The Marvels is a fun little party thrown at the end of Marvel’s worst year

polygon.com:

The Marvel Cinematic Universe team-up movie The Marvels has a downright unfair amount of work cut out for it. Consider the baggage on its doorstep. It is:

Here’s the good news: The Marvels shoulders every one of these concerns like it isn’t even trying. And the even better news? It’s fun as hell, even if you don’t know about any of this stuff.

Director Nia DaCosta, who previously helmed 2021’s Candyman remake, has inherited all the downsides of a project set in a shared universe, and few of the upsides. But the good stuff she has to work with? She makes it sing.

First and foremost is the film’s cast, pulled from three previous MCU ventures with no prior interaction before The Marvels, and very little development leading up to it. Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel is the biggest victim of that lack of development: Her one solo outing, Captain Marvel, was a ’90s period piece that did nothing to establish her in the MCU’s present. And it spent most of its run time with Carol as an amnesiac, less clearly drawn than the other Avengers. Her Avengers: Endgame role added no information nor enlightenment; she just showed up as a quiet bruiser.

Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau is similarly undefined. She’s a child in Captain Marvel, her investigator role in WandaVision was strictly support work, and she exited that series with powers that were never shown off in full.

The best and most fully realized of The Marvels’ three main protagonists is the one who brings them together. Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel is a goddamn delight, a giddy fan of Captain Marvel and the Avengers who also happens to have one of the cosmic whatsits that kicks off the plot of The Marvels. The bangle Kamala inherited from her grandmother,