Marvel Studios’ latest blockbuster, The Marvels, has a handful of major plot holes that could have used some fixing.
Most everyone knows that Marvel Studios is facing hard times. The company’s latest film, starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani, did not land well.
While it narrowly avoided being coined as Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes, critics and fans have given the adventure a lukewarm rating at best. It even managed to get one of the lowest audience scores in all the MCU.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t fare much better at the box office. While there are likely a handful of reasons why it all went down as it did, the movie’s messy story probably didn’t help.
The Biggest Plot Holes in The Marvels
Did Secret Invasion Ever Happen?
The Marvels acts like Secret Invasion on Disney+ never happened. There’s not a single allusion to the show’s conflict or anyone in it.
It’s exceedingly strange that the movie acts like the show never existed in the first place.
For one, there’s the Skrulls—a race audiences are told have no other home than Earth. Yet, in this movie, it’s revealed that they’ve been camping out on an entirely different planet. Making matters even more interesting, the planet briefly focused on in The Marvels is revealed to be only one of many on which the Skrulls are refugees.
While Emperor Dro'ge's colony was technically mentioned by Talos, his existence on another planet with an entire city of Skrulls undermines the entire conflict of Secret Invasion. If getting off Earth was such a big deal, why didn’t Gravik and his supporters go elsewhere?
Then there’s Nick Fury himself, who seems perfectly blissful, showing no signs that the dark events of Secret Invasion happened. Plus, his wife, who is revealed to a Skrull in the show, is never glimpsed once despite going into space with him at the end of the show.
As it stands, Secret Invasion is one of the biggest stains on the MCU’s continuity.
Captain Marvel Should Steamroll Dar-Benn
Throughout the movie, it’s made clear that Dar-Benn’s Quantum Band is great at absorbing Captain Marvel’s energy attacks. But the villain is a simple Kree—Carol Danvers should be able to take her out with relative ease.
It’s hard to believe the same person who headbutted Thanos and reignited a dying star would have much trouble against a Kree fanatic, even one equipped with an ancient artifact. When you add two more powerful heroes to the mix, it makes it increasingly harder to believe Dar-Benn would give the trio much trouble.
Captain Marvel shouldn’t need to use her light powers to stop Dar-Benn’s destruction. The villain’s entire plan should have been over long before the movie ever started.
Inconsistent Logic Behind Dar-Benn’s Plans
Throughout the movie, Dar-Benn uses her Quantum Band to open jump points to steal aspects of Hala’s failing ecosystem. First, it’s the atmosphere from the Skrull refugee world and then the oceans from Aladna, the musical planet.
Just stopping at that point in the plan, it’s unclear how the solution would magically fix what’s happening on Hala.
The real kicker is how Dar-Benn still needed a sun to fix Hala. So to correct Hala’s own star, her plan is to use both Quantum Bands to… shatter a hole into another timeline next to Earth’s sun?
This leaves a gaping tear in all reality, one completely removed from Hala. It's almost the size of the plot hole it creates in its own story.
Perhaps Marvel Studios accidentally skipped over something when piecing together the movie because that chain of events and thought process makes no sense as it currently stands.
Of course, most of Dar-Benn’s plan pushes logical credibility anyway when considering everyone on Hala should already be frozen solid given their dying sun.
Why Did Monica Need to Close the Gate From the Other Side?
At the end of the movie, after Dar-Benn has broken space-time itself, Monica Rambeau realizes that she needs to close the tear. According to her, she has to be on the other side in a different timeline.
But audiences are never given a justification for why that is and why it needed to be done that way. It all seems to exist to serve the film’s post-credits scene.
Furthermore, why couldn’t Kamala and Carol, who have the Quantum Bands that caused the incident, use the powerful artifacts to reverse their damage? It doesn’t feel like Monica did anything she couldn’t do back in Earth-616.
Does Kamala Even Use the Bangle?
Sure, Ms. Marvel revealed the Quantum Band only unlocked Kamala Khan’s power, and they aren’t the source of them. This is clear when she uses her embiggened crystal hand to pull Carol back into the spaceship.
But that doesn’t make the whole situation any clearer.
On a day-to-day basis, does Kamala utilize the power of her bangle when using her abilities? What exactly is the dichotomy between the two?
It wouldn’t hurt for the MCU to offer up some clarity on how the Quantum Bands relate to Kamala as a superhero. It feels like every adventure told with Kamala so far wants audiences to think the two are entwined. But if she doesn’t ever need to use the artifact, what is its continued purpose for her story?
How Can Marvel Studios Regain MCU Hype?
After The Marvels and many other recently mediocre Marvel Studios affairs, the excitement for the MCU is at an all-time low. But what exactly can the company do to reignite that spark?
Iman Vellani recently told The Direct how she believes “it’s just about making the audience care about their characters.”
That is something the MCU is currently lacking. While Phase 4 and Phase 5 have introduced dozens of new characters to the mix, most have only appeared once, and only a select few interacted with anyone outside their own story.
Audiences are feeling the choice to remove Avengers films as finales for phases, instead only opting to have them conclude entire sagas.
Hopefully, with the changes going on at Marvel Studios, fans can expect the MCU to have its house in order by the time more projects start flowing through.
The Marvels is now playing in theaters worldwide.
