"The Marvels" hits the big screen to mixed reviews

It’s women to the rescue in Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest film, “The Marvels”, which opened in most countries around the world on Wednesday.

In this sequel to the 2019 production, “Captain Marvel”, the superhero teams up with a superfan and an astronaut to battle evil.

The film’s director, Nia DaCosta, says she’s glad she could avoid the cliched characteristics of strong women on screen.

"When I saw how excited they were to do it, I was like, oh, I'm like going to be in good hands with trying to bring these three women - four women with Zawe, the villain, to screen,” she said.

“They're all so different and we didn't have to do any like fake, you know, girl boss thing, it was just like, let's just let them be people who have superpowers and beat each other up,” DaCosta said.

Brie Larson reprises her role as Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers, who is forced to work with superfan, Kamala Khan (played by Imam Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), when their powers get entangled.

DaCosta said she believes “The Marvels” stands out from other films in the franchise, but is still very much in keeping with what people love about them.

"The Marvel films have their own and unique tone that was really important to me, to have a tone. I wanted it to be really fun. But also that just felt specific to these characters. So in that way, I think it's really unique,” she said.

"This is a joyful movie that is wacky and fun. We hit really high highs and really low lows. And really at the end of the day, it's the chemistry between the Marvels that sets it apart,” said executive producer, Mary Livanos.