a young Muslim woman empowerment arc either. Lead Iman Vellani’s best friend, Yasmeen Fletcher, is running for mosque council against the odds (meaning entrenched sexism).

For most of the episode, Fletcher’s second lead. Like, Crushed gets a lot done thanks to the script (credited to Kate Gritmon) and Meera Menon’s direction. The first episode did sitcom-level introductions for most of the cast, particularly Vellani’s family; this episode quickly and efficiently deepens the characters.

It’s outstanding work.

The episode starts being about Vellani and her best (guy) friend (who loves her and she doesn’t know), Matt Lintz, doing superhero training for her new powers. Vellani knows the bangle bracelet has something to do with it, but not what. Lintz’s souped-up StarkPad (though Apple exists in the MCU, at least AirPods) determines the bangle just unlocked Vellani’s pre-existing abilities. She thinks it’s got something to do with her great-grandmother, but mom Zenobia Shroff doesn’t want her asking questions about that part of family history.

Then Fletcher needs her help with the campaign. Part of her decision to run involves their mosque having a shoe thief on the women’s side and the male governing body not caring. It seems like it’d make a good first mission for “Ms. Marvel,” but it will not be her first outing, which this episode ends with. Vellani’s got a doozy of a first night out, like, it’s great stuff.

The postscript to it, which moves the plot along too fast, is a miss, but the episode’s already done so much. Including introducing a good romantic interest (Rish Shah) and doing an Adventures in Babysitting homage.

We also meet brother Saagar Shaikh’s fiancée Travina Springer; they crash a sorta date for Vellani and Shah, and it’s a great scene, then Springer’s back at family dinner. It’s a fine device to get in some exposition (Springer hearing family history relevant to the bangle) and strengths the family stuff. Dad Mohan Kapur continues to be an adorable sitcom dad.

Vellani and mom Shroff get one really nice scene, but Shroff’s secrets are now a brewing b-plot.

The hard cliffhanger’s a letdown, but the episode’s otherwise excellent, with multiple especiallys.

Ms. Marvel (2022) s01e01 – Generation Why

“Ms. Marvel” gets off to a reassuringly confident start. The only obvious complaints are entirely superficial—don’t promise The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights as a recurring theme song and then not follow through. Secondly, Disney+ needs to more accurately report the run time without credits. I was expecting something like an hour-long first episode. Instead, it’s an extended half-hour, approximately forty-two minutes of action.

The episode opens setting up the show as a Captain Marvel spin-off. Lead Iman Vellani is an Avengers fanatic who edits great, hand-illustrated videos for YouTube (or whatever MCU YouTube would be). Anonymously, of course. Best friend Matt Lintz knows she does it, but her family has no idea. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any juxtaposing of her exceptional video talent—I mean, she’s sixteen but cuts video like she’s a multi-million dollar streaming show—with her superheroing. Her family is primed to disapprove of both.

Vellani’s a modern MCU teenager living with Pakistani Muslim parents who don’t want to let her live her life. The show does a pretty good job with the home life. Brother Saagar Shaikh gets to show a bunch of depth, there’s clearly something to mom Zenobia Shroff (remains to be seen if it’s just performance subtext or if the show will explore it), and dad Mohan Kapur’s a lovable, aloof sitcom dad. The home stuff feels very sitcom. Good sitcom, thoughtful sitcom, but sitcom. Vellani’s the rambunctious one, though only because she’s a girl.

White guy Lintz has an entirely different understanding of her home life—the first half of the episode is him trying to convince Vellani to ask mom Shroff to drive them to the Avengerscon Convention because since Shroff’s so nice to him, she’s got to be cool all time. It’s very nice detail; again, not sure it’ll really matter. Because this episode’s very first act of a Disney+ Marvel limited series. We meet the characters, get the superpowers, introduce a couple potential subplots, and it’s off to the races.

But, for now—one episode in—there’s nothing wrong with any of the setup. Lintz mooning over a completely unaware Vellani’s a nice touch (I read the comic for a while, but I don’t remember enough of it, and not a moony best friend), and Shroff’s got multiple finely layered moments in the episode. She’s projecting her insecurities on Vellani. It’s good character work, and Shroff’s excellent.

The whole show, obviously, is Vellani. She’s doing a Marvel movie version of a Disney Channel teen show, which “Ms. Marvel” does through visualized imagined sequences. So, for example, when Vellani draws out a plan for Lintz, there’s a montage. Or when they’re texting, responses and emoji become part of the urban landscape. Or, when they’re biking, their conversation plays out on the graffiti they pass. It’ll be interesting to see if they keep going with the device. Seems like they can either do it for the “pilot,” then maybe towards the end a couple times, or they’re going to have to keep it going and not stop.

Though Vellani’s also got a different perception of reality once she gets her powers, so that device might function similarly going forward. The show seems to have a handle on everything; no reason for concern, just moments to enjoy.

Vellani’s outstanding. With Tom Holland’s Spider-Man off swinging through the land of limited mentions and potential studio squabbling, Vellani’s Ms. Marvel is the obvious heir apparent. The interesting thing about Marvel—comics, movies, and TV—is how the “universe” needs an invested, involved, detached participant observer, usually in the form of an outcast teenager.

I only hope Marvel uses Vellani so well when she gets promoted to the Captain Marvel sequel next summer.

We shall see. But for now, “Ms. Marvel”’s capably kicking ass on its own.