REVIEW: Marvel's Inhumans Premiere
What if I told you there was something that could beat the supreme lack of care of Agent Carter, the nonsense of Iron Fist, and the frustrating length of a bad Agents of SHIELD plot? Sadly, such an option exists, and I am here to warn you about the dull, convoluted, disappointingly messy series premiere of Marvel’s Inhumans. And all despite nobody wanting this show.
The first two episodes of Marvel’s Inhumans follows the story of the royal Inhuman family that faces a coup from one of their own. In the chaos, they flee to Earth where they prepare for either rescue or destruction. Meanwhile, people on Earth are questioning the existence of a civilization on the moon, wondering what this could mean. A potential war with superpowers in the mix? What could go wrong? Turns out everything.
The first heads up on the show should, of course, be the fact that it’s being spearheaded by Scott Buck, the head of the mess that was Iron Fist. Indeed, this show already contains many of the same flaws including over self-importance, lackluster acting, barely interesting focus, and a plot I really don’t care about in the slightest. Add that to the huge level of exposition needed to cover a dozen of new characters and the laughable design choices, the show becomes a test of how long you can handle it.
The sad thing about all of this is that the plot isn’t inherently uninteresting. We’ve had tons of stories of coups of fictional kingdoms and, at the core, the characters have clear motives combined with a fish-out-of-water element that forces them to take action. Unfortunately, it feels like the people involved in this show have such an utter lack of consideration that they could have put the concept art on screen and it would have been more interesting. At least my imagination wants to care.
I think the other sad part is how punishing the series can be even if you’re an ardent Marvel follower. Bad acting, bad designs, and cliché story-writing hasn’t stopped other stories, but the insane inconsistencies are where I draw the line, especially with regards to the logistics surrounding terrigenesis. They introduce the concept of Inhumans changing without powers, but that’s never been even remotely established as a possibility. They throw out the cocoon element with nary a bad-looking Inhuman in sight which could be style choices but just screams that even a network show uses its budget better.
And furthermore, the rules surrounding Attilan don’t make sense either. How long have they been on the moon? If for a while, why were they stupid enough to be discovered now? Who set up the system this way? And when does this show even take place in the scope of the universe? They confirm it takes place after the Terrigen contamination from the SHIELD season two finale, but they also assume Inhumans were an established thing on Earth by now. Shouldn’t the Earth therefore be more adjusted to a superpowered being? And what do Karnak’s powers even do? None of these questions are solved nor will they ever be.
As with Iron Fist, I want to give some of the slightest credit where credit is due. Despite the lack of attention, Gorgon, Crystal, and Karnak could be interesting, especially as we follow Gorgon befriending people on Earth. Some of the camera shots also convince me that this was indeed shot for IMAX. Also, there’s a giant dog that can teleport. The dry series manages to drag that down too, but it still has enough creativity to stay alive. There’s not much after that, and I’m afraid that the series will take those things from me too.
The operative word for the show so far is tired, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the action. I swear, even the punching looks slow and forced. There shouldn’t be a universe where a show with superpowers is bad at action sequences because otherwise the show has absolutely nothing. No amount of possible flashiness can change that. Literally all of that applies to the acting, the story, the pacing, pretty much everything.
Unfortunately, there is nothing that implies that the show will improve for the next eight weeks. The only way I would recommend the series is as a way to prove that things can always be worse than what Marvel shows have given us up to date. Weirdly enough, that gives me hope for the world. For this show, not so much.
