This Is Why We Won't Get Inhumans! Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 3!

The Good: Some decent character moments, Good overall plot, Good performances
The Bad: Weak middle
The Basics: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. undermined an film version of The Inhumans in its third season.


Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. might well be the most inconsistent element of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and, honestly, that might be the best thing for the franchise. Objectively viewed, most of the works in the Marvel Cinematic Universe follow a painfully formulaic format; the movies have become very repetitive. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. might follow a similar pattern, but extending that basic plot over the course of a season has allowed the show to feel fresher and has forced the series to develop the characters more than the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have. In fact, by the outset of the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., the television series and its characters are actually the most prolific of the franchise. Since the middle of the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., the executives at Disney and Marvel announced that a cinematic version of The Inhumans was on the docket, but the third season of the show ultimately filled that niche.

In the Marvel Comic books, The Inhumans were, essentially, mutants and in the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (reviewed here!), they were properly introduced. The Inhumans preoccupy the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the season makes sweeping changes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And because the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. only had to interface with one blockbuster film - Captain America: Civil War (reviewed here!), the season had a chance to breathe and grow almost completely on its own - without just trying to fit in between the big films.

The irony for the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is so independent and powerful on its own that it overwrote the characters and plots that would have been the basis for The Inhumans. Apparently, in the books, one of the most significant villains in the Inhuman corner of the Marvel franchise is Lash and, like most seasons of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - and movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - there is a Big Bad. In the third season, the Big Bads are Lash for the Inhuman plotline, Gideon Malick for the HYDRA plotline and Hive, the evil alien who bridges the two Big Bads. As such, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Three pretty much shot the wad on big bads for The Inhumans and by the season finale, The Inhumans was off the slate for the cinematic works being planned by Disney. Fortunately, the result of the executive producers' work on the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. paid off. The third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the best of the series so far.

Opening with a man (Joey Gutierrez) who took contaminated fish oil pills and successfully underwent terrigenesis, the new Inhuman accidentally melts all sorts of metal around him an is freaking out. He is hunted by people who freak him out and rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. The first group hunting him is a new, Presidentially-sanctioned organization called the Advanced Threat Containment Unit. While Fitz hunts for a way to find Simmons, Daisy tries to recruit Lincoln Campbell to help acclimate Inhumans to their new lives when they are attacked by a powerful Inhuman who blasts holes in people and escapes through a portal. Fitz discovers that the monolith is a portal and with the help of the last Asgardian on Earth, he manages to rescue Simmons.

While Ward recreates HYDRA, Coulson and Rosalind from the ATCU hunt for a vicious new Inhuman, Lash, who is killing Inhumans. But Lash's identity (he is the only known Inhuman who can shape-shift between his mundane human and Inhuman forms!) quickly creates a personal problem with one of the Agents and that causes a rift between Coulson and Rosalind Price of the ATCU. But when the ATCU's agenda is made explicit - they are putting Inhumans in suspended animation - Coulson begins an investigation into the ATCU and discovers that HYDRA is running the organization. Ward, in the meantime, finds the last major surviving head of HYDRA, Gideon Malick, and he learns that HYDRA's purpose was related to the monolith and the alien world Simmons was teleported to.

After capturing Fitz and Simmons to try to launch a HYDRA mission to the alien world, Ward takes a team to the distant planet. But while the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. are able to rescue their hostage friends, HYDRA is successful in bringing through a creature, Hive, from the alien world. Hive and Malick set off a plan to transform the Earth by transforming its populace into Inhumans. As Hive takes over the Inhumans he finds to build an army, S.H.I.E.L.D. tries to save humans from falling under Hive's sway and humans from being transformed by Hive's captured mad scientist. Coulson and his team have to stop HYDRA and Hive to save the world!

The third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. develops in a surprisingly linear narrative, but the delight of the season is when it shakes up the familiar format (which bodes well for Doctor Strange). The season peaks early with the episode "4,722 Hours," which is the story of Simmons's time on the distant world and the intense character study is very different from every other episode. While the average episode features a number of fights and spycraft riddled with twists, "4,722 Hours" is straightforward and emotional.

That is not to say that some of the action-oriented episodes of the season are not good. "Maveth," "Spacetime," and "Failed Experiments" all use action sequences remarkably well and find a good balance between character and action elements.

To better understand the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. it helps to know the arcs of the major characters. In the third season, the essential characters are:

Director Phil Coulson – Adapting to his new, bionic, hand, he is hunting the ATCU to try to find out who is killing Inhumans. He meets Rosalind Price, the head of the ATCU and is appalled when she reveals that the failed missions he has been on to find Inhumans have left a number of dead Inhumans for her team to find. He tries to guide Rosalind to treating Inhumans with compassion and when Daisy is threatened, he starts working with Price. He falls in love with Rosalind, despite a few rocky moments where his nature as a spy outweighs his basic human emotions. When he experiences a personal tragedy, he goes on a mission of revenge to end Grant Ward once and for all. After the President restructures the ATCU, he gets to be General Talbot's boss. He experiences more and more loss as he is forced to disavow multiple agents, his new headquarters is attacked in a terrible way, and some of his assets go over to the Dark Side,

Agent Melinda May – Having left S.H.I.E.L.D., she finds herself looking over her shoulder over suspicions that the car accident her father was in was caused by a vengeful Grant Ward. When Hunter offers her the chance to kill Ward once and for all, she goes back into the field. But her relationship with her ex-husband, Dr. Garner, becomes a severe liability when Ward attacks Gardner to keep her in check. She is inherently distrusting of Inhumans and mistrusts Campbell, though she is occasionally forced to work with him. She has moral problems with Coulson using her for her killing abilities, but remains his loyal soldier and aids him in trying to save the world,

Fitz – Obsessed with finding Simmons, he takes some serious personal risks to acquire a scroll that might give him some clue as to what happened to her with the monolith in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession. Getting aid from the Asgardian on Earth, he risks his life to recover Jemma. When he learns the truth of what happened to Simmons, he becomes equally determined to help her rescue Will from that planet. When he and Simmons are captured, he willingly goes with Ward to save Simmons's life. His love for Simmons puts him in a horrible position on the alien world and as a result of Coulson's actions there, he becomes unsettled by his employer, though he keeps making new hands for Coulson. He continues to upgrade S.H.I.E.L.D.'s computer systems to try to keep the headquarters safe from Hive and he finally starts a genuine romantic relationship with Simmons,

Jemma Simmons – Teleported to an alien world where she was hunted for months, she is rescued by Fitz. They finally go on a date, which leads Simmons to confess to Fitz what happened to her on the alien world. She reveals that she is obsessed with getting back to the distant world because she met someone there who helped her to survive. As the only person to ever return from the alien world, she is hunted by Malick. When she is captured by HYDRA, she turns to an unlikely ally for help, knowing that casualties will result. Riddled by guilt after unleashing a killer, she works with May to find it again and takes her shot at Hive when given the chance. She is more optimistic than many in S.H.I.E.L.D. and pushes Fitz for a real relationship,

Agent Daisy Johnson (formerly Skye) – Leading the team that is hunting Inhumans, she tries to empathize and help new Inhumans, like Joey. She is frustrated by how May's ex-husband refuses to authorize any of the found Inhumans to work with S.H.I.E.L.D. She tries to protect Campbell and starts to develop a genuine love for the Inhuman doctor. She begins training Campbell the way May trained her. When a prophecy shows her her death, she tries to train May to help avoid the future she saw. She assembles a team of her own Inhumans and that puts her at odds with Mack, who continues to distrust the Inhumans,

Grant Ward – He restaffs HYDRA and funds the effort by recruiting Von Strucker's son to his new organization. He extorts May by threatening Dr. Garner's life and becomes obsessed with finding Von Strucker's vault to refinance HYDRA. When he learns HYDRA's true mission, he remains loyal and works with Malick to fulfill HYDRA's mission. When Coulson uncovers his brother, he reveals his lone weakness,

Agent Lance Hunter - Tasked by Coulson to find and kill Ward, he turns to May for help. Still very much in love with Bobbi, he attempts to propose to her, but is shot down. To get into HYDRA to get close to Ward, he goes through a fight club and is nearly killed. He is willing to sacrifice Dr. Garner to attempt to take his shot at Ward. He and Bobbi infiltrate the ATCU and end up in a fight he did not expect. When he goes "truffle hunting" in Russia while tracking Malick, he has to make a choice about saving the S.H.I.E.L.D. team,

Mack - Now partnered with Daisy, he illustrates his weapon's expertise early on in trying to identify an ATCU firearm. He acts somewhat like a marriage counselor to Morse and Hunter. He is given command of S.H.I.E.L.D. when Coulson goes off-book to hunt Ward, which makes him uncomfortable. He starts to warm up to Inhumans, thanks to the Inhuman Yo-Yo. After his best friend is disavowed, he takes a vacation, only to discover his brother is ideologically allied with the anti-Inhuman Watchdog group. He is nearly killed while trying to rescue a friend from Hive, but turns to Yo-Yo for help,

Dr. Lincoln Campbell - Outed in a battle with Lash when Daisy and Mack visit him at the hospital at which he works, he is forced to flee his mundane life. On the run and tracked by S.H.I.E.L.D. for quite a while, he flees both S.H.I.E.L.D. and the ATCU while avoiding Lash. He and Daisy start to develop their relationship. He is put in the field by Mack when Mack decides to attack HYDRA's compound. Coulson is unsettled by how unstable he appears, but the doctor proves himself in studying Hive and following Coulson's orders while trying to bring down Felix Blake's organization,

Bobbi Morse - Filling in as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s medical doctor in the absence of Simmons, she covers for Fitz while he is on his personal quest for information about the monolith. When Hunter is tasked with killing Ward, she and May go back into the field to discover who Ward is working with. She is tough, improvises amazingly well, and is professional, outside her love for Hunter. On a mission to save a Russian politician from a dangerous Inhuman, she and Hunter are trapped and has to be disavowed to save the United States and S.H.I.E.L.D.,

Gideon Malick - Ruthless and knowledgeable, Malick is publicly known as a billionaire industrialist who is running the Distant Star Program. He has all of the answers Ward needs as to the purpose of HYDRA and he auditions Ward for his number two. He is loyal to HYDRA and wants to fulfill their mission to bring the entity from the alien world back to Earth. He is obsessed with creating an army of Inhumans and he brings them to Hive, despite being wary of the alien. Treacherous and brutal, his love for his daughter tests his faith in HYDRA and Hive,

and Hive - An alien made up of parasites from the distant world Simmons was trapped on, bringing it to Earth is the purpose of HYDRA. Once it arrives on Earth, it hunts down Malick and starts to influence Inhumans. It lives in a human corpse, unable to inhabit Inhumans, though it causes Inhumans to feel a bliss and fall under its sway. It begins a plan to transform humans into Inhumans so it can reign over the Earth.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. starts its third season well, as it is preoccupied with the consequences of where the second season left off. Near the middle of the season - after Hive first appears - the season slows a little, save for finally deepening the relationship between Fitz and Simmons. The addition of some new Inhumans is cool, but characters like James are hardly as well-developed as May or Daisy.

The third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. gets occasionally lazy. The new, lifelike, hand for Coulson is pretty transparently an attempt to keep from having to keep a glove on Clark Gregg for the remainder of the series. While his force field shield is pretty cool, the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. hardly explores the consequences of Coulson losing his hand. In a similar fashion, the explanation of how Hive gets Kree blood after Mack and May destroy the newly imported supply is scientifically ridiculous.

The standout performer in the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons, though Constance Zimmer's brief tenure in the show as Rosalind Price helps illustrate that she has decent range. Henstridge is given the opportunity to play truly badass in the third season and that plays off her delivery of technobabble and dewy-eyed looks of love exceptionally well. Henstridge and Iain De Caestecker have great on-screen chemistry and while De Caestecker's Fitz's mental repair is not satisfactorily addressed within the show, the return of their chemistry in the season is delightful.

Henry Simmons is also able to do more with his character of Mack, but after rewatching Simmons on NYPD Blue, the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. merely appears to use his ample talents, as opposed to stretching his abilities.

Ultimately, the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. does everything it needed to for the characters the audience has been invested in and makes for a very satisfying alternative to The Inhumans!

For a better understanding of the components of the third season, please visit my reviews of each of the episodes in the third season episodes of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. at:
“Laws Of Nature”
“Purpose In The Machine”
“A Wanted (Inhu)man”
"Devils You Know"
“4,722 Hours”
“Among Us Hide”
“Chaos Theory”
“Many Heads, One Tale”
“Closure”
“Maveth”
“Bouncing Back”
“The Inside Man”
“Parting Shot”
“Watchdogs”
“Spacetime”
“Pradise Lost”
"The Team"
“The Singularity”
“Failed Experiments”
“Emancipation”
“Absolution”
“Ascension”

7/10

For other television and movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Eliminate The Deadweight: "Parting Shot" Cuts Bait With Its Unnecessary Characters.

The Good: Performances are good
The Bad: Dull plot, Mediocre character development, Lack of realism
The Basics: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. shows a stunning lack of complexity in "Parting Shot," which seems intent to simply set up the Morse/Hunter spinoff that has been erratically leaked.


This week has been pretty Marvel-intensive, whatwith the release of the second season of Daredevil (reviewed here!). The contrast between Daredevil and Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is pretty stark, though Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. frequently builds up plotlines and larger character arcs over an entire season. Unfortunately, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been far more erratic as it tries to make the fledgling spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D. vital beyond setting up or alluding to the current blockbuster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As a result, I was fairly unexcited about "Parting Shot," the latest episode of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Parting Shot" picks up after "The Inside Man" (reviewed here!) and it continues HYDRA's takeover of the international community's response to the Inhumans. The episode involves an immediate flash forward - "The Inside Man" peaked with Morse and Hunter hitching a ride to Siberia to investigate the site that Malick is planning to use for his Inhuman sanctuary.

Bobbi Morse is at an INTERPOL black site following her murdering three Russians in Russia, where she refuses to give information to the interrogator. Flashing back thirty-four hours, Morse and Hunter find the remote facility that Malick is intending to use as a station for his army of Inhumans. There, Morse and Hunter get back-up from May, Daisy, and Mack and they break into two teams to infiltrate Malick's facility. When Malick is pitched an Inhuman sanctuary, the Russian attache lets him know that the Russian Defense Minister is an Inhuman and the Prime Minister's personal attache was killed at the sanctuary.

Surveillance from the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team reveal that there is a Russian Inhuman within the facility and when the Prime Minister and his team arrive, they recognize it as Malick's moment. Malick uses the shadowy Inhuman to make an attempt on the Russian Prime Minister's life. Mack is incapacitated by the General's projection (a shadow-like projection that the General manipulates with his thoughts and has the ability to be solid or insubstantial at the General's will) and Morse quickly figures out that to stop his "entity," she must take out the General. The choice forces Morse and Hunter to make a critical choice about their futures with S.H.I.E.L.D. as they face execution.

Right out of the gate, "Parting Shot" is weakened by media reports from the hiatus Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. was on; once again an Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. spin-off was leaked. Last year, a spin-off featuring Morse and Hunter was pitched, but it did not get very far. Early in "Parting Shot," viewers are reminded that Morse and Hunter are hardly an interesting enough pair to carry their own series, despite the fact that a new Morse-centered spin-off was once again announced (this time with casting for some of the supporting characters, so it looks like it is getting a pilot episode, at the very least). If "Parting Shot" is any indication, a Morse/Hunter spin-off would be one of the most banal spy action adventure programs to ever hit television. But, the leaked new instantly titillates viewers with the hint that Hunter could be killed off.

The narrative technique of the flashbacks from the interrogation scenes comes across as particularly banal. From the outset, viewers know that Hunter and Morse end up together and captured after a triple murder. So, when the two S.H.I.E.L.D. teams break them up, the viewer is trapped in a waiting game. Great television can make the process of discovery between known plot events delightful; "Parting Shot" is not great television. Instead, anyone who has seen virtually any spy show will figure out the essentials of the ties between the past and present scenes well before they are aired.

"Parting Shot" is very plot-focused, with Malick getting a more substantive role as Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s primary villain for the season, at least in terms of screentime. Gideon Malick is, in many ways, an uninteresting adversary. He is simply the head of HYDRA by virtue of being the last man standing and accepting Ward, as opposed to combating him. Whenever one considers an enemy, one has to get a read on how realistic their ambitions are. Malick is a villain with overtly villainous intent and a devotion to HYDRA without any clear motivation. Like the worst of comic book villains, Malick is evil for evil's sake; an enemy whose sole purpose seems to be filling the niche of giving the protagonists an individual to combat. "Parting Shot" does very little to make Malick any deeper.

Throughout "Parting Shot," Lance Hunter is given more voice than in most prior episodes. Hunter and May have a thread of bad blood from prior episodes and they belabor that in their pre-Hunter capture scenes. Hunter illustrates some level of professionalism by sticking to his alibi after he is captured, but the scene feels more familiar than fresh. Beyond that, Hunter continues to be Morse's accessory (someone to humanize the master super-spy Mockingbird, as opposed to even act as her sidekick).

Bobbi Morse is usually characterized as smart and efficient, but not so much in "Parting Shot." When she is confronted by a Russian who notices she does not have her disguise's necktie, Morse simply knocks the man out and gets trapped on the wrong side of a locked door. Why Morse does not take the man's tie to prevent anyone else from seeing through her disguise seems like a ridiculous oversight. She does not grow or develop through "Parting Shot;" she simply illustrates that Hunter is a weakness and liability to her, which has been a part of her character since she was introduced in the prior season.

"Parting Shot" is a tough sell for those who like the realism of how the Marvel Cinematic Universe usually portrays the non-supernatural events. The President Of The United States and the Russian Prime Minister meeting in a black site is utterly unrealistic. Similarly, the sweetness of the episode's final scene is undermined by the idea that the tail on Hunter and Morse has to be the most stupid, ill-informed agent in the intelligence community (Morse and Mack being in the same place in the same time and Coulson being at the bar with the pair are huge red flags to anyone who might have read Morse's file).

That said, the final scene of "Parting Shot" is the best of the episode and - divorced from caution and rationality - it is sweet in its own right. It is not, however, enough to justify the rest of the episode. The journey to the final scene is not particularly rewarding; it feels like what it is, a belabored plotting to get to an important event that more or less comes out of the blue from the rest of the season's narrative.

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the third season here!
Thanks!]

3.5/10

For other Marvel movie, television season and episode reviews, please check out my Marvel Cinematic Universe Review Index Page for a listing of those reviews!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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After A Hiatus, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Is "Bouncing Back" With Inhumans And HYDRA!

The Good: Good plot development, Pacing, The few moments of character
The Bad: No outstanding performances, Exceptionally light on character development
The Basics: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns with "Bouncing Back" and the episode moves the series in a somewhat new direction while clearly acting as a small part in a much larger serialized narrative.


When it comes to Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., I was surprised by how excited I was for the third season's mid-season premiere. While the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. was on winter hiatus, I had the option to watch and review Agent Carter and I let that opportunity pass. The Marvel Television Universe has been decidedly mixed and Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been given a difficult task of balancing being its own thing and advancing the Marvel Cinematic Universe in between the major blockbuster releases. The result has been erratic, but the third season's mid-season finale was surprisingly gripping and the anticipation for the midseason premiere, "Bouncing Back" was almost as high for me as Captain America: Civil War or the impending second season of Daredevil being released next week.

"Bouncing Back" picks up after "Maveth" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss without referencing how "Maveth" ended. Indeed, coming into "Bouncing Back," viewers are left with a lot of questions about how Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. will adapt to the huge character changes that came at the climax of "Maveth." "Maveth," despite the sudden forced passion between Daisy and Lincoln, replayed much better than it originally played. The midseason finale set up a big potential conflict between Coulson and Fitz (the latter having witnessed Coulson murdering Ward on the alien world through the portal), forced a redefinition of Ward (who was killed and then possessed by the ancient evil on the alien world) and left May somewhat lost as her ex-husband is in the wind, last seen as the villainous Lash.

Opening three months in the future with an apparent death aboard a spacecraft, the episode flashes back to the present where a new Inhuman pops up to steal a cache of weapons in Colombia. Coulson, with a new hand, meets with the President Of The United States in his apartment where Coulson is put in charge of the ATCU, which is now retasked as the public face of S.H.I.E.L.D. President Ellis is unable to give Coulson a lead on Gideon Malick, the head of HYDRA, but he takes Coulson off his leash in the hunt for him. Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. team investigates the incident in Colombia and Mack encounters an Inhuman who appears to be able to move at incredibly fast speeds. With Mack captured, the team is split between recovering Mack and hunting Malick.

In Colombia, Mack discovers that the Inhuman who captured him moves fast, but whips back to her starting point when she executes her power and it quickly brings him to a detente with her. That allows Daisy, Morse, and Hunter to rescue Mack and apprehend the Inhuman. At HYDRA's base, Malick is surprised that the parasite-infected Ward is already speaking and he is hungry. Coulson, determined to find Malick, submits Von Strucker (the younger) to the T.A.H.I.T.I. protocol to try to jog his memories. Morse and Hunter are captured by the corrupt Colombian "police," who are using an Inhuman. The Inhuman who captured Mack allies with S.H.I.E.L.D. when she loses her cousin to the corrupt police. When Coulson plays his hand against Malick, HYDRA strikes back with frightening efficiency.

Right off the bat, "Bouncing Back" seems like it is still struggling with finding a balance. The flash-forward might appear to be an allusion to Captain America: Civil War or the third season finale of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., but it does not fit in well in "Bouncing Back." Unlike something like the flashes forward in the second season of Breaking Bad, this flash forward comes out of nowhere and is not something that is building a theme (at least, not yet). The gap in time between "Maveth" and "Bouncing Back" is not immediately clear; enough time has passed so Coulson has a new hand and HYDRA is not yet restaffed, but the blood in Coulson's apartment has not yet oxidized?!

"Bouncing Back" continues a disturbing trend in post-9/11 entertainment, which sees otherwise intelligent characters employing torture and accepting that the results are at all accurate. I'm a fan of heroes who have a willingness to do whatever it takes and I was not turned aside by recognizable heroes stepping over the obvious moral lines, like Wonder Woman did in Mission's End (reviewed here!). But morally relativistic characters do not necessarily condone torture or use their prisoners in unethical ways. Genre viewers seem to have forgotten the lessons of Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Chain Of Command, Part II" (reviewed here!) and blithely accept things like "Bouncing Back" where heroic characters torture and get reliable information in the process.

What "Bouncing Back" does well is progress all of the various plots in interesting ways. Ward made it back to Earth, as we already knew, but he is not at 100% yet; the Inhumans are presented as a complex problem that has no easy answers and various interpersonal relationships have threads that are peppered throughout the episode (except, interestingly, any substantive relationship between Daisy and Lincoln - though there is a very surfacey relationship scene late in the episode). The simple twist of Elena Rodriguez and her cousin trying to destroy weapons headed into Colombia makes for an intriguing start and an engaging point for her to bond with members of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team. Similarly, the new villainous Inhuman with the "medusa eyes" is very cool and executes his power in "Bouncing Back" with frightening efficiency.

As with many episodes of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., "Bouncing Back" suffers some from having a large cast and being unable to properly service all of them. More than most episodes, especially of the current season, "Bouncing Back" gives Mack the chance to grow and develop. Mack has been mistrustful of Inhumans and in the course of the episode, he finds one that he actually likes. His is the most consistent arc in the episode.

The plot of "Bouncing Back" ends early enough to drop in fairly underwhelming pairing scenes between Fitz and Simmons, Johnson and Campbell and May and Coulson. Most fans could probably have lived without the Lincoln/Daisy scene to see more of either Fitz and Simmons or May and Coulson. After years of waiting and a single kiss between them, fans of Fitzsimmons are bound to feel cheated by the lack of substantive progress in their relationship, especially in lieu of how Simmons has expressed interest and Fitz has made repeated sacrifices for her.

The performances in "Bouncing Back" are very average; the episode manages to completely neglect the implied tension between Fitz and Coulson that was evident at the climax of "Maveth." Instead, Fitz is working on a new hand for Coulson (because, apparently, keeping Clark Gregg in a glove for the remainder of the series was not a viable option?!) and Iain De Caestecker is back in the performance niche he was given at the outset of the series. Ming-Na Wen is not given the chance to emote any sense of loss or concern for May's ex-husband and only Brett Dalton is given the chance to truly perform in a different way. As the parasite-infected Ward, Dalton has to play his role now with constant menace and less overt emotions. That said, Ward was never characterized by wild emotions so even in "Bouncing Back," Dalton is not given much to play with that offers him the chance to shine.

"Bouncing Back" illustrates potential as Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. prepares fans for the eventual Inhumans film, but is not a remarkable return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

For midseason premieres, please visit my reviews of:
"Aftershocks" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Revenge Of The Rogues" - The Flash
"The Magnificent Ferengi" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the third season here!
Thanks!]

5.5/10

For other Marvel movie, television season and episode reviews, please check out my Marvel Cinematic Universe Review Index Page for a listing of those reviews!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Rebooted And Returned: "Laws Of Nature" Moves Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. In Its New Direction!

The Good: Decent performances, Good balance of reinvention and familiarity
The Bad: Plot-heavy, Neglects some of the cast
The Basics: "Laws Of Nature" does what it needs to to keep Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. going, but it reveals that the narrative has become pretty cluttered.


The Marvel Cinematic Universe is becoming increasingly fascinating. While the DC Television Universe is about to get into territory that might make any one of its components seem ridiculous (what conflict can Green Arrow truly run into where fan reaction can't reasonably be "Why didn't you call The Flash or Supergirl and ask them to help you out for, literally, five minutes to thwart your problem?!"), the Marvel Cinematic Universe is expanding in a way that seems to be trying to balance story and marketing. By the time the third season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. begins with "Laws Of Nature," the television series has very quietly taken over the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Agent Phil Coulson and his team have now logged more hours in the MCU than any other character or team - it is theirs and the blockbuster films that built the Marvel Cinematic Universe are now the storytelling filler around the longer spy narrative. Unfortunately, as the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (reviewed here!) wound up, it became apparent that the television series - despite its longstanding narrative importance in fleshing out the Marvel Cinematic Universe - is being used to generate a fanbase for the planned film The Inhumans. Sadly, as "Laws Of Nature" begins, it seems like the series is being used as some form of risk mitigation to investors in the film that is one of the more conceptually risky ones (after all, when The Inhumans hits theaters, the battle against Thanos will either be in mid-swing or over and it's hard to be the act that follows that kind of villain!).

Picking up after "S.O.S. Part 2" (reviewed here!), "Laws Of Nature" is impossible to discuss without revealing some spoilers from the second season finale. When last Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. team was seen, the Bus was destroyed, Simmons had been absorbed by the Kree artifact Gonzales had recovered, Morse was near death, Coulson had lost an arm, May had gone on leave and the oceans had been contaminated by the terrigen crystals that reveal Inhumans and murder humans.

Opening with a burnt out apartment, the effects of the contaminated fish from the oceans is realized: some people are dead and one man who is fleeing a black ops group seems to be unwittingly melting anything he touches. The man, Joey, is rescued by Daisy, Lance Hunter, and Mack. Joey is taken to the new Bus where Daisy explains his new condition. Coulson is frustrated that Inhumans that his S.H.I.E.L.D. team attempts to rescue have been intercepted by that black ops group, while their leader (a woman Coulson finally manages to photograph during the extraction of Joey) is intent of capturing and dissecting Inhumans.

Jose Gutierrez (Joey) is brought to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters where he reacts poorly to the idea that his entire life has changed and that he is now being hunted. Morse is now running S.H.I.E.L.D.'s medical division with Fitz and while she has some ideas on how the terrigen contamination might affect the world, Coulson wants Fitz back to headquarters to assist in the current effort. Fitz is in Morocco, where he is hunting Yusef, who might know something about the monolith that Simmons has been encased in. Yusef has a scroll Fitz needs and he trades it for a briefcase Fitz brought with what appears to be splinter bombs. While Fitz escapes with the tool he needs to rescue Simmons, Coulson and Hunter walk into a trap laid by the woman running the Inhuman capturing program. Coulson and Rosalind discover that the black ops group may not be the ones killing Inhumans that Coulson's team has failed to rescue. Skye and Mack, in attempting to get Lincoln Campbell to return to S.H.I.E.L.D., discover who - or what - might be responsible for murdering Inhumans!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is fraught with deaths that don't stick. "Laws Of Nature" reveals that while Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has actual casualties (Garrett was pretty firmly killed on a second take and it would be hard to bring Bakshi back), the destruction of The Bus is not one the writers are trying to write their way back from. The original Bus is gone and "Laws Of Nature" feels very much like a reboot of the series as there is a new Bus and a more developed headquarters for S.H.I.E.L.D. While "Laws Of Nature" momentarily looks like it recast Raina with the episode's villain, it manages to go in a different direction that works.

Transformed as well is Daisy. Skye having a relationship with her father makes Skye adopt her given name and that is a minimal change compared to her mastery over her own powers. Daisy is, essentially, like a Jedi Knight in "Laws Of Nature." Daisy is played with more confidence by Chloe Bennet. Bennet is bounced between an outfit that looks like it was left behind from the set of one of the X-Men movies and a tank top designed to show off her cleavage (very subtle, director Vincent Misiano).

One of the serious issues with "Laws Of Nature" is the casting. Juan Pablo Raba may have been cast as Joey based on headshots or auditions that gave him a distinct and more ethnic look, but for much of his debut episode, he looks a lot like Brett Dalton, especially as he did at the outset of the second season. Fortunately, "Laws Of Nature" uses Joey as a way to introduce the new concept and does not dwell on him as much as it does planting the important threads of the season and reintroducing the various characters who are still standing.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is up to a pretty hefty cast with "Laws Of Nature." While both Ming-Na Wen and Brett Dalton remain in the cast, they are unseen in the third season premiere. That leaves eight main cast members and with Constance Zimmer appearing as Rosalind and Raba steal airtime from main cast like Nick Blood (no loss) and Henry Simmons (though Mack gets a good scene with Morse). Clark Gregg and Constance Zimmer have great on-screen chemistry in their big scene together. Zimmer has a pretty extensive resume and in "Laws Of Nature," she manages to make Rosalind a smart and powerful leader. Zimmer is excellent casting, utilized well, to create a foil character to Gregg's Coulson.

The performance of the episode, though, comes from Iain De Caestecker. While Fitz seems more mentally together than he did during the second season, De Caestecker has a lot of room to play with as a distraught man who lost the love of his life. Usually stuck delivering jargon, De Caestecker is given the chance to give Fitz a more developed human side and it works out well for the episode.

The special effects in "Laws Of Nature" are astonishingly good, though the episode does not actually pick up the pace or rely on those effects extensively until the final act.

"Laws Of Nature" is not an intensely character-driven episode and it is a bit out of balance as it works to establish the new main plot direction and find its footing. While there is a late Morse/Hunter scene, most of the episode is devoted to illustrating that S.H.I.E.L.D. is now focused on hunting and rescuing Inhumans.

While the fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be delighted by how "Laws Of Nature" fits into the larger mythos with the return of William Sadler as the President from Iron Man 3 (reviewed here!), those who are attentive and know what is coming next might be made wary. The next Captain America film is based on the idea that super heroes (and mutants and Inhumans) are forced by the government to register. "Laws Of Nature" seems to be laying the plot bedrock for that, where that will be an organic thing for the MCU, but it is hard not to feel like it is simply being used an an advertising technique to keep people invested until the next blockbuster.

"Laws Of Nature" is good, but more average than extraordinary television.

For other big season premieres, be sure to check out my reviews of:
"The Search, Part I" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"The Magician's Apprentice" - Doctor Who
"Who Are You, Really?" - True Blood

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the third season here!
Thanks!]

5.5/10

For other reviews of elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, please check out my Marvel Cinematic Universe Review Index Page for a listing of all those reviews!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Why The Flash Season 1 Is An Essential Show To Run Out And Watch!

The Good: Engaging plot and character arcs, Generally good acting, Cool effects
The Bad: Some bottle episodes that are massive duds
The Basics: The Flash gets off to a very impressive start with a first season brought down only by episodes that lose focus on the season's larger, compelling, story!


With the San Diego Comic Con in full swing (and my being very far from it), I find myself considering the works I actually enjoyed last season. As Comic Con panels are announced and news breaks from them, the one I was actually excited about was The Flash. I was, admittedly, biased going into the first season of The Flash; one year I spent studying the graphic novels focused on The Flash and so I had developed a fondness for the character and his corner of the DC Universe. In a number of ways, the first season of The Flash only had to disappoint me to keep me from heaping praise upon it. And there were a handful of episodes in the twenty-three episode first season that did disappoint. Largely, though, The Flash is an incredibly satisfying and ambitious start to the character's story.

The Flash was produced for The CW, a television network that aims for a younger - teenage, twentysomething - audience and The Flash tries to straddle high-concept elements with a look and feel that is just plain cool. In the first season, the show mostly succeeds. While the first season has both a general formula and the occasional bottle episode, most of the first season is centered around a mystery that drives the hero in the process of becoming to search for answers and become something more.

Barry Allen is a police forensics scientist working in Central City, where he lives haunted by the memories of the night his mother was killed and his father was arrested for the crime. Barry is best friends with Iris West, the daughter of Joe West, Barry's legal guardian after Henry Allen was locked away for the murder of Nora Allen. The night that S.T.A.R. Labs brings its revolutionary particle accelerator online, Barry Allen is in his police lab when he is affected by the shutdown of the accelerator and is knocked unconscious. Barry wakes up nine months later to discover that S.T.A.R. Labs has kept him alive and that he now has the ability to move at incredibly fast speeds.

Unfortunately for Barry Allen and the team at S.T.A.R. Labs - which includes the genius Dr. Harrison Wells, Dr. Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon - Barry was not the only one affected by the particle accelerator. Other metahumans begin to pop up who can manipulate weather, electricity and emotions. While Barry slowly develops into his alter-ego, The Flash, he captures the metahumans he can and imprisons them within S.T.A.R. Labs. But along the way, Allen is plagued by very human adversaries who use technology to get what they want and a mysterious speedster who wears a yellow costume that Barry almost immediately recalls as being present at his mother's murder more than a decade prior!

In its first season, The Flash works to introduce and develop the primary characters while making the show accessible to new viewers and help build the DC franchise by featuring crossover characters from The CW's other DC Comics-based television series, Arrow. While that occasionally leads to a terrible episode - "All Star Team-Up" which involves a villain who controls bees is a stand-out for horrible - the character conflicts and work done to develop relationships overcomes a sense of formula. Moreover, the show's big mystery - what happened in the Allen house the night of Nora Allen's murder - becomes the driving element of the season, especially when Barry Allen encounters the yellow-suited Reverse Flash as an adult!

While the series occasionally employs a snappy comic book sense of patter and dialogue, what makes The Flash so watchable in its first season is how grounded the show remains despite Barry Allen getting super-powers. Allen's super speed does not make it easier for him to watch Iris Allen falling in love with Eddie Thawne and his friendships with Cisco and Joe come with consequences that sometimes are exploited by the Villain Of The Week. Largely, though, The Flash works because Barry Allen is a good guy who wants to exonerate his wrongfully imprisoned father, do right by his friends and his city and stop those who are irresponsibly deploying their newfound powers upon Central City.

The key characters in the first season of The Flash are:

Barry Allen - The Flash. He is a young man who grew up in the West house after he witnessed his mother killed amid red and yellow flashes of light in their house. He was driven to become a police scientist and growing up with Iris, he began to fall in love with her, though he lacked the courage to tell her his true feelings. After being knocked out by the particle accelerator's wave, he awakens with super-speed. Dr. Wells, who Barry idolized for years, helps to train Barry into a super hero and encourages the young man to work to go faster. Barry works hard to maintain the moral high ground and balance his new job as Central City's protector with his desire to spend free time with Iris and his job working for the Central City Police Department,

Iris West - Daughter of Joe West, she is a reporter. She begins working for the Central City Picture News when her blog on "the streak" (the earliest sightings of The Flash in Central City) gets her noticed by the publication. Shortly after the particle accelerator accident, she began dating Eddie Thawne, a fact that she kept from her father. She moves in with Eddie and cares deeply about Barry's happiness even as she starts following the clues that might lead her to discover his alter ego,

Joe West - One of the lead detectives at the Central City Police Department, he is paired with Eddie Thawne after his prior partner was killed the night of the accelerator accident. He believes very firmly in the law, but learns of Barry's speedster secret very early. He asks Barry to keep his Flash identity from Iris to protect his daughter, though he empathizes with Barry's love for her. He becomes the target of a number of metahumans who have personal grudges against him (he locked up a number of criminals who become affected by the accelerator) and has an innate distrust of Dr. Wells. He forms an unlikely friendship with Cisco when he decides to investigate Nora Allen's death without Barry,

Dr. Caitlin Snow - One of the lead research scientists at S.T.A.R. Labs, she lost her fiance in the accelerator accident and has been in mourning since. Unfortunately for her, Iris digs up stories of a man wandering the streets of Central City, able to engulf himself in flame, and she realizes it is her lost love. She assists Barry with understanding the medical aspects surrounding his transformation and the transformation and abilities of other metahumans in Central City. She is very stiff and usually unemotional,

Dr. Harrison Wells - The owner of S.T.A.R. Labs, he was a respected physicist until his particle accelerator malfunctioned and caused damage to Central City and led to the rise of metahumans. Wheelchair bound since the night of the accident, he is hiding numerous secrets from his S.T.A.R. Labs team, not the least of which is that he has access to a secret room in S.T.A.R. Labs that includes an interface that is technology centuries ahead of anything else. He pushes Barry Allen to be the best possible Flash he can,

Cisco Ramon - The enthusiastic, geeky junior researcher at S.T.A.R. Labs, he is one of the few members of the staff who remained after the accident. As Barry's abilities developed, he began to give nicknames to the adversaries Barry encountered and he became wary of Barry's abilities. Seeing how every other metahuman became demented and evil with their powers, Cisco developed a cold gun to stop Barry should The Flash ever go off the rails. Unfortunately, his prototype was stolen and that leaves Cisco and the Flash (as well as Cisco's brother) at the mercy of a cold thief who wants to continue robbing Central City. Cisco builds most of the tech The Flash needs, including his suit,

and Detective Eddie Thawne - Joe West's partner on the Central City Police Force, he is young, focused, and romantically involved with Iris West. After dating for a while, he ask iris to move in with him and comes clean with Joe, who is worried about having the extra relationship factor to worry about in his relationship with his partner. Before long, Eddie notices the metahuman problem and becomes aware of the Flash's true identity.

The Flash utilizes its character mix well and it manages to use the cast fairly impressively. Jesse L. Martin plays Joe well, though the character is often used as a tool for exposition (Joe is baffled by the technobabble about the Metahuman Of The Week, so other explain it to him with analogies or simpler, clearer, terms). Tom Cavanaugh plays Harrison Wells with erudition and authority, making his character's rise out of the wheelchair at the end of the first episode absolutely chilling.

The cast for The Flash is young in its first season, though, and while Cisco Ramon is cool and infused with the necessary enthusiasm and energy by Carlos Valdes, Valdes seldom finds the balance that makes the viewer believe that Ramon is a super-genius who applies a scientific method to his reasoning. Danielle Panabaker plays Dr. Snow with a stiffness that makes her seem more Vulcan than human and that plays poorly throughout the first season.

The ensemble for The Flash is led in its first season by actor Grant Gustin. Gustin is energetic and gets through the technobabble well. At least as importantly, Gustin quickly adapts to working with virtual objects, people, and sets to help sell the fantastic world that surrounds the flash. Gustin is also able to emote well with his eyes and facial expressions to portray beautifully the longing Allen has for Iris West.

Ultimately, anyone looking for the start of the next great character-driven superhero epic would be well-served by picking up The Flash Season 1; it is surprisingly smart for a show that aired on the CW!

For a more complete guide to the first season of The Flash, be sure to check out my reviews of each of the episodes of the first season at:
"City Of Heroes"
"Fastest Man Alive"
"Things You Can't Outrun"
"Going Rogue"
"Plastique"
"The Flash Is Born"
"Power Outage"
"Flash Vs. Arrow"
"The Man In The Yellow Suit"
"Revenge Of The Rogues"
"The Sound And The Fury"
"Crazy For You"
"The Nuclear Man"
"Fallout"
"Out Of Time"
"Rogue Time"
"Tricksters"
"All Star Team Up"
"Who Is Harrison Wells?"
"The Trap"
"Grodd Lives"
"Rogue Air"
"Fast Enough"

For other works from the 2014 – 2015 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Orange Is The New Black - Season 3
Sense8 - Season 1
Grace And Frankie - Season 1
Agent Carter - Season 1
Daredevil - Season 1
The Newsroom - Season 3
House Of Cards - Season 3
Doctor Who - Season 8
True Blood - Season 7
”Shadows” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The Walking Dead - Season 5

7/10

For other television and movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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“Fastest Man Alive” Comes At A Price

The Good: Most of the acting is good, Special effects, Moments of character
The Bad: Some seriously cliché character moments, Very predictable plot arc
The Basics: The inconsistent abilities of Barry Allen as The Flash are explored more in “Fastest Man Alive,” which is more satisfying than it is actually good.


Today DC Entertainment made an announcement that nailed home the crux of my issue with the DC Cinematic Universe. DC Comics is in bed with Warner Brothers Studios and DC Entertainment has been slow to catch up to the Marvel Cinematic Universe when it comes to producing franchises. DC Entertainment and Warner Brothers have a critical flaw with their approach: they segregate the television and film enterprises. So, while the pilot episode of The Flash (reviewed here!) featured a brief trip to Ferris Aircraft in a clear allusion to Green Lantern (reviewed here!), Ryan Reynolds will not be making any appearances as Hal Jordan to the television series. The segregation of projects almost immediately undermines Grant Gustin as he establishes himself as Barry Allen in The Flash as DC Entertainment announced today that Ezra Miller will play the Flash in a movie. Given how white Miller is, he can’t play Wally West to maintain a sense of continuity with the television incarnation of The Flash.

The reason the news of Miller being cast as The Flash for the movies so preoccupies me as I consider the second episode of The Flash, “Fastest Man Alive,” is that it lessens some of the emotional impact for the concept of the character and the impending film franchise. No matter how much time and emotional energy we invest in the development of Barry Allen as he grows and develops in The Flash, when we go to the theaters, there will be some cheap, truncated version of his arc to try to lure newbies in. This is ironic because in “Fastest Man Alive” there comes another concept added into the story of Barry Allen that seems rushed. In “City Of Heroes,” Barry Allen very quickly adapted to having sudden spurts of super-speed. In “Fastest Man Alive,” Allen’s super-speed comes with a price; the speed leaves him drained of energy. The thing is, just as by the end of the first episode Barry Allen was able to regulate his super-speed at will (wouldn’t it have been cooler if his body was like a capacitor and when the Speed Force within him reached a certain level, accelerating to super-speed was an involuntary reaction?!), almost as soon as his new limitation is introduced, the problem is solved in “Fastest Man Alive.”

All that said, despite some cliché moments, “Fastest Man Alive” is actually a good episode of television and it stands well on its own. As “City Of Heroes” insinuated, Barry Allen is not the only one who was affected by the breakdown of the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator and the surviving team from S.T.A.R. Labs and Barry Allen begin to hunt down the other metahumans born from that accident.

Barry Allen’s work with Harrison Wells and S.T.A.R. Labs is keeping him running all around Central City. Devoting time to things like rescuing people trapped in a burning building, the legend of the red blur begins to grow. For Barry Allen, that comes with two almost immediate prices: his relationship with his lifelong friend and might-as-well-be sister Iris West needs his help with a writing project for the Central City newspaper (and he keeps missing appointments) and he runs out of energy. While accompanying Iris to an award ceremony for noted biologist Simon Stagg, a group of armed robbers come in and hold the guests at gunpoint. Rescuing the security guard and knocking out a number of the armed assailants, Barry Allen suddenly finds himself crashing.

Dr. Snow lets Barry know that his glucose levels are crashing; his super-speed and heightened metabolism require him to consume massive amounts of calories. Hitting the wall robs Barry Allen of more than just energy; he loses his confidence. Investigating the attempt on Stagg’s life, Detective West learns that Barry Allen’s alter-ego has been busy around Central City. In trying to protect Barry Allen, West inadvertently opens old wounds between the two. But soon, West must depend upon Barry because the metahuman who is after Simon Stagg has the ability to spontaneously replicate himself and control his replicants. Unwilling to put the Central City Police Force in jeopardy against Danton Black and his legion of selves, Joe Allen asks his adoptive son to step-up and protect Simon Stagg and the city.

Diehard fans of the comic book The Flash will recognize Danton Black as, essentially, a permutation of Mob Rule, the first Flash villain when DC rebooted with its New-52 concept. Presented like Agent Smith in The Matrix Reloaded (reviewed here!) or that on mutant from X-Men III: The Last Stand (reviewed here!) who did essentially the same thing, Danton Black is not given as much depth as Clyde Mardon in “City Of Heroes.” Professionally screwed over by Simon Stagg, Danton Black is given a simplistic revenge story that does not pop.

Fortunately, the real focus of “Fastest Man Alive” is Barry Allen. Grant Gustin continues to feel very much like Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man (reviewed here!) with less attitude. In “Fastest Man Alive,” Gustin gives a very generic emotional outburst as Barry confronts Joe. Fortunately, Gustin manages to recover the emotional resonance of the episode with an uncommon scene late in the episode where he apologizes and notes all of the ways that Joe West has been a father to Barry. Gustin plays off the seasoned Jesse L. Martin and Martin is impossible to upstage. Perhaps the best performance of the episode comes from Martin emoting with his eyes alone in reaction to Gustin’s well-delivered monologue.

“Fastest Man Alive” expands the supplemental characters as best the episode can while managing to stay focused and tight. Harrison Wells is given the end of the episode again, in more of an activist role than he had in “City Of Heroes.” Both Dr. Snow and Cisco have moments, but the bulk of the episode (when it is not a generic “freak of the week” pursuit) is focused on the relationship between Barry Allen and Joe West.

The Flash is entertaining and engaging enough through “Fastest Man Alive,” but it seems like the most original ideas being presented in the series are quickly established and then undermined. If The Flash was expected to have a short half-life, the recasting for the movies would make sense; as it is the television series seems like it is using movie pacing for a medium where aspects could be better developed.

For other works with William Sadler, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Iron Man 3
Man On A Ledge
Wonderfalls
“Extreme Measures” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
“Inquisition” - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into The Flash - The Complete First Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the debut season here!
Thanks!]

6.5/10

For other television and movie reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Much Tougher Sell Of Iron Man 3

The Good: Great effects, Good pacing, Moments of character.
The Bad: Nothing audacious on the acting front, Somewhat predictable.
The Basics: Kicking off the next round of Marvel Universe movies, Iron Man 3 is an awkward continuation to the story of Tony Stark as Iron Man.


Even as a fan, as a general rule, of super hero films, it is hard not to go into Iron Man 3 with a sense of trepidation. After all, Iron Man 3 follows The Avengers (reviewed here!) and with that being a sweeping film with world-shaking, epic consequences that required a whole team to thwart, it seems like it would be a step back to return to a single hero doing his own thing. The danger, of course, coming off a film like The Avengers is that the threat to the character is difficult to create in a compelling way. If the hero finds themselves overwhelmed, the audience will naturally ask, “Why doesn’t Tony Stark just call his Avengers buddies back up to help him?” (One can almost hear Thor complaining to his swordmates about the folks with fantastic powers he fought with on Earth, lamenting that his old friends from Asgaard seem pretty stale by comparison.). Conversely, if the threat is not big enough, it is virtually impossible to care. Iron Man 3 effectively wrestles with those problems by working Tony Stark to the point where he is forced to accept that no man, least of all him, is an island.

IronMan 3 straddles the problem by focusing, as much as possible, on Tony Stark – the man outside the suit. The result is a film that makes what appears to be the secondary villain, in this case Aldrich Killian, more important as the villain who is initially characterized as the primary. Just as when Batman Returns (reviewed here!) was initially released, the hype surrounded Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer, but going back and rewatching the film now, it is Christopher Walken’s Max Shrek who stands out as having a surprisingly large presence in the film, Iron Man 3 seems to be hyping Sir Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin, when it is Guy Pearce’s role as Aldrich Killian who actually has a substantive adversarial role in the movie. Just as in Iron Man 2 (reviewed here!), Tony Stark had to contend with Justin Hammer as a business competitor, Killian appears in Iron Man 3 developing technologies that unsettle Tony Stark and Pepper Potts (who is running Stark Industries).

Following the attack on New York by Loki and his interstellar minions, Tony Stark returns to his life with the feeling that his life is not all it can be. Having been a part of a team, Stark seems to realize that he is not the sole Alpha in the world and that leaves him unsettled. As he works on developing a new thought-responsive Iron Man suit, the United States is rocked by attacks from the mysterious terrorist, The Mandarin. In addition to shooting bombing Mann's Chinese Theater - an attack which seriously wounds Happy - the Mandarin marshals forces that level Tony Stark’s mansion. Maya Hansen, who confides to Pepper Potts that she believes her boss, Killian, is working with the Mandarin, uses the confusion following the attack on Stark's mansion to abduct Potts. Stark’s ally Rhodey comes to the defense of the United States as the newly revamped Iron Patriot.

With Stark adrift in Tennessee, looking for the origins of the Mandarin when he finds that some explosions domestically mirror the heat signatures from the Mandarin's untraceable bombs, Rhodey falls into the trap laid by the Mandarin. But in tracking the Mandarin, Tony learns the villain is not all he appears to be and the real adversary has built an army even he alone cannot hope to stop.

Iron Man 3 is satisfying in that there are real consequences to Tony Stark’s ego lingering from The Avengers. Stark is shaken and moody and his relationship with Pepper Potts has not solved all of his emotional problems. The time that Iron Man 3 spends focused on Tony Stark’s internal struggle is time well-spent. Stark makes for a compelling character when he is not brazenly baiting the Mandarin or being a cocky douche to Killian (by now, shouldn’t Stark realize that other people are up for the same contracts and have their own ideas on how to save the world?!), the movie presents that well.

Unfortunately, for those looking mostly for the compelling character study, Iron Man 3 is far too erratic. Instead, the movie turns to plot twists pertaining to trying to find the Mandarin (and later in the film, Pepper Potts), staving off A.I.M. and Killian, and making the film action-packed with big aerial battles and conflicts that degenerate into familiar chase/combat sequences. Those bits are certainly good, but they are hardly substantive or surprising. In fact, the action sequences in Iron Man 3 - while technically adept with the CG-effects – are hardly the most thrilling seen in a Marvel-based movie (or even an Iron Man film!).

As for the acting, it is a decided mixed bag. I was excited to see one of my perennial favorites, William Sadler in the substantive, but too brief role of Sal Kennedy. Sadler has the bearing and innate dignity to play the President and to see him do so in Iron Man 3 was a real treat. In a similar vein, Guy Pearce is good as Killian. Coming off Prometheus (reviewed here!), where he played an aged genius industrialist, Killian is hardly a stretch for his performing talents. Still, he fills the role well and he holds his own as far as gravitas opposite Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark very well. Moreover, Pearce and co-star Rebecca Hall (Maya Hansen) play off one another well. Their interplay makes their professional relationship entirely credible.

Sir Ben Kingsley is appropriately formidable as The Mandarin. While I usually associate him with the strong dignity of Gandhi, the anger and menace he presents as The Mandarin seems entirely unsurprising and well within the emotional range he can convincingly present. Kingsley makes for a good villain and the twist he presents is credible due to his performance. Even so, like so much in Iron Man 3 his performance seems familiar and smooth as opposed to surprising and new.

As for the rest of the performances, they are fluid and familiar. Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow are returning for their fourth times as Tony Stark and Pepper Pots. Don Cheadle retakes the mantle of James Rhodes, War Machine, Iron Patriot in a seamless way and Jon Favreau makes it through his scenes as Happy Hogan without projecting an attitude like “I could have directed this” (Shane Black directed this outing). All of them are good, but for Iron Man 3 they are hitting the consistency of returning to the screen characters who are more familiar than growing in challenging new ways.

Ultimately, Iron Man 3 will do what fans expect and it makes for a good action-adventure thriller, but it is lacking in a timeless quality that general moviegoers might want for their $8 (or more)!

For other movies based upon the Marvel comic books, please check out my reviews of:
Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One
Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance
Captain America: The First Avenger
X-Men: First Class
Thor
The Incredible Hulk
Spider-Man 3
Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer
Blade: Trinity
Elektra
Daredevil

6.5/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

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Man On A Ledge Might Be Simple, But It Is Engaging!

The Good: Decent story, Good acting
The Bad: Light on character development, Light on DVD bonus features
The Basics: Man On A Ledge is an improbable thriller that has more to it than the trailers revealed!


Every once in a while, I enjoy a real “flight of fantasy” movie. I’m not talking about the type of movie that happens in a mythical setting or involves creatures that do not exist in real life. No, I’m talking about a movie set in the very real world where events progress in an entirely unrealistic way to give us a moment’s escape from the cold, harsh reality of our world. Last night, I discovered that with Man On A Ledge.

Man On A Ledge was a movie I actually actively avoided when it was in the theaters. The previews seemed far too revealing to me (and, objectively, they show far too much of the movie to have left me actually surprised at any point in Man On A Ledge) and that sort of preview is a real pet peeve of mine. So, when I could watch it more casually now that it is out on DVD, I took the opportunity to watch Man On A Ledge and I was pleasantly surprised. Man On A Ledge has a little bit more going on than the trailers let on and despite the utterly fantastic nature of the chain of events, Man On A Ledge is actually an enjoyable, diverting film.

After having his last meal at a hotel in New York City, Nick Cassidy steps out onto a ledge. Moments later, police arrive and he has a single request for them, bring negotiator Lydia Mercer or he will jump. Mercer comes and begins to talk Cassidy down, while he withholds from her who he actually is. A month prior, Nick Cassidy was in prison and his final appeal was denied, so his twenty-five year sentence is going to be upheld. When his father dies, he is granted a furlough to attend the funeral and there he steals the gun from the guard and escapes.

Now, as Nick Cassidy stands out on the hotel ledge, he is acting as a distraction for his brother Joey and Joey’s girlfriend, Angie. Joey and Angie are breaking into the diamond exchange owned by David Englander across the street. Englander, Mercer learns when she identifies Nick, is the man who got Nick locked away, supposedly for stealing a massive diamond, chopping it up and selling it off. As Nick tries to keep the media focus on him, he pleads with Mercer to believe his story, a story that reveals a web of corrupt cops working as Englander’s private security. With Englander and his police closing in on Nick and his team, Mercer follows the clues to learn the truth about Nick’s conviction and Englander’s machinations.

Man On A Ledge is very plot-focused. This is a thriller that focuses very closely on a chain of events, delivering facts as necessary to create a very plot-driven story. Nick Cassidy does not grow or change or develop over the course of the story and Lydia Mercer does not really develop either. Instead, this is intended as a gritty reality-type situation where Nick uses the last tools he has to try to expose David Englander’s deceptions. The film hinges a lot on characters who share a lot of information about events that the viewer is never privy to. In other words, many of the characters are actually motivated by Internal Affairs investigations over events not at all related to Nick Cassidy being on the ledge. And they come up as is convenient.

Given the lack of character development, almost the entire film is about plot; what is happening now, why is it happening, where is the movie going . . . Man On A Ledge does not try to be something deep and smart or clever outside itself. This is a film that is trying simply to tell a story and it is engaging. Well before the end, the viewer becomes invested in Nick Cassidy. Early on in the film it is established that there are really only two ways that Man On A Ledge can end: he comes in voluntarily or he does not. Whether or not Nick Cassidy lives or dies truly becomes interesting to the viewer because of the extreme efforts so many people are going through to save his life. Long before Man On A Ledge ends, the viewer wants to know which way it will go.

I attribute the success of Man On A Ledge to the cast. Sam Worthington is good as Nick Cassidy, easily playing a plausible convict. He has enough screen presence to make it obvious almost from the first moment he steps out onto the ledge that he is not distraught and not actually intending to jump. Sure, the previews all ruined that aspect of the movie, but Worthington sells it now that there is no hype for the movie. Anthony Mackie plays off Worthington very well and it seems entirely plausible in the ease of their performances that their characters could have been partners in the past.

Man On A Ledge might tip its hand by casting the always-amazing William Sadler to the apparently minor role of the valet, but it makes up for it with the perfect casting of Edward Burns, Ed Harris and Titus Welliver. Elizabeth Banks is fine as Lydia Mercer, but having just watched her by going through all of the bonus features on Zack And Miri Make A Porno (reviewed here), it seems like director Asger Leth cast her for the role, but didn’t make her stretch in any way. Banks is good, Mercer is not one of her more memorable roles and it is not at all an unfamiliar performance from her. In other words, she is well-cast, but not acting excessively well in Man On A Ledge.

Ironically, then, it is Elizabeth Banks who delivers the only decent DVD bonus feature on Man On A Ledge. Man On A Ledge comes with exceptionally few bonus features. After a single preview, the main menu comes up and there is a featurette (“The Ledge”) and a second feature where Elizabeth Banks provides commentary for the theatrical trailer to Man On A Ledge. Her commentary consists mostly of gushing over Sam Worthington’s body and admitting that she would tap Ed Harris, with jokes about Genesis Roderiguez not wearing much. She is very funny and she takes the somewhat ridiculous assignment for what it is and delivers an entertaining two minutes that does not quite justify the expense of the DVD.

Ultimately, Man On A Ledge is diverting and worth watching, even if it is not in any fashion, enduringly great.

For other works featuring Sam Worthington, check out my reviews of:
Wrath Of The Titans
Clash Of The Titans
Avatar
Terminator: Salvation

7/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of all my movie reviews!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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