the wonders (now streaming on Disney+) hit theaters just as the comic book film genre was being intubated. What could have been the Christmas hit of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was instead a box office failure, grossing just under $200 million worldwide. That’s not a big deal for a movie with a budget of $270 million, a figure that surprised me, since the movie looks (pulls out calculator, presses some buttons, scratches head) around $73.6 million. . What are they spending their money on? It’s like one of those government contract scams where your tax money goes to purchase a four-pack of AA batteries worth $375 or whatever. Anyway, this is the 33rd MCU movie, and that’s probably where the problem lies: a number that suggests bloat and arrogance on the part of Disney/Marvel and a growing boredom of audiences. Why boredom? Well, you just need to have seen the 2019 one. Captain Marvel Disney+ movies and series secret invasion, Wandavision and Ms. Marvel fully understand the wonders, along with the implicit statement that you should have seen everything else in the MCU too to REALLY understand it (watch out for some surprise cameos!). But! I can attest that you don’t need to have studied too much for this test, because I aced it despite being a serial MCU class hopper. We hope you find that encouraging?
THE WONDERS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: A CELESTIAL BODY. A SPACE SHIP. A SPACE PORTAL. A SOUNDSTAGE ON GREEN SCREEN. A DUMB COSTUME. A BRILLIANT THING. There’s always something in these movies. In this case, a gauntlet, worn by Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton). It gives him great power, of course. Always with great powers! She says something about how there should be two, because this particular thing comes in pairs. CUT TO: Jersey City. This is where Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) lives. He has the other gauntlet because his grandmother gave it to him. His grandmother supposedly didn’t know it was a “quantum band,” as it’s known in the dialogue, and I think it’s a reference to that. Ant Man movie where they made a joke about how you just put the word “quantum” in front of something to make it seem more important. I should have called him cosmic band, I say. But you know, everything in the MCU is totally connected, even the throwaway jokes.
Anyway. Kamala, as you probably already know, is the Ms. Marvel of the Ms. Marvel series, so if some powerful alien lady shows up looking for the “quantum gang,” Kamala could put up a fight. Notably, Kamala named her superhero alter ego after Captain Marvel (Bree Larson), because she is a fan of the famous cosmic very difficult heroine, like imagining a stereotypical Swiftie pining to be Tay-Tay’s best friend. Wouldn’t it be WILD if he could actually KNOW HER? Well, she waits a second on that. cosmic Fantasy, I have more exposition to share: Captain Marvel is in outer space conducting official business in outer space. And he remembers: as you better already know! – from the Captain Marvel Movie when your best friend had a cute daughter? Well, she’s the grown-up Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) these days, an astronaut now working for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). And I eat very well, etc., etc. of Wandavision, she also has superpowers. Those powers look a lot like Captain Marvel’s and also Ms. Marvel’s, which seems unlikely, but hey, some ridiculous, contrived plot development has to bring these three together to be something collective in the title. of the movie.
And that invention is an oh-no-no-that-nothing-but-that problem, “an increase in the jump point system.” Whatever that is. I think it’s something “quantum”. TO cosmic stuff. Does it have something to do with a hole opening in the grid of hexagonal plates that make up space itself so that ships can travel through the hole? I see a lot of hexagons in the CGI here. I even counted the sides to know that there are six on each space plate. All of this is beyond our understanding, and it doesn’t matter at all, but what does matter is that the anomaly and uniformity of the powers of the main three means that they keep changing places in the space-time continuum. For example, Captain Marvel ends up in Kamala’s bedroom, looking at notebook drawings of the two of them hugging, and Kamala ends up wherever Monica is, etc. This is something I refer to as “quantum inconvenience.”
Wait, there wasn’t a villain involved? Yes. Dar-Benn wants the other thing so she can be powerful, and she also wants to kill the Skrull alien race and steal their resources because his people, the Kree, are in trouble because the star near his planet it’s dying. He also refers to Captain Marvel as “The Annihilator”, so it is assumed that they have a tragic past, although NO SPOILERS. Dar-Benn’s diabolical intrigues coincide with the strange exchange of places between our cosmic trio, who must team up, despite some lingering tensions between Captain Marvel and Monica, to try to solve their problem while also trying to stop Dar-Benn. Meanwhile, he remembers the cat Captain Marvel With the super secret surprise tentacles that jump out of his mouth? Damn, etc. you should do it, and he’s still doing the tentacle, which is just the kind of silly sight gag that balances the villain’s attempts to perpetrate genocide against a rival people. We have to make sure the horrible stuff is frequently interspersed with weird antics so we don’t get whiplash while watching this movie. Cosmic lash.
What movies will it remind you of?: the wonders takes advantage of what was previously established – note: EVERYTHING in the MCU is already previously established – silly tone established by the Ant Mans and the last couple thors, without becoming as foolish as some of them did. And here’s the definitive ranking of all the Goofy-Ass MCU movies!
5. Thor: love and thunder – Ugh, super annoying, go away.
4. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – MODOK sez this thing sux
3. the wonders – Messy but good
2. Ant Man – Still moderately fun (note: Ant-Man and the Wasp wasn’t crazy enough to be included on this list)
1. Thor: Ragnarök – I liked this one after my son watched it 137 times.
Performance worth seeing: The world has loved Vellani’s take on the Ms. Marvel character since the series debuted in 2022, and I’ll join the chorus. She’s very much in tune with the optimistic tone that director Nia DaCosta cultivates here. If I was buried in MCU content I haven’t seen yet and had to chew my way out, I’d eat Ms. Marvel first.
Memorable dialogue: Monica reminds us what happened in Wandavision when he got his superpowers, in case we’ve all forgotten (note: I had completely forgotten):
Monica: I walked through a radiation protection barrier from a witch’s curse and can now manipulate and see all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Kamala’s mom: I’m so happy for you.
Sex and skin: None.
Our opinion: They should have tried running the defrag tool on the universe. That could have put all the hexagons back together. But nooooooo, that would be too easy and not violent enough to keep our attention. It always has to come down to a fist fight and a bunch of CGI. That’s the MCU formula, and as a result of The wonders At the theatrical floparoo, DaCosta was apparently criticized for not adhering to that formula: Disney executives essentially said she wasn’t being sufficiently micromanaged during production (the kind of oversight, one assumes, that drove Edgar Wright away from Ant Man a decade ago).
Frankly, she’s not the problem. Her direction is brisk at times, and her stylistic hallmark is in the funniest and most enjoyable action sequences, particularly a three-character wormhole swap in the cleverly choreographed first act that will make you laugh. It also ignites enough team chemistry between the three leads to liven up some of the quieter scenes, although, curiously, Larsen’s character feels underdeveloped and the de facto lead remains disappointingly an afterthought.
No, the main problem with the film being a little sloppy but otherwise watchable the wonders It has less to do with the film itself, more to do with the burden of being part of a massive franchise that’s starting to crumble under its own massive weight. It’s a pretty light film, but there’s nothing wrong with trying to elicit laughs by embracing the silliness and keeping the tone light; For example, the strange extra sequence in which our heroes visit a planet whose inhabitants only communicate through song and dance, which at least is something we haven’t seen before in an MCU movie.
That kind of frivolity probably doesn’t sit well with audiences shelling out money for an increasingly expensive theatrical experience: I imagine people leaving the megaplex, shrugging their shoulders and wondering if it was worth the effort and expense. but i can see the wonders playing pretty well at home with everyone in their soft pants eating popcorn that didn’t cost $27, and not worrying as much about where it all fits into the MCU’s increasingly complicated maze of continuity. Disney may have wasted hundreds of millions on cat antics and computer-generated hexagonal grids, but that’s not the case. our problem, far from it.
Our call: Where was it? Right, trying to remember that we should be talking about the movie itself instead of the Everest-sized mountain of context that weighs down the MCU’s “content” like lead weights tied to a swimmer’s ankles. the wonders Alright! Very good. Don’t wait too long and you won’t get insufficient results. TRANSMIT IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic living in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
