The Marvels: female superheroes take the lead in wearisome sequel

2/5 stars

Meanwhile, reports have emerged that The Marvels underwent substantial last-minute reshoots following unfavourable feedback from rare public test screenings.

That’s especially the case when audiences are now required to have seen entire seasons of television that exist exclusively behind a subscription-based paywall if they are to follow what is going on.

In short, banal alien warrior Dar-Benn (Ashton) retrieves a quantum-powered bangle that enables her to create wormholes through space-time. The corresponding bangle belongs to Jersey City-based teenager Kamala Khan, also known as Ms Marvel (Vellani).

Dar-Benn’s antics create an electromagnetic bond between Kamala, S.A.B.E.R. operative Monica Rambeau (Parris), and Captain Marvel herself, Carol Danvers (Larson), causing them to switch places whenever they use their powers at the same time.

On the plus side, the dynamic between the three female leads works surprisingly well. Their interactions feel genuine, organic, and their imposed collaborative crime-fighting yields some genuinely entertaining moments.

Unfortunately, in almost every other aspect, The Marvels is a tired hodgepodge of muddled storytelling and wearisome superhero clichés.

Park’s much touted involvement amounts to little more than a brief walk-on. This takes place during a truly baffling off-world sequence that devolves into a full-blown Disney Princess musical that’s certain to enrage the franchise’s more testosterone-fuelled fans.

That said, a baffling homage to Andrew Lloyd Webber, featuring a litter of alien cat-like Flerkens running amok on a space station, is so staggeringly bizarre it actually comes as a welcome respite from the tedious drudgery of this by-the-numbers adventure.

There is a genuinely intriguing mid-credits reveal that will undoubtedly set fanboy hearts aflutter at the possibilities to come, but it may yet prove too little too late for a franchise that has become a tired, worn-out pastiche of the innovative, escapist behemoth it once was.