_The Marvels_ is the MCU trying to right the ship... and it feels like it. The shift in marketing prior to its release (i.e. Thanos appearing in the final trailer & TV spots) & the 1:45 runtime are the most obvious examples of this. The film is a good watch but also felt a bit like a sugar rush: Totally enjoyable, with a slightly hollow-feeling comedown. _The Marvels_ has the bones of what could have been a genre-redefining swing for the fences, but in the brief moments where I could catch my breath as the story plowed ahead I couldn’t help but think that the changes that were obviously made during reshoots & in the editing bay were the wrong ones to make. Kevin Feige & Co. are smart enough to know that they've made mistakes of late. They're just not brave enough to make the kind of movie that would fix them.

The trio of Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani have great chemistry and are loads of fun to watch. Vellani is the breakout star of the piece, but her arc felt rushed. In a more ambitious film Larson could have showcased a wide range of emotions- from rage, to soul-crushing guilt, to brooding loneliness, to broad musical comedy. We get to see flashes of each, but it left me wanting more. And Parris just kind of… is. She holds her own, but only comes to life in her quiet scenes with Larson & Vellani. She deserved more of that.

Until _The Marvels_, the average runtime of an MCU movie was 2:18. The choice to trim that down dramatically for this installment wasn’t necessarily a bad one- it’s just that the wrong things got left out. Instead of quick-cut flashbacks to fill in plot gaps (Zawe Ashton’s Dar-Benn barely gets any motivation for her malevolence, so her energetic performance is kinda wasted), they could have skipped a couple of set pieces and used the technological plot device in act two to do a lot more character development.

Imagine an MCU movie with flashy comic book stuff that felt like an addition instead of the raison d'etre of the piece. The massive battles & awesome stinger + post-credits scene could have bookended a Phase 5 bottle episode that served as a deep character study of the women at the center of it.

We could have seen Carol Danvers make a mistake and be devastated by her (genocidal) actions. We could have gotten much more of Monica Rambeau coming to terms with her abilities. And we could have seen Kamala humanizing her idol & coming to grips with the awesome responsibility of her powers. They could have even retconned the dismal _Secret Invasion_. (The filmmakers seem to have joined the rest of us in wishing that it never happened, as most of the plot contradicts what went down in that show.)

Instead, Marvel stuck with what it knows, and what we got was a perfectly serviceable entry to the MCU. It just wasn’t as good as it could have been if Marvel wasn’t trapped in the formula that it created.