Three different projects come together into one.
What They Say:
Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. However, unintended consequences see her shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with two other superheroes to form the Marvels.
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release comes with a pair of English mixes with Atmos and a TrueHD 7.1 mix while also including some Dolby Digital mixes as well. The film definitely works things well overall with some strong directionality at times and placement hits well considering the way the characters move about the screen with the trick of the situation for a good chunk of it. The film works a lot of action sequences so there’s plenty going on throughout it to keep the speakers active and that flows well across the screen with the movements throughout. Some areas felt a touch weaker than you might think it would but that’s simply how the source is designed. The dialogue throughout the film is solid and works well where everything is clean and clear and even as I get older, I had no trouble understanding and hearing it all. I just wish that the included subtitled track had more than just the hearing-impaired version and a more traditional subtitle track.
Video:
Originally in theaters in 2023, the encoding for this film presents it in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio in 2160p using the HEV / H.265 codec. While there are plenty of ongoing things to say about how Marvel films its projects, this one at least places itself in a number of interesting locations and sets to work with. The visual design of the film is pretty good overall with only a few areas that look too simple or cheap, such as Dar-Benn’s ship interior in the final act or the costumes of those working for SABER. There are a lot of very vibrant pieces to this overall and they come across beautifully here with the encoding. The only areas of softness come from some of the special effects as it usually does an in high-motion action sequences. Largely, it’s a strong-looking presentation that captures the film in a great way and with a good setup and lighting, is going to look fantastic for most people, especially the larger your setup.
Packaging:
The packaging for this release is pretty standard stuff for the obviously standard edition as we get a slipcover that mirrors the case itself. It works the familiar theatrical image of the three leads together each hued in their particular color and with the darker background it works well enough to catch the eye and stand out even if it doesn’t tell you much of anything. The back cover layout breaks down the bonus features along the top in a clear way so you know what’s on here while below that we get an amusing series of headshots that definitely works for me by ending with a batch of Flerkins. The premise is kept very simple as it’s mostly just a character list with a tiny blip of story but there’s not much space given to actually talk about the film overall. The format section covers what’s included well for the 4K side of it while the breakdown of both discs is clear and largely easy to read. A chunk is given over to the digital code but the big section is all the legalese along the bottom with the production credits and necessary logos just above it. There’s little room for the film on the back covers these days, which does make me appreciate the cleaner and simpler front covers like we get here.
Extras:
The extras for this release are pretty good overall but it’s frustrating that for the 4K release, everything but the commentary is only on the Blu-ray disc. It takes me back to my LaserDisc swapping days to see things and I’m sure there was enough room to include these. The commentary is on my to-listen list as it features DaCosta and DeMarco talking about it. The other extras include some of the usual press kit things with a ten-minute piece focusing on Vellani, some production diaries, the obligatory but welcome gag real, and a few minutes of deleted scenes that don’t feel like they would radically change anything.
As I am one of those people who have not returned to the theatrical experience since the pandemic, I was finally able to see The Marvels as it hit Disney+ streaming and that had me excited to revisit it a few months later with the 4K home video release. Sometimes, with films like these, being both behind and then revisiting it again can help with perceptions. I don’t mind being behind on things like this because the deluge of online opinion during the theatrical release of properties like this is simply too problematic for a lot of reasons. Getting past the hype and vitriol works best for me and I get to disconnect from a lot of that – though I know full well that it’s still percolating in the back of my mind. The Marvels is a film that definitely has issues but you can see where the reason for it was likely coming from a higher point of view of how the project should come together while also having to deal with bringing together characters from different areas; Carol Danvers from the previous films, Kamala Kahn from her Ms Marvel series, and Monica Rambeau from WandaVision.
First, let’s just make it clear what the basis of the film is and why it’s truly the most problematic because it’s not set up at all and is a gotcha later in the film that simply does not work. After the events of Captain Marvel, Carol went back to Hala and destroyed the Supreme Intelligence that ruined her life and manipulated her until her memories broke free from that film. What Carol did basically caused a massive civil war among the Kree with various factions and it led to a lot of destruction over the past thirty years. They’ve now coalesced around Dar-Benn, a woman who was a Kree soldier at the time of Carol’s action, and she along with many others have witnessed the collapse of the Kree Empire and specifically Hala where it’s now without much oxygen and little war. And its sun has been turned into a red dwarf.
While we see some of this early on, the reason why is hidden until much later to the detriment of the film and more specifically the villain in Dar-Benn. Not that what she’s doing is good or understandable in any way, but she’s executing a revenge tour among various worlds while stealing their water and air to bring it back to her world. She’s accomplishing that thanks to finding a quantum band – half of a pair of them – and using that to create new chaotic jump points from worlds back to Hala where they essentially suck up those worlds to Hala. It’s Spaceballs and she’s set to suck. Again, don’t think too clearly about the logic, physics, and so forth of this. I can understand why few worlds would want to help Hala after being part of their Empire, but at the same time, that they lost so much control so quickly is telling in all the factionalism and just how critical the Supreme Intelligence was to maintaining order.
Anyway, so that has Dar-Benn going to various worlds, sucking up resources, killing people, and all that jazz because those worlds are important to Carol who they have rebranded as the Annihilator for what she did. What sets the problems in the present is that Dar-Benn’s finding of the quantum band and activating it when dealing with Carol has activated a kind of quantum entanglement that brings a connection to Kamala and Monica as well. And that entanglement has them swapping places when they use their powers at the same time. This is utterly chaotic and it doesn’t always work but when it does it’s an absolute delight of choreography and absurdity – particularly thanks to the secret weapon that is Iman Vellani. So we get Carol brought from a far-off world to Kamala’s bedroom in Jersey City where she’s thrust into meeting Kamala’s family – and dealing with some Kree warriors who got caught up in it. Monica is doing some scientific work in orbit on SABER and she’s drawn into it as well. So all three start zapping between the three places and issues going on there while being utterly confused. Thankfully, we do get it explained to the regular folks around them (and Nick Fury) and it helps to move things forward as they basically have to deal with Dar-Benn and stop her from destroying more worlds.
The problem beyond the reason for all of Dar-Benn’s motivation being revealed later is that the early part is trying to introduce the backstories of these characters to varying degrees. Sometimes it works in-story as we get the three later hooked up to some mindreading devices. That lets Carol and Kamala see Monica’s story with her mother and Monica sees her mother’s life through Carol’s eyes. Kamala doesn’t get too much of her backstory brought out but she’s just so outgoing and bright in personality that it’s fine. As I said, she’s the secret weapon of the show as she’s the Peter Parker characters. Not overly quippy but has the right things to say, the honest things to say, and does it in order to achieve the goals. The physical elements are great as well as she just lets it all go and has fun with it. I think they balanced the three characters well and when we get past Carol’s grief – and shame – over what happened to Monica’s mother, she eases as well and begins to heal with Monica. I get Carol’s reasoning after what happened with the Supreme Intelligence and her role in what happened to the Kree, and how self-reinforcing not going back home can be. But Monica delivers some great dialogue to get through to her as to why it was wrong.
The film is one that is constantly moving and that is to its advantage because you don’t want to think too hard on Hala and Dar-Benn’s story since both are underdeveloped. The main attraction are the three leads together and trying to figure out exactly what Dar-Benn is up to and learning about each other so that they can work effectively. Frankly, it just works for me and I like that it leans into some elements of what Thor: Ragnarok was without going too far into it, such as the world of Aladan and the way it works. It was the right kind of second-act break into levity that it needed and to let the personality of the core trio shine through. So when things do get darker and more bleak as the final fight arrives, you’ve got some good stuff built into it and, for me, I was able to push back all the problematic opening act elements with the setup of the film.
We do get a b-plot of sorts involving Fury on SABER as it becomes important in the third act but this is where things tend to be lighter throughout the film. He’s got Kamala’s parents brought up for Earth after meeting them and I was so glad to get at least them and her brother involved in the film because family is Kamala’s thing. SABER gets a light touch overall but it has some fun elements to it and lets the film play with Goose a lot. The Flerkin was a popular part of Captain Marvel and while it was obvious what was going on with it in the third act very early, they found an amusing if absurd thing to do with the creature to provide some additional comedy. I’m not sure the film found a good balance between drama, action, and comedy throughout and the third act certainly tilted in some weird ways. But that’s the thing; the whole film felt like it needed a very different edit and more downtime footage mixed in to humanize it so that things were spread out a bit more with the more outlandish elements like this.
In Summary:
After seeing this just a few months ago, I was able to get the 4K release at a good price and ended up sitting down to watch it pretty quickly. I hadn’t forgotten anything but I was curious to see if my opinion would change much once past the initial viewing. I completely get a segment of the hate the film gets because it has structural issues that feel more like corporate-mandated problems than directorial problems and it’s still apparent here, but feels less problematic in this second viewing. That feeling is there where it’s like it was written around trying to deal with that and still tell the story it wanted to tell. It could have been done without a lot of the flashback stuff and just been implied or a line or two and then moved forward.
Either a viewer will know what’s happening from the past or they won’t know and will have to make a choice to go watch the other part eventually or not. The history doesn’t have to be front and center each time and it can just exist without being shown. That said, there are some delightful moments of it and how it ends up feeding into an absolutely wonderful post-credits scene with Monica that I knew about but didn’t really fathom until I saw it the first time. I had a lot of fun with this movie, the performances, and the overall design of it. There are things that aren’t right or good but the good stuff outweighs it in the long run and I’m definitely in the camp where when this is on in the background in the months to come, I’ll only find myself enjoying it more..
Content Grade: B
Audio Grade: A-
Video Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B
Extras Grade: B+
Released By: Disney
Release Date: February 14th, 2024
MSRP: $38.99
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Review Equipment:
Fire QL75F601A 75″ QLED 4K HDTV, Sony PlayStation5, VIZIO V-Series 5.1 Home Theater Sound Bar V51x-J6
