The Marvels
Walt Disney Pictures | Release Date: November 10, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 57 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
25
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Time OutOlly RichardsNov 9, 2023
With a 105-minute running time, making it practically a short in the MCU, it has just enough good stuff that it doesn’t outstay its welcome. But the intricate plotting that was once a Marvel selling point is now becoming a millstone around its muscular neck, keeping newcomers out instead of welcoming them in. Read full review
60
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeNov 8, 2023
It’s an entertaining, if shambolic, 105 minutes, yet one can only imagine how much of a treat this film would have been if given permission to fully transcend business as usual. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonNov 8, 2023
Unfortunately, this relatively lighthearted instalment, which boasts likeable performances and some unapologetically goofy comedic moments, ends up feeling insubstantial rather than freewheeling. Read full review
60
NMEJames MottramNov 8, 2023
But while DaCosta’s Candyman reboot was thrilling, this never musters the same level of engagement, despite a script that is chock full of good lines and a cast of willing participants. More meh than marvel, you might say. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 8, 2023
Larson, Harris and Vellani are an entertaining intergalactic ensemble. Read full review
55
CNNBrian LowryNov 8, 2023
Clocking in at a welcomely brisk 105 minutes, it’s Marvel’s shortest film, but a lighter tone that occasionally borders on a sort of cosmic “Freaky Friday” doesn’t consistently make the movie fly, much less soar. Read full review
50
ABC NewsPeter TraversNov 10, 2023
Poised between goofy and godawful and plagued by rewrites and reshoots, this 33rd entry in the Marvel cinematic universe is in serious disrepair. The MCU, once the spawner of glories, is stuck in a rut. The time for a rethink is now. Read full review
50
UproxxMike RyanNov 8, 2023
Even though there are some fun scenes with The Marvels trio, I’d be hard-pressed to recommend this to anyone who isn’t an MCU superfan. Again, even *I* was a bit lost with the latest in the Kree and Skrull political relationships — I felt lost by it all and I’ve seen every movie. I bet a pretty straightforward plot involving the main three characters would have gone a long way. Read full review
50
The Associated PressLindsey BahrNov 8, 2023
This seems designed to be a minor Marvel – a fun enough, inoffensive, largely forgettable steppingstone — a get-to-know-them brick on a path only Kevin Feige has the blueprints for. Read full review
50
SlashfilmJeremy MathaiNov 8, 2023
Taken on its own merits, The Marvels is little more than another mediocre, easily-forgotten effort in a never-ending stream of products. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubLeigh MonsonNov 8, 2023
Director Nia DaCosta provokes some incredibly likable performances from her cast, and stages some truly memorable set pieces that are suffocated by a rote plot that only distracts from that breezy appeal. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanNov 8, 2023
The director, Nia DaCosta (who made the intriguing remake of “Candyman”), stages the action efficiently, but she doesn’t center the narrative; the film is a series of goals in search of a higher mission. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 8, 2023
The Marvels has a kind of 1990s B-movie vibe throughout and is neither as funny nor as engaging and warm as it tries to be, despite the best efforts of the talented director Nia DaCosta (2021’s “Candyman”) and a trio of gifted and enormously likable leads in Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJake ColeNov 8, 2023
Only in the film’s climax, when the heroes are in the same confined area and can thus better calibrate their constant shifts in position, does the action attain a logical sense of movement and timing. Read full review
45
The Daily BeastNick SchagerNov 8, 2023
An irrelevant B-team affair which further suggests that the MCU can’t survive, short- or long-term, without the active participation of its most famous characters. Read full review
42
IndieWireKate ErblandNov 8, 2023
Tellingly, the most pleasurable moments in Nia DaCosta’s “The Marvels” don’t hinge on the audience having an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Marvel. . . . They’re just solid pieces of blockbuster filmmaking: charming stars (like the full-force charisma of Iman Vellani and the appealing vulnerability of Teyonah Parris), sprightly action, and zippy humor. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeNov 13, 2023
Of the cast, it’s only Iman Vellani, as Marvel fangirl turned superhero Kamala Khan, who seems genuinely excited to be in the film. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearNov 10, 2023
Seriously, this should have been either a “special episode” played out over 45 minutes or a six-hour miniseries, in which the relationships among this trinity could have been better fleshed out and the jarring tonal shifts relegated to separate chapters. Read full review
40
The New YorkerRichard BrodyNov 9, 2023
There’s enough going on in The Marvels—enough situations with dramatic potential, enough twists with imaginative power—to develop several decent movies. Unfortunately, they’re snipped and clipped, jammed and rammed, dropped into the movie (and swept out of it) with an informational indifference that doesn’t even have the virtue of speed. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 9, 2023
It’s frustrating what weak tea this movie is because the director, Nia DaCosta (“Little Woods,” “Candyman”), has talent, the cast is appealing, and there’s a lightly gonzo scene that shows you what the other 100 minutes could have been. It’s almost as if the suits at Marvel Studios know it doesn’t matter if their movies are any good. Read full review
40
Film ThreatAlan NgNov 8, 2023
In the end, The Marvel is a superhero movie clearly made and produced by people who have never read a Marvel comic book but read Archie instead. It feels like it was made for teen girls and not for actual comic book fans. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushMatt SingerNov 8, 2023
What remains is the seed of a very good idea — the clashing personalities of fangirl Ms. Marvel and battle-hardened loner Captain Marvel — and a very talented, very charismatic cast trapped in an exhausting and gimmicky tale that involves the heroes gradually coming together as a team while they constantly swap places due to their entangled powers. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerNov 8, 2023
Worse, the Marvels themselves have any potential chemistry drowned like an Atlantean with blocked gills. All the giddy charm of the Ms. Marvel version of Kamala Khan is lost in a torrent of fannish shrieks, while the demand that the audience feel empathy for grown adult Monica Rambeau who's still pouting that Auntie Carol never came back (Auntie Carol, who was literally off saving the cosmos) is wearisome. Read full review
40
Total FilmNeil SmithNov 8, 2023
Marvel’s woes won’t be solved by a disjointed mini-Avengers that doesn't make a great deal of sense. But the cats are Flerken great. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 8, 2023
To say The Marvels is all over the place is to imply that there is an anchor to it somewhere. There’s not. Read full review
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