Starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Zawe Ashton, Gary Lewis, Park Seo-joon, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Directed by Nia DaCosta

Disney

Carol Danvers, Maria Rambeau and Kamala Khan have to work together to find out why any use of their powers is… problematic…

As with many things Marvel right now, how we got here has a big impact on the nature of the content contained within.

The Marvels is a film that deserves to be seen, enjoyed and, like a Saturday morning adventure show, filed away for repeat watching when there’s nothing else to do and you need a light hearted pick me up.

It’s likely to be entirely forgotten and, sadly, this is almost certainly going to be because of two factors – the rampant misogyny of the general public, and specifically the MCU’s fans who apply jarringly inconsistent standards to their male and female characters, and because the MCU has delivered such lacklustre content over the last twelve months that it’s become entirely too easy to just skip shows and movies that don’t immediately grab the attention.

The Marvels doesn’t easily grab the attention – it’s not clear from the trailers what the film’s about. It’s not clear who is involved if you haven’t watched the scattered television outings which introduced two of the three main characters and it’s hard to summarise the film in a way that makes it interesting.

Describing it as Captain Marvel’s second outing is about as pithy as it gets.

All of which leaves this entry into the MCU with a hard sell even to those who (like me) think Carol Danvers is brilliant and that Kamala Khan is the best thing to happen to Marvel since Miles Morales.

Which is a shame because it’s funny, pulpy, full of charm and doesn’t outstay its welcome. The three leads bounce off one another without it ever veering into mawkish sentimentality (well there are some cats but your mileage may vary) and the writing is pretty crisp.

What’s most disappointing to me is that Marvel pushed this out knowing they’d be hamstrung in the marketing by not having their absolutely charming leads being able to sell their movie – a movie that absolutely needs selling.

All this is a long winded way of saying that I enjoyed the film. It’s not entirely consistent, often doesn’t make much sense but makes up for that with fun, love and a huge amount of creativity.

With the news following shortly after release that there will be yet more space between this and the next slate of content it feels like The Marvels has been kicked out of the house and told to find its own way and that is pretty disheartening for the future of both Ms Marvel and Carole Danvers’ version of Captain Marvel.

Verdict: Do yourself a favour and go see this before it disappears like the invisible man.

7 entanglements out of 10  

Stewart Hotston