-100 / 10
I have not watched The Marvels. I have seen the available clips and trailers. The -100 reflects honest evaluation based on what the available material shows, the broader critical reception, and the catastrophic commercial performance that confirmed the audience had completely abandoned the franchise’s specific Captain Marvel sub-property. The film grossed approximately two hundred and six million dollars worldwide on a production budget of approximately two hundred and seventy-four million dollars, making it one of the largest commercial failures in modern Hollywood history. The financial collapse was the audience’s response to multiple accumulated factors: the original Captain Marvel’s press-tour damage, the broader Phase Four-Five decline, the decorative political framing of the marketing, and the franchise’s loss of audience confidence across multiple consecutive productions.
The -100 reflects what the available evidence shows about the film’s quality and the documented audience response to the production. Direct viewing would not change the rating. The cumulative evidence is sufficient to evaluate the production without complete personal viewing.
The Setup
Based on available material and critical coverage: The film features Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) reluctantly teaming up with Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) after a quantum entanglement causes the three women to swap places whenever they use their respective powers. The plot involves a Kree antagonist named Dar-Benn who seeks to destroy multiple planets to revive Hala, the Kree homeworld that was rendered uninhabitable as a consequence of Carol Danvers’s actions in the first Captain Marvel film. The body-swap premise generates the central action mechanic. The film concludes with the establishment of the broader young Avengers framework that Marvel Studios has been developing across multiple recent productions.
The Body-Swap Premise
The available material indicates that the central body-swap mechanic was intended to function as both comedy generator and team-formation device. The three women must learn to coordinate their power use to prevent uncontrolled swapping during combat. The premise has clear potential for inventive action sequences and character interaction.
Critical reception of the executed body-swap material has been mixed-to-negative. The mechanic generates specific comedic moments that the available clips highlight. The mechanic also requires the audience to track three protagonists in three different locations during combat sequences, with their positions changing through unpredictable swaps. The structural complexity creates audience-tracking problems similar to those discussed in the Quantumania review. The trade between premise inventiveness and action comprehensibility appears to fall heavily on the inventiveness side at the cost of clarity.
The Brie Larson Continuation Problem
The film required Brie Larson to return to the Captain Marvel role despite the documented audience resistance to the character. The decision to extend Carol Danvers across additional appearances rather than pivoting away from the property reflected Marvel Studios’ commitment to maintaining the character as the multiverse-saga’s cosmic-scale anchor. The decision did not survive contact with audience response.
The press-tour damage from the original Captain Marvel (rated -1000 in this review) was documented and reproducible. The audience response to the original had been the primary driver of the property’s commercial limitations. The Marvels did not address this damage. Larson continued in the role with continued audience resistance. The combined effect was that the sequel inherited the original’s audience problems and accumulated additional resistance to the broader Phase Four-Five franchise patterns. The full analysis of the Larson press-tour damage appears in the original Captain Marvel review.
The supporting performances appear from available material to be professionally competent. Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan brings genuine enthusiasm and specific character energy. Teyonah Parris’s Monica Rambeau operates with appropriate gravitas. The supporting cast is not the film’s problem. The central lead and the broader franchise context are the problems. No amount of supporting strength compensates for those specific factors.
For Writers
The Marvels demonstrates the cost of franchise commitment to characters whose audience reception has been negative. Marvel Studios committed substantial resources to extending the Captain Marvel property across The Marvels and broader multiverse-saga positioning despite documented audience resistance from the original 2019 film. The commitment generated additional audience resistance rather than recovering the original audience confidence. The lesson for franchise filmmaking is that audience resistance must be addressed rather than ignored. If your audience has rejected a specific character or property, additional productions featuring that character will compound the resistance rather than overcoming it. The Marvels demonstrates this pattern at the highest possible production scale. Two hundred and seventy-four million dollars invested in a property the audience had already rejected produced one of the largest commercial failures in modern Hollywood. The investment could have been redirected to other productions with substantially better commercial potential. The strategic decision to extend the Captain Marvel property was made for reasons other than audience demand and produced consequences proportionate to the decision’s disconnection from audience response.
The Dar-Benn Antagonist
Zawe Ashton plays Dar-Benn, the Kree antagonist who seeks to destroy multiple planets to restore the Kree homeworld Hala. Based on available material, the performance is professionally executed within the limits of the role. The role itself appears to follow the broader MCU antagonist pattern of generic villain motivation without specific psychological development. Dar-Benn operates as obstacle rather than as developed character with interior life.
The connection between Dar-Benn’s motivations and Carol Danvers’s previous actions creates a structural possibility that the original Captain Marvel had set up but not developed. Carol’s actions in the first film rendered Hala uninhabitable. Dar-Benn’s response in this film represents the consequences of those actions. The connection could have functioned as substantive engagement with the protagonist’s accumulated moral responsibility. Available material suggests the film does not develop this connection sufficiently to function as such engagement. Dar-Benn operates as antagonist rather than as victim of Carol’s actions seeking proportionate response, and the film treats Carol’s prior actions as background rather than as central moral question.
The Catastrophic Commercial Performance
The Marvels grossed approximately two hundred and six million dollars worldwide on a production budget of approximately two hundred and seventy-four million dollars. The financial performance was one of the worst in MCU history and one of the largest commercial failures in modern Hollywood. The estimated loss after marketing and distribution costs exceeded approximately two hundred and thirty-seven million dollars.
The commercial failure had specific causes. The accumulated Captain Marvel property damage from the original film’s press tour. The broader Phase Four collapse that had eroded audience confidence in the franchise. The decorative political framing that the marketing emphasized. The Quantumania commercial failure earlier in 2023 that had already established Phase Five’s continuing problems. The aggregate audience confidence in the MCU had collapsed sufficiently that even committed MCU fans skipped The Marvels in unprecedented numbers.
The opening weekend performance was the lowest in MCU theatrical history at the time of release. The subsequent-weekend dropoffs were severe. The home video and streaming performance was similarly limited. The film functions as the franchise’s clearest single commercial failure and as documentation of how completely the audience had withdrawn from the broader MCU enterprise.
The Broader Franchise Damage
The Marvels’ commercial failure had downstream consequences for the broader franchise. Marvel Studios announced production schedule reductions following the film’s release, with multiple subsequent productions delayed or restructured. The original aggressive Phase Five and Six release schedule was scaled back. The Disney+ series production schedule was reduced. The cumulative effect was that the franchise publicly acknowledged the commercial problems and adjusted its strategic positioning.
The broader Captain Marvel property has been effectively quarantined within the franchise following The Marvels. Carol Danvers has not appeared in subsequent productions through the time of this review. The character’s role in the multiverse saga’s eventual climactic events has been minimized in subsequent marketing. The property that Marvel Studios had originally positioned as the cosmic-scale anchor of the multiverse saga has been functionally removed from active franchise development. The decision reflects the studio’s recognition that the audience cannot be convinced to invest in additional Captain Marvel material at this point in the franchise’s trajectory.
Craft: The Commercial Failure That Confirmed Audience Withdrawal
Craft Note
The Marvels is the commercial failure that confirmed the audience had withdrawn from the MCU’s broader enterprise. The film’s specific financial performance was unprecedented for the franchise. The estimated two hundred and thirty-seven million dollar loss represented one of the largest single commercial failures in modern Hollywood. The failure also represented something larger than individual film underperformance: the audience’s collective decision that the franchise no longer warranted automatic attention.
The MCU had operated for fifteen years on the assumption that major releases would attract substantial audiences regardless of specific film quality. The assumption was correct through most of Phase One through Phase Three. The Marvels disproved the assumption decisively. The audience that had reliably shown up for MCU releases stopped showing up. The commercial floor that had previously protected the franchise from individual film failures was no longer in place.
The lesson for franchise filmmaking is that audience commitment is conditional rather than permanent. Audiences will reliably attend franchise releases for a period of accumulated investment. Audiences will stop attending when the accumulated investment has been depleted through repeated disappointments. The MCU depleted audience investment through Phase Four and early Phase Five. The Marvels was the release at which the depletion became unmistakable. Subsequent productions have continued the underperformance pattern, with only nostalgia-driven entries (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Deadpool & Wolverine) generating commercial success on the strength of legacy character appearances rather than on the strength of the current franchise’s narrative momentum.
The Marvels’ -100 rating reflects the catastrophic commercial failure, the broader franchise damage the failure caused, the unaddressed Captain Marvel property problems that the film inherited, and the decorative political framing that characterized the production. The rating does not require complete personal viewing because the available evidence is sufficient to evaluate the production’s specific failures. Other viewers may rate the film higher based on supporting performances or based on specific moments that work within the broader failure. The -100 reflects what the film actually delivered as both production and as franchise event.
For analysis of the broader MCU collapse the Marvels confirmed, see How The Multiverse Destroyed The MCU.
The Verdict
A -100. The Marvels is the catastrophic commercial failure that confirmed the audience had withdrawn from the MCU’s broader enterprise. The film grossed approximately two hundred and six million dollars worldwide on a two-hundred-seventy-four-million-dollar production budget, generating an estimated loss exceeding two hundred and thirty-seven million dollars after marketing and distribution. The Brie Larson Captain Marvel continuation extended the property despite documented audience resistance. The supporting performances from Iman Vellani and Teyonah Parris are professionally competent. The Dar-Benn antagonist is generic. The body-swap premise generates audience-tracking problems. The decorative political framing continues the Phase Four-Five pattern.
I have not watched the complete film. The available material and the documented commercial response are sufficient to evaluate the production. Direct viewing would not change the rating. Other viewers may rate the film higher based on specific elements they appreciated within the broader failure. The -100 reflects the cumulative production and franchise consequences. The MCU has not recovered from the audience withdrawal that The Marvels confirmed.
FAQ
Is the rating fair without complete viewing?
Yes. The available evidence is sufficient to evaluate the production. The clips, trailers, critical reviews, audience response, commercial performance, and broader franchise consequences provide adequate basis for honest evaluation. Direct viewing would generate additional specific observations but would not change the cumulative evaluation. The -100 reflects what the available evidence consistently shows. Other viewers who have watched the complete film may form different impressions of specific scenes, but the broader evaluation of the production’s failures has been confirmed by viewers who have completed the film.
Why was the commercial failure so severe?
Multiple accumulated factors. The original Captain Marvel’s documented audience resistance from the press-tour damage. The broader Phase Four collapse that had eroded confidence in the franchise. The decorative political framing of the marketing. The Quantumania underperformance earlier in 2023 that had already established Phase Five’s continuing problems. The aggregate effect was that even committed MCU fans skipped The Marvels in unprecedented numbers. The audience had stopped responding to the franchise’s automatic-attention assumption.
What is the body-swap premise?
The three protagonists (Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, Kamala Khan) become quantum-entangled, swapping places whenever they use their respective powers. The mechanic generates the film’s central action complications. The trio must learn to coordinate their power use to prevent uncontrolled swapping during combat. The premise has potential for inventive action and character interaction. Critical reception of the executed body-swap material has been mixed-to-negative, with audience-tracking concerns about which character is in which location during combat sequences.
How does Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan work?
Based on available material, the performance is one of the film’s professionally stronger elements. Vellani brings genuine enthusiasm and specific character energy to Kamala Khan. The character had been developed in the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series before The Marvels and benefits from established foundation rather than requiring introduction within the film. The Khan material is not the film’s central problem. The Larson Captain Marvel continuation and the broader franchise context are.
Has Marvel given up on Captain Marvel?
Effectively yes. Carol Danvers has not appeared in subsequent MCU productions through the time of this review. The character’s role in the multiverse saga’s eventual climactic events has been minimized in subsequent marketing. The property that Marvel Studios had originally positioned as the cosmic-scale anchor of the multiverse saga has been functionally quarantined. The decision reflects the studio’s recognition that the audience cannot be convinced to invest in additional Captain Marvel material in the current franchise context.
Should I watch this if I’m completing the MCU?
Not really. The film’s contributions to the broader franchise have been effectively erased by Marvel Studios’ subsequent decision to minimize the Captain Marvel property. The young Avengers framework establishment can be experienced through subsequent productions. The Kamala Khan material can be experienced through the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series. The Monica Rambeau material can be experienced through WandaVision. The Marvels itself provides minimal essential context for understanding subsequent MCU productions. Completists can watch once. Most viewers can safely skip.
How does this fit Phase Five?
The Marvels is one of the Phase Five entries that has confirmed the franchise’s continuing problems. The phase has not produced a clear creative or commercial success outside of nostalgia-driven entries. Quantumania, The Marvels, Captain America: Brave New World, and Thunderbolts have all underperformed both critically and commercially. Phase Five remains in active crisis mode through the time of this review. The Marvels was the entry that most clearly demonstrated the commercial scale of the audience withdrawal.
What does the failure mean for the broader franchise?
Marvel Studios announced production schedule reductions following The Marvels’ commercial failure, with multiple subsequent productions delayed or restructured. The original aggressive release schedule was scaled back. The Disney+ series production schedule was reduced. The studio publicly acknowledged the commercial problems and adjusted its strategic positioning. Whether the adjustments will produce sustainable recovery remains an open question. The broader Marvel Studios approach appears to be transitioning toward the Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars productions that may use the multiverse premise to reset the continuity back to something more manageable.
Is the -100 rating fair to the supporting performances?
The -100 reflects the production as a complete enterprise rather than as the sum of individual elements. Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan and Teyonah Parris’s Monica Rambeau are professionally competent. Their performances do not save the broader film. The rating accounts for what the film actually delivers as a release rather than for what individual elements suggest about its potential. Other viewers may rate the film higher based on appreciation for specific supporting performances. The -100 reflects the cumulative production and franchise consequences.