Film Review: The Marvels delivers absurdism - but lacks cohesion and emotion

L-R: Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau in Marvel Studios' The Marvels

• The Marvels 
• ★★☆☆☆
• Cinema release 

BE careful what you wish for, they say, in case it

actually comes true and you wind up experiencing a multi-quantum entanglement with your favourite superhero and her estranged niece.

That, at least, is how it goes for Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) at the start of The Marvels (12A) – one second she’s swanning around her New Jersey bedroom imagining herself as Ms Marvel, the next she’s embroiled in a ‘switchy entanglement situation’ with Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Dr Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) as the trio attempt to foil the malevolent plans of Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who is trying save her dying planet by plundering other planets of their resources.

Which, to be fair, is a legitimate aspiration, and might even have been received as such had she asked other planets to share, but in the binary world of superheroes there can only be heroes and villains, and thus Dar-Benn must be stopped at all costs, even if that means that Captain Marvel must — say it ain’t so! — join a team.

Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers in Marvel Studios' The Marvel

Written by Elissa Karasik, Megan McDonnell and Nia DaCosta, The Marvels is a rather strange affair; where Captain Marvel (2019) delivered a terrific feminist superhero in Carol Danvers’ alter-ego, this sequel seems determined to flag up the more preposterous elements of the genre, with Kamala Khan’s acerbic, deadpan teenager frequently calling out the more outlandish aspects of her space adventure.

And so we get the wilfully complicated three-way entanglement of the leading characters, a rather bizarre song-and-dance interlude, three different forms of electromagnetic powers, and cats swallowing humans whole, all of which is delightfully absurdist, and may even qualify The Marvels as the first surrealist superhero flick, but which ultimately results in a movie that lacks cohesion and any kind of emotional heft.