'The Marvels' review: Brie Larson and a bunch of cats are the answer to superhero fatigue

“The Marvels” is that rare superhero adventure seemingly tailor-made for cat lovers, people really into body-swapping shenanigans and those who live for jubilant song-and-dance numbers.

And for Marvel Cinematic Universe devotees, the 33rd big-screen outing (★★★ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Friday) acts as a solid enough sequel to both 2019’s “Captain Marvel” and last year's Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel," with cosmic derring-do and strong performances from Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani. Directed by Nia DaCosta (“Candyman”), “Marvels” throws a ton of plot at viewers that too often falls back to Marvel-y familiarity – world-saving stakes, villain with a light-up doodad – yet enjoyably soars when it centers on its core trio and dares to go gonzo.

Carol Danvers (Larson), aka Captain Marvel, went toe to toe with Thanos and now hangs out in space with her feline pal Goose – a furry Flerken who hides a terrifying maw of tentacles amid a cute exterior – whenever help is needed. She gets pinged by friend Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who is working on a space station alongside astronaut captain Monica Rambeau (Parris), to look into a strange power surge.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, 16-year-old Kamala Khan (Vellani), aka Ms. Marvel, draws comic-book fantasies featuring her idol, Carol. But team-up dreams become a reality when Kree antagonist Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) gets her hands on a powerful ancient wristband (which, hey, looks a lot like Kamala’s) and begins to create teleporting wormholes, leading to the light-based abilities of Kamala, Carol and Monica becoming entangled. In other words, when one uses their powers, they switch places with another wherever they are in the universe and chaos ensues.

Once Dar-Benn's larger, universe-shaking plans become apparent, our heroines get busy training to harness their new connection (set to the tune of Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic”) and come together as an Avengers-esque crew.

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Unlike others of its ilk, “The Marvels” is rather breezy at an hour and 45 minutes. Still, it takes way too long for the needed expedition dump to get everybody up to speed – which is bad news for those who skipped “Captain Marvel" or missed out on other helpful MCU knowledge. That said, it’s the first Marvel movie significantly helped by one of its TV shows: “Ms. Marvel” fleshes out Kamala to such a degree that she immediately pops on screen and gives the movie an infectious energy, and her Muslim family that’s so much a part of her story also gets to play a significant role alongside Fury.

Vellani is a welcome sparkplug, Parris gets more to do than she did in a supporting role on “WandaVision,” while Larson turns in her best Marvel performance to date. For much of the original "Captain," Carol bounced between confusion and bravado and didn’t have much of a character, whereas in “Marvels” the actress can really dig into Carol as a loner who needs to hash out old issues with Monica, deal with fawning fangirl Kamala and also face a regrettable incident from her past.

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While Ashton’s antagonist has a cool look as the latest MCU foe with understandable reasons for her nefarious actions, she and other aspects are rinse-and-repeat from what we’ve seen out of 32 movies already. “The Marvels” stands out not with the usual computer-generated imaging-filled, slo-mo action but instead with a wonderfully crafted physical brawl that wrecks the Khans’ Jersey City home. Good guys battle bad guys, naturally, though the scenes you’ll remember most are a weird mission to a dance-happy water planet where the main communication is singing, as well as a hilariously clever bit involving panicking people and a herd of kittens.

With a perception out there of the MCU not quite being the cat’s meow anymore – and everybody from internet trolls to Martin Scorsese having an opinion about superhero movies – it’s those cool absurdities (plus some interesting returning faces) that makes “Marvels” worthy of the name.