The Marvels | 2023 | PG-13 | – 1.5.4

Why is “The Marvels” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “action/violence and brief language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a discussion of a marriage of convenience, women wearing tight-fitting super suits, many scenes of planetary destruction, many scenes of people with superpowers fighting using energy blasts and flying, a woman dying from cancer, a cat with large tendrils eating objects and people and later spitting them out unharmed, and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When Captain Marvel’s (Brie Larson) superpowers are mysteriously intermingled with the powers of Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and 16-year-old Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), it causes them to trade places whenever they engage in combat, and must work together to defeat a foe bent on destroying other planets to save her own. Also with Samuel L. Jackson, Zawe Ashton, Gary Lewis, Park Seo-joon, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh, Abraham Popoola and Leila Farzad. Directed by Nia DaCosta. [Running Time: 1:45]

The Marvels SEX/NUDITY 1

 – Two women hug in greeting. A man and a woman dance together.
► A woman talks about being married to a man and calls it a marriage of convenience.
► Animated cartoon drawings show a teen girl trying to open her top to reveal her superhero suit, but her illustrated hands don’t function properly. A woman wears a tight-fitting and cropped tank top that reveals cleavage, bare shoulders and her abdomen in many scenes throughout the movie. A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage, her bare back and shoulders. Women wear tight-fitting supersuits in many scenes throughout the movie.

The Marvels VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – A woman opens a hole in a barrier in the atmosphere and we see air being sucked out through the opening; people on the planet’s surface scramble to escape as structures crumble and escape vessels crash into other structures being pulled toward the hole and a superhero, a woman with powers, and a teen girl with powers, frantically try to save as many people as they can (we see that some people are not rescued with structures crumbling on top of them from a distance).
► A superhero, a woman with powers, and a teen girl with powers, fight many guards that appear in the teen girl’s home and her family also fights with them causing a lot of property damage; the teen girl creates a crystal shell as a protective barrier around herself and others. A woman with powers is blasted with energy in order to seal a hole in the atmosphere and a superhero flies toward her to help her escape before she is closed in (she does not reach her in time). A superhero, a woman with powers, and a teen girl with powers, fight with a woman with powers and they throw each other hard into rocks and zap each other with energy blasts until one is pinned under a heavy plank and is stabbed through the abdomen (we see blue ooze at the wound). A teen girl is held by a woman holding a heavy hammer against her face on the ground and the teen cries out in pain. A woman floats toward a tear in the atmosphere and we see her crumble to pixels and disappear. A superhero flies toward a sun and crashes into it reigniting it. An alarm is raised on a planet when a woman and her guards arrive and threaten to take their resources and a fight breaks out with people with superpowers zapping others and flying through the air. A superhero fights with many guards using blasts of energy, kicks, throws and punches. A teen girl with powers trades places with a superhero that leaps into the atmosphere; the teen plummets toward the ground and a woman with powers flies toward her to try to fly with her; they bounce hard on the ground in a crystal shell created by the teen as a protective barrier. A woman carries a hammer weapon that glows and uses it in conjunction with a cuff that creates powerful energy blasts. A superhero, a woman with powers, and a teen girl with powers, each move toward a tear in a barrier and reach for the opening and as they do, they trade places with each other and are thrown spinning out of control.
► A superhero floats outside a space vessel (with a cat on her shoulder) to explore a tear in a barrier that we hear is leaking energy. A cat has large and numerous tendrils that it can send out of its mouth and it grabs people and things, spitting them out seemingly unharmed later. A cat spits out two guards covered with goo (we hear squishing sounds). A man and a woman find what looks brain-like but it is discovered to be an egg that later breaks open to produce a creature. Many cats eat many people and later spit them out without injury. A cat eats a pillow. A cat coughs up kitchen utensils. A cat’s tendrils swirl around it as the cat preens. Announcements are heard for people to not run away from creatures but allow them to eat them; we see people being grabbed by long tendrils and swallowed as they scream (we hear squishing sounds).
► A superhero has flashbacks to scenes of planetary destruction and fighting many people and destroying a super-powerful AI device. Many large space vessels move through a portal and we see people on a barren planet’s surface pillaging the area to find a powerful device that when a woman snaps it on her wrist, it glows giving her increased powers.
► A woman talks about her planet’s sun dying and threatens the leader of a planet, saying that his people will be relocated or they will suffocate after she strips away the atmosphere. People discuss the possibility of reigniting a sun. People discuss the power of a “quantum band” that is said to enable teleportation. An alarm is raised on a space vessel and people onboard clamor toward escape pods. A space vessel flies away from a planet and is chased by other vessels that fire missiles at it. A man says that they are in the “abandon ship phase” as people board escape pods. A man prays when a space vessel speeds out of control and crashes (a man holds his back when he climbs out of the rubble but there are no other visible injuries). A man and a woman quiz their teen daughter about what happened to her bedroom door and why a strange woman was in their house.
► Two women have flashbacks to memories of one of the women’s mothers dying from cancer. A teen girl with powers wears a metal cuff on her wrist and it glows in a few scenes; when she shakes her wrist in one scene she is thrown back through a door and disappears. A teenage girl with powers uses a blast of power from a cuff on her wrist to slam her bedroom door. Animated cartoon drawings show a teen girl using her superpowers and undertaking heroic deeds. A young man tries to use a TV volume control to mute his mother.

The Marvels LANGUAGE 4

 – 3 scatological terms, 9 mild obscenities, name-calling (heretics, the Annihilator, negative energy, ruse, twinsies, myth, cosmo rod), exclamations (oops, oh captain my captain, oh my gosh), 6 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, my God, a man prays when a space vessel speeds out of control and crashes). | profanity glossary |

The Marvels SUBSTANCE USE

 – None.

The Marvels DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Revenge, AI, superheroes, promises, failure, forgiveness, civil war, sacrifice, abandonment, colonizing galaxies, peace and reconciliation, families, matriarchal societies.

The Marvels MESSAGE

 – Saving the universe requires making sacrifices.