‘The Marvels’ Review: Short and Simple Yet Precise

In a world that is now full of different superhero movies that tend to be long and full of unnecessary scenes, we get ‘The Marvels,’ which has a pacing that will cater to a lot of different superhero movie fans out there. This should be a surprise to a lot of people because the movie focuses on three different characters. But while its pacing is actually pretty quick for a superhero movie, it was able to deliver its premise incredibly well without missing out on anything important. That said, let’s look at what we think about ‘The Marvels.’

No beating around the bush for the Marvels trio

It is often the case that we get to see a lot of superhero movies that are at least two hours long. For some people, a two-hour superhero movie is more than enough to set up the storylines of the different characters and how they are involved in the movie. For some, two hours are a bit too short to give a compelling storyline that’s well-paced and balanced.

But in the case of ‘The Marvels,’ people were shocked to hear that the movie is the shortest MCU film as of this writing. It has a runtime of 105 minutes, making it seven minutes shorter than ‘The Incredible Hulk’ (2008) and ‘Thor: The Dark World’ (2013). And not a lot of people were happy about the quality of some of the shorter MCU movies.

Despite the fact that ‘The Marvels’ is just 1 hour and 45 minutes long, it surprised us with how it was able to go straight to the jugular without missing anything important. The storylines of the three main characters and the main antagonist were actually told well enough without wasting too much time on monologues and backstories. And we do believe that the movie was able to save a lot of time in introducing Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan because their stories were already told in previous projects, including ‘Captain Marvel,’ ‘WandaVision,’ and ‘Ms. Marvel.’

In that regard, there was no beating around the bush for the Marvels trio as they went straight into action and wasted no time resolving the issues that they needed to resolve.

The pacing was fast enough that the storyline flowed incredibly well. At the same time, it wasn’t too fast that things were happening all of a sudden. Just make sure you don’t go for a restroom break, as you might miss an important scene or dialogue.

Just the perfect blend of action and storytelling

Truth be told, the movies had no dead scenes. There wasn’t a time wherein we could actually say that the movie was dragging itself out or that we were bored with the things that were happening. Simply put, every scene in the movie had a purpose or meaning, whether it was to tell a story or to entertain.

In just a few minutes into the film, the main characters already went into action against their Kree enemies. The fast pace blended well with the fact that the trio constantly switched with one another whenever they used their powers. As such, the constant switching also made the audience feel like they were trying to keep up with what was happening around them, just like how Carol, Monica, and Kamala were constantly trying to make sense of what was happening while they were moving from one place to another.

The stories that the characters also needed to tell were placed well in between the different fast-paced action scenes. But the good part about the storytelling was that they didn’t seem dull or too dramatic. Instead, we were able to feel what the characters felt without actually feeling that there was too much talking. And we can thank the previous MCU movies and Disney+ series for allowing us to understand the backgrounds of the characters.

Setting up the future while staying in the present

Another aspect of the MCU that has stayed consistent is the fact that every movie tries to set the future up to keep fans engaged and eager to see what is going to come next for Marvel Studios. But a lot of MCU movies and shows tend to forget about the present when setting up the future.

In the case of ‘The Marvels,’ we got to see how the movie tried to set the future up, especially with the events of ‘Secret Wars’ and the rise of the Young Avengers looming on the horizon. Then again, it was able to stay grounded on the here and now, which was the present problem that Carol and her allies had to deal with. And we also loved how the film also gave short insights into the past to understand how the current events unfolded.

So, in short, ‘The Marvels’ didn’t try to get ahead of itself with all of the cameos and post-credit scenes. It focused on what was happening while giving fans a sneak preview of what could happen to the characters in the future. 

And in a current world where more and more fans are now getting tired of the volume of different superhero movies getting released, the fact that ‘The Marvels’ didn’t bombard us with plenty of future speculations was a welcome experience.

SCORE 9/10

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