The Marvels gets many things right.
A 105 minute run-time, which makes it the shortest MCU, I think. Ignore the credits and it’s down to 95-100 minutes so there’s relatively little bloat (the accompanying DCEU Aquaman trailer was subjectively longer) and no room for absurd portentousness around inevitable magical objects. (I assume this is partly Disney-panic about female-led cast-of colour movie’s opening weekend – a shorter run-time means cramming in more screenings.)
It treats the typical MCU diagrammatic plotting with the contempt it deserves (that too might be a consequence of shortening the runtime for above reasons but its nonetheless nice to see the perfunctory treated so perfunctorily).
It decentres the ultra-white saviour protagonist it’s stuck with (not dissing Brie Larson) as much as possible with two other Marvels of colour (Kamala Khan and family way more important this month than Nia DaCosta et al could have imagined).
Quietly and unspectacularly, it has a cast of colour with I think just two even remotely significant speaking roles for white actors (one buried under alien makeup).
It almost makes up for having to lose Cap’s dyke haircut by giving her a moment with Valkyrie (but for god’s sake, Feige, just let them come out).
Admits ‘humanitarian intervention’ was colonial crime.
Replaces Hawkeye.
Double Dutch skipping as utopian joy.
A surfeit of kittens my partner knew nothing about in advance (and which she claims was also a sequence of utopian joy).
On the downside:
It resolves the colonial crime through a further ‘humanitarian intervention’ cos whitey knows best.
Ongoing deterioration of effects work.
Inevitable opening of a multiverse breach to let yet more IP in (really wish they’d recast the voice actor).
Mark Bould 