The Marvels Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

2. The Editing Is ROUGH

Though there's a lot to be said for The Marvels being snappy and to-the-point at just 105 minutes, this is also a film that feels at times edited to within an inch of its life.

Especially in the early going, there's a frantic choppiness with which the film fleets from one character or scene to another, rather than letting moments and beats breathe.

This feels less like a pure pacing issue - because the short runtime remains one of the movie's best assets - but rather that The Marvels' final cut was likely frankensteined together during a tough post-production process.

Numerous online reports have noted the film's underwhelming test screenings and extensive reshoots, and to that end the version of the movie now in cinemas has a strangely bolted-together feel to it.

The more expository dialogues in particular sticks out like a sore thumb next to genuine character moments, as though they were hurriedly added during reshoots to clarify plot points.

Characters also regularly feel like they change mood on the turn of a dime in the middle of a scene - especially Carol and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the latter more-or-less turned into a comedy sidekick here.