'The Marvels' review: A girl power team-up with side mission energy

In "The Marvels," a trio of super heroines are connected through their respective light force powers, and that is the most linear story thread in the breezy, somewhat disjointed, lightly comedic hang session.

It comes at a time when the Marvel machine, at least from a creative standpoint, is sputtering, and this side quest, or perhaps side-side quest, isn't the project to right its path. It feels a bit aimless and herky jerky, and not quite sure of itself. What is it, why is it? Perhaps 33 films into a sprawling franchise, those questions don't really matter. And maybe that's why "The Marvels" isn't in a rush to answer them.

Academy Award winner Brie Larson returns as Carol "Captain Marvel" Danvers, who spends most of her time these days in the deep reaches of outer space. In another quadrant of space, Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris, marvelous in this summer's "They Cloned Tyrone"), Carol's colloquial niece (her mom was pals with Carol), is working with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) on some pertinent Marvel space business. And down on Earth, in Jersey City to be specific, teenager Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) is fangirling over Captain Marvel, doodling sketches of her in notebooks the way K-Pop fans obsess over BTS.

Soon they're all swapping places, rapidly and uncontrollably: Carol is beamed in Kamala's house, much to the shock of Kamala's mom (Zenobia Shroff), dad (Mohan Kapur) and older brother (Saagar Shaikh); Kamala's up in space and Monica is also trading places with both of them, all in the middle of a pretty elaborate fight sequence. Why is this happening, you might ask? Electromagnetic powers, "malfunctioning jump points" and some other comic book logic it's best to just trust and not try to make heads or tails out of.

The point is these three are now members of a team, like a hastily assembled "Big Brother" alliance. Carol is player/coach, and she and Monica have some unfinished business over how things were left between them years ago. Kamala is in pure idol worship mode, staring at Carol with eyes the size of saucers, and the trio's banter is of the hyper-modern, self-aware "how is that even a thing?"-type variety, when it's not coded in therapy platitudes.

There is some business to tend to, mostly relating to Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), an intergalactic warrior who blames Captain Marvel for the destruction of her home planet, Hala. (It's a long story.) There are some all-powerful weapons, a set of all-powerful wrist cuffs and all manner of light beams. Do we love it? Are we loving it?

All the light and all the spontaneous teleporting takes a lot of coordination between the three they-are-a-thing teammates, and they practice their new moves in a sequence set to "Intergalactic" by the Beastie Boys, who along with their spots in this year's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" have become Gen-X's go-to ambassadors for by-the-book, audience friendly movie montage themes.

As a team-up movie, "The Marvels" — which is co-written and directed by Nia DaCosta (2021's "Candyman") and primarily pulls from and builds on the Marvel properties "Captain Marvel," "WandaVision" and "Ms. Marvel" — builds a decent sense of camaraderie between its lead players, even if those characters are limited in depth.

But "The Marvels" also wants to be a wacky comedy, with a journey to a planet where people only speak in musical cadence (Carol dons what looks like a jellyfish made of a couch cushion and some dangling fabric during this baffling sequence) and a subplot about housecats who swallow people whole and regurgitate them back up later. The in-joke to the "Cats" theme "Memory" will presumably please somebody.

But will "The Marvels?" On the one hand, it's a low stakes effort with a wholesome performance by Vellani and some strong fight choreography, especially in the early living room set piece. But it feels slight in relation to the larger Marvel universe and even within Captain Marvel's sliver of that universe, perhaps functioning best as a torch passing to her two teammates. As tentpole entertainment, it feels inconsequential, if slightly diverting. To put it in corporate speak, it could have been an email.

agraham@detroitnews.com

'The Marvels'

GRADE: C

Rated PG-13: for action/violence and brief language

Running time: 105 minutes

In theaters