Marvels, The

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Not suitable under 10; parental guidance to 12 (violence, scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Marvels, The
  • a review of Marvels, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 16 November 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 10 Not suitable due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 10–12 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and scary scenes.
Children aged 13 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Marvels, The
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Science fiction themes and action violence
Length: 105 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

In this sequel to Captain Marvel, civil war has almost destroyed the planet Hala. It is now barren, with no light, air or water. Hala’s leader, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), discovers a Quantum Band amidst the destruction and uses its power to try to restore Hala. In doing so, she tears apart a jump point in space to harness resources from other planets. However, this is discovered by S.W.O.R.D., and Nick Fury (Samuel Johnson) calls in Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) to investigate. When Monica touches the jump point, her light powers become entangled with Carol as well as a young girl, Kamala Khan/Ms Marvel (Iman Vellani) who has the other Quantum Band. The three switch places, much to the astonishment of Kamala’s family. Unfortunately, fighting breaks out between the trio and the Kree militia, which brings chaos to Kamala’s home.

Meanwhile, in order to collect what she needs, Dar-Benn has caused further tears in jump points. She has siphoned the air from the planet Tarnax, leaving the Skrull people displaced; she is drawing the ocean water from the planet Aladna; and she intends to use the Earth to gain light from its sun. The Skrull people are persuaded by Nick and his team at S.A.B.R.E. to join The Marvels in their efforts to stop Dar-Benn from destroying the universe. The Marvels fight Dar-Benn, who manages to take Kamala’s band from her. With both bands, Dar-Benn now has the power to open yet another jump point, but in doing so creates an opening into the multiverse. The Marvels now have the task of trying to repair this before the universe is completely destroyed.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Science Fiction; Superheroes; Time and Space Travel.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a lot of action violence in this movie, including:

  • Many battle scenes using light powers, punching and kicking, and weapons, such as swords, hammers, guns, maces, knives, laser guns etc. No one is seriously injured and there is no blood and gore.
  • There are many explosions and destruction of buildings, houses, etc
  • A cartoon sequence showing characters fighting and punching.
  • A woman remembers war scenes of fighting, pointing of guns and explosions.
  • During a fight scene in the house, Carol throws a man up into and through the roof. Kamala’s Mum is threatened by one of the Kree militia with a weapon. Objects are thrown and glass crashes. There is a long fight sequence in this particular scene, at the end of which, two men are seen tied up in chains.
  • A huge octopus creature with long tentacles is seemingly vomited from Kamala’s cat’s mouth. It uses the tentacles to eat things as well as people.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Many scary-looking characters, including the Skrulls who are green people with long ears and tattooed skulls.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Kamala’s band explodes and she goes flying up into space.
  • Captain Marvel flies through space as a beam of red and blue light. She appears to be on fire.
  • Kamala flies up into space and has to be rescued.
  • Monica’s eyes glow purple.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • The long tentacles emerging from the cat’s mouth is quite disturbing. The cat is later seen guarding several round, tentacle-type balls, from which kittens emerge. These kittens also ‘vomit’ tentacles which eat people. They run all over a spaceship eating people (the people are later regurgitated).
  • At one point Kamala is trapped underneath a crashed building.
  • Monica talks about how her mother died from cancer.
  • Nick’s spaceship is attacked and all of the lights go out. The centre of the craft is on fire.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • The Marvel franchise.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • What the hell?
  • Shit
  • Damn.

In a nutshell

The Marvels is an action/adventure, superhero movie based on the Marvel comics and is a sequel to Captain Marvel. The plot is somewhat confusing, particularly if the viewer hasn’t seen the original movie. While the film is full of action violence, no one is seriously hurt or injured. However, there are some scary and disturbing scenes, making the film unsuitable for under 10’s and parental guidance is recommended for 10 – 12-year-olds.

The main messages from this movie are that good overcomes evil and that more can be achieved together than as an individual.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Teamwork
  • Persistence
  • Courage
  • Strong female characters
  • Empathy.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • That the actions of superheroes are quite unrealistic and shouldn’t be copied.