Intersitial Tissue: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Two Holds Together The Marvel Cinematic Universe!

The Good: Generally decent acting, Moments that develop the characters, Special effects
The Bad: Predictable plot, New characters are pretty dull
The Basics: Returning for the second season, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. tries to straddle the divide between the established Marvel Cinematic Universe and the forthcoming The Inhumans.


As the world waits with enthusiasm for the cinematic release of Ant-Man, I thought it was a good time to look back at the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Those who are invested in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are acutely aware of how the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been doing the heavy lifting of keeping viewers engaged during one of the longer theatrical hiatuses of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While last summer had the theatrical release of Guardians Of The Galaxy (reviewed here!), the off-planet adventure felt more like a tangent to the Marvel Cinematic Universe than an integral part of it (ironically, the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. makes some connections between Guardians Of The Galaxy and the earthbound Marvel Cinematic Universe when the Lady Sif pops back up and the Kree are heavily referenced. But since last year's Captain America: The Winter Soldier (reviewed here!) and this year's The Avengers: Age Of Ultron (reviewed here!), the present-tense, Earthbound Marvel Cinematic Universe has rested on the shoulders of the Clark Gregg-led spy drama.

Unfortunately, in its second season Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is put in the awkward position of trying to tell its own story, which picks up where the first season (reviewed here!) ended and laying the groundwork for the 2019 film The Inhumans, which was announced early in 2014. At the peak of its own storyline, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is compelled to take a narrative detour to accommodate The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is painfully utilized as an accessory to the big plot surprise near the climax of the film and the struggle to make that incongruent element fit into the story being told in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. exemplifies well how the television series is simply being used as an advertising tool for the blockbuster film franchise. It's unfortunate because the best moments of the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. are the more insular ones, where the show is striking out in its own direction as opposed to belaboring fitting into the prior stories or foreshadowing the eventual super hero team that Marvel will introduce in its Phase 3 series.

Picking up months after Phil Coulson was passed the mantle of Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson's team is splintered and working to recover as much S.H.I.E.L.D. material as it can from both rogue, former, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and H.Y.D.R.A. assets. While Agents May and Skye execute Coulson's orders in the field, Fitz struggles to be useful to the S.H.I.E.L.D. team after suffering brain damage at the hands of Grant Ward. Coulson is not actively involved in field work now, but he is trying to find and hire back S.H.I.E.L.D.-loyal agents, including Mack who works in the Engineering division and keeps an eye on Fitz. Coulson's missions are centered around securing dangerous artifacts that have made it back out into the world and his team encounters an obelisk that transforms those who touch it into stone. The obelisk is being pursued by an apparently immortal HYDRA leader named Daniel Whitehall and Skye's father, Calvin Zabo.

Coulson's self-imposed isolation is related to his uncontrollable need to carve symbols into any nearby surface . . . a condition that is common with all those who have been treated with the alien GH serum (which was used to resurrect Coulson and treat Skye when she was mortally wounded in the first season). The symbols lead Coulson's team, including Bobbi Morse and the rogue Lance Hunter, to a subterranean alien city in San Jaun. There, Skye and Raina encounter the contents of the diviner (the obelisk) and transforming. That leads Skye to seek out the community of others who have been so transformed, while Coulson is betrayed from within his ranks by agents who believe that Coulson is not the rightful director of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

The idea that Phil Coulson is not universally accepted as the rightful Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is an intriguing one and it leads to some of the season's best character moments. The new Agents, like Mack and Bobbi, are caught between their loyalty to the idea of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the two executions of it. Bobbi Morse has allegiance to Robert Gonzales, who leads the alternate director's council to the other, "real," S.H.I.E.L.D. Despite the action sequences that imply that Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. will degenerate into all fighting, one of the most distinctive aspects of the second season of the show is that the characters step up to solve their problems through a sense of reason and loyalty to the ideals they swore to uphold.

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

Director Phil Coulson – Plagued by involuntary visions that point to the idea that he is being influenced by aliens, he carves out plans that lead him on a worldwide hunt for an alien temple. He is disturbed by what is being done to him, but he pursues the leads to prevent HYDRA from getting ahold of the power it represents and because he learns of his own involvement in the GH experiments. He becomes the subject of Calvin Zabo's wrath when he works to save his team from HYDRA. After getting Skye to safety, he goes toe to toe with the alternate S.H.I.E.L.D.,

Agent Melinda May – A martial arts expert and Coulson’s right hand, she remains loyal to Coulson, executing his will now that he is Director. She is now Skye's supervising officer and she even opens lines of communication up with her ex-husband in order to find out what Skye is when it becomes clear she has been altered in the alien temple. When Morse betrays Coulson, she remains loyal and works to find a peace between the two spy organizations,

Fitz – No longer brilliant, he struggles to be useful to Coulson and his team. He opens up to Mack, even though he has hallucinations of Simmons. He is furious when he learns that Ward is in captivity in Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, but he does everything he can to protect Coulson and his secrets when Gonzales makes his power play,

Jemma Simmons – After Fitz is wounded and Ward is captured, she takes a long-term assignment infiltrating HYDRA. Her position puts her in grave danger when HYDRA's security agent, Morse, becomes suspicious of her. She is also put in danger when Whitehall's HYDRA cell assigns her to bring Donnie Gill in,

Agent Skye – Now a full-fledged S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent working for May and Coulson, she becomes the liaison to the imprisoned Grant Ward. She is manipulated by Ward, Raina and her father into a meeting with Calvin. Following her experience in San Juan, she flees S.H.I.E.L.D. for an isolated community of altered humans who have becomes something Inhuman,

Grant Ward – No longer an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., he becomes an asset to HYDRA when he escapes from Coulson's facility and kills his own brother. He finds a brainwashed S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and together they get their own kind of revenge on HYDRA,

Raina – The Woman In The Flower Dress, she is hunting the diviner, while working for Calvin. Her self-preservation instinct allows her to survive Whitehall, but in San Juan, she gets transformed in an unexpected way and has problems dealing with it,

Agent Triplett - One of Coulson's most loyal assets and the grandson of one of the Howling Commandoes, he remains determined to stop HYDRA. He willingly assists Coulson's team in trying to destroy the alien temple under San Juan,

Agent Lance Hunter - Bobbi Morse's ex-husband, he is an agent that has no real allegiance to S.H.I.E.L.D. until Coulson gives him something bigger to believe in,

Mack - A loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent who works in Coulson's engineering division. His ambition is to get Coulson to trust him enough to allow him to work on Lola. He is kind and patient with Fitz. In San Juan, he is possessed within the Temple by an alien intelligence. After that, he buries himself in his work and tries to keep everyone he can safe after S.H.I.E.L.D. fractures,

And Bobbi Morse - The Mockingbird, she is an adept field agent. After blowing her cover as a long-term operative within a HYDRA cell, she comes to work for Coulson, while hiding her true allegiance to Gonzales. She is a match for May and when Gonzales makes his power play, she advocates for her leader to put some trust in Coulson. She has an on-again, off-again relationship with Hunter.

Throughout the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., the performances are generally good. The season gives Chloe Bennet and Iain De Caestecker the chance to show more range than they did in the first season. The established cast members make room for newcomers Henry Simmons (Mack), Nick Blood (Hunter) and Adrianne Palicki (Morse), but only Simmons is given enough of an arc to show off real range in the second season. Recurring guest stars like Kyle MacLachlan (Calvin), Edward James Olmos (Gonzales) and Dichen Lachman (Jiaying) easily gel with the main cast.

In its second season, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. feels like it is stuck between two worlds as the disparate elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe tug at it. The pieces that are unique to Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. are straightforward and dramatic with surprisingly little flair or "hook" for a show that Joss Whedon has involvement in. Even so, the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is an improvement on the first, even if it is not exceptional in any way.

For a better understanding of the components of the sophmore season, please visit my reviews of each of the episodes in the second season episodes of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. at:
“Shadows”
“Heavy Is The Head”
“Making Friends And Influencing People”
"I Will Face My Enemy"
“A Hen In The Wolfhouse”
“A Fractured House”
“The Writing On The Wall”
“The Things We Bury”
“Ye Who Enter Here”
“What They Become”
“Aftershocks”
“Who You Really Are”
“One Of Us”
“Love In The Time Of HYDRA”
“One Door Closes”
“Afterlife”
"Melinda"
“Frenemy Of My Enemy”
“The Dirty Half Dozen”
“Scars”
“S.O.S. Part 1”
“S.O.S. Part 2”

For other works from the 2014 – 2015 television season, please check out my reviews of:
The Flash - Season 1
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
The Walking Dead - Season 5

6.5/10

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

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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So Much In Transition, "Scars" Acts As A Weird Splinter Point For The Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Good: Progresses the periferal characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Bad: Derivative, Focuses om way too many characters (none sufficiently), An obvious bridge episode
The Basics: "Scars" tries to keep Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. relevant after The Avengers: Age Of Ultron while getting steamrollered by the foreshadowing for The Inhumans!


As the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. reaches its peak, it has an interesting series of challenges accompanying it. Despite leading directly into the latest Marvel blockbuster, The Avengers: Age Of Ultron (reviewed here!), the show has not been getting much respect. As well,Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is doing all it can to try to top the first season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (reviewed here!). With "Scars," it is hard not to start feeling like Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is just being used as an advertising tool for forthcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe projects. "Scars" formally introduces the concepts necessary for the world to (eventually) embrace an Inhumans movie!

Picking up after The Avengers: Age Of Ultron and "The Dirty Half Dozen" (reviewed here!), "Scars" works hard to connect to the known Marvel Cinematic Universe while foreshadowing what is yet to come. Unfortunately, with all of the external elements influencing it, "Scars" almost forgets to bother with the main characters from Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (outside Skye).

Flashing back to the time when Coulson took over S.H.I.E.L.D. and began Theta Protocol, which was apparently just him secreting away the Helicarier used in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Coulson resumes control over S.H.I.E.L.D. in the present. Simmons finishes removing the H.Y.D.R.A. protocols from Kira (Agent 33). Back at Jiaying's compound, Raina's premonitions lead Gordon to suspect that the Kree, who created the Mist that transformed Skye, Raina, and others, might have an agenda that remains active. In the bowels of Gonzales's ship, Gordon and Raina discover the pitted alien artifact, which liquefies and reforms in front of them. Skye explains the Inhumans to May and Coulson and when Gordon and Raina return to the Inhumans's secluded location, they are confronted by Jiaying and Calvin.

When Coulson sends Skye back to Jiaying, Raina forsees Afterlife under attack by S.H.I.E.L.D. and she proposes to Gordon that she communicate with Coulson. Unable to reconcile Coulson's leadership with the alien blood that resurrected him, Mack resigns from S.H.I.E.L.D. as Gonzales leads a S.H.I.E.L.D. team to Afterlife. When Kira's true allegiances pop up, the mission to make peace with the Inhumans takes a turn for the worse for all involved.

"Scars" plays with the idea that Raina now is a legitimate clairvoyant and seems to have the series splintering off. Even without recent news that Bobbi Morse and Agent Lance Hunter are being set up for a spin-off, Bobbi Morse's place in the episode does very little to advance the main plot. "Scars" has her relegated to a background character with a vague, soap opera-like character arc (she is waiting for Hunter to start talking with her again). In fact, Mack's departure from S.H.I.E.L.D. in "Scars" is a bigger character moment than anything Morse has had in the last several episodes.

Jiaying and Calvin dominate "Scars." As Daisy's (Skye's) parents, they have scenes that are conversations that finally make the two characters pop; their conversations are insular to themselves. They have a legitimate relationship that does not revolve simply around the plot of "Scars" and that finally makes their characters interesting to watch. Cal gets the episode's best quips and Kyle MacLachlan and Dichen Lachman (Jiaying) have decent on-screen chemistry. They are finally given the chance to act and react as if their characters have legitimate lives outside of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Gonzales and Jiaying have an intriguing scene at the climax of the episode, but "Scars" is stuck between what has been and what is coming. The episode struggles to keep Grant Ward in the mix and his late-entry into the episode feels more forced than Jiaying's actions in the episode's crucial scene.

What struck me as "Scars" neared its end was that I neither knew where the series was going . . . nor did I care. At the peak of "Scars," it occurred to me that I can't imagine looking back at Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. from a seventh season and appreciating where the characters were in season 2 and believing they have an organic link between them. In other words, "Scars" works so hard to link to the other portions of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that it fails to create anything strong and distinctive on its own. "Scars" "reads" more like an advertisement for fans to go out and watch The Avengers: Age Of Ultron and (in the future) The Inhumans.

[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 Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season here!
Thanks!]

4/10

For other reviews of television shows, seasons and episodes, please check out my Television Review Index Page for a listing of reviews!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Cameos And A Mixed Place In The Marvel Cinematic Universe For "The Dirty Half Dozen!"

The Good: Decent performances, Engaging plot, Moments of character, Special effects
The Bad: Comparatively plot-heavy (as opposed to character-motivated)
The Basics: One of the best Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. episodes to date, "The Dirty Half Dozen" finds Coulson truly leading S.H.I.E.L.D. against H.Y.D.R.A.'s most powerful leaders!


It's a sad time for Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been carrying on the Marvel Cinematic Universe on a semi-weekly basis and, at this point, has more total hours of material than any other element or character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And yet . . . it lacks a legitimacy that allows the producers to force the blockbuster films in the franchise to accept it. To wit, the only real way that Nick Fury's cameo in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron (reviewed here!) makes any real sense is if one denies that Nick Fury gave Coulson S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "The Beginning Of The End" (reviewed here!). To that end, the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has built an unfortunately contrived fracture within the remains of S.H.I.E.L.D.

By the time "The Dirty Half Dozen" comes up, the whole idea that Coulson is the legitimate leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been so weakened thanks to the new character, Robert Gonzales, having at least as much clout, authority and resources as Director Phil Coulson. So, ironically, the people for whom Fury's part in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron will make sense are those who do not watch Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and those who are die-hard fans who understand the intricacies of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Sadly, the new film seems to count on those who deny the legitimacy of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. in that Nick Fury does not reference Coulson as aiding him to get the helicarrier out of mothballs. "The Dirty Half Dozen" works to re-establish the legitimacy of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. while doing all that the episode can to connect the television series to The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Picking up right after "The Frenemy Of My Enemy" (reviewed here!), "The Dirty Half Dozen" continues the mission that puts the splinters of S.H.I.E.L.D. up against the concentrated force of H.Y.D.R.A.

Opening with Raina having another dream premonition, Skye and Calvin are brought back to Jiaying. Gordon is barely able to escape searching for Lincoln alive. Aboard the Bus, Coulson appeals to Gonzales to go after Strucker and List and stop the H.Y.D.R.A. experiments on powered people. Dr. List has taken Lincoln and Deathlok to an Antarctic H.Y.D.R.A. base, where Mike Peterson is disabled and disconnected from his S.H.I.E.L.D. handlers. While Gonzales hears Coulson out about the mission to take the H.Y.D.R.A. base, May becomes the swing vote on whether the mission will actually happen or not. In their lab, Simmons proposes that Fitz kill Ward, then volunteers for the mission herself.

When Skye appears on the Bus, Ward tries to win the trust of Coulson's strike force by apologizing to them. At her retreat, Jiaying takes counsel from Calvin about Raina. As the Bus approaches the H.Y.D.R.A. base, Dr. List detects it and shoots it out of the sky. Using the debris field to cloak themselves, Coulson's team lands and infiltrates the H.Y.D.R.A. base. There, Simmons rescues Mike Peterson and Skye rescues Lincoln.  In the ensuing firefight, Coulson proves himself to Gozales, Simmons plays her endgame with Ward and Coulson's hidden objective is revealed.

It is ironic that The Avengers: Age Of Ultron weakens the authority of Director Phil Coulson because in "The Dirty Half Dozen," he is at his most authoritative. Following Ward apologizing to the team, Coulson regroups and takes charge in a way that he has not in the rest of the series. Just as Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has more air time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Director Coulson actually has vastly more screentime in the Marvel Cinematic Universe than Nick Fury. In "The Dirty Half Dozen," Coulson is played like he has the legitimacy of Nick Fury and the authority to lead S.H.I.E.L.D. like Fury did. Coulson is better than a cameo leader and he finally comes into his own in "The Dirty Half Dozen."

The idea that Simmons could have it in her to murder Ward is an intriguing idea and it certainly shows that her character has grown. Despite her couching her reasoning in purely professional points, "The Dirty Half Dozen" plays as a reward to fans who have waited for some emotional resolution to the Fitz/Simmons relationship. There was an obvious connection between the two characters and while Simmons never said she loved Fitz back after his admission at the climax of the first season, it is hard to deny that the relationship was not played as one-sided. Simmons pitching the assassination of Ward is a strange sign of her love for Fitz, but it actually works.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. seldom relies upon special effects for a big wow factor, but in "The Dirty Half Dozen," it has one of the coolest sequences of the series. The destruction of the Bus and the landing of the stealth quinjet is just awesome.

"The Dirty Half Dozen" is easily the most physically-demanding episode for Chloe Bennet (or her stunt double). One of the few issues with "The Dirty Half Dozen" is that director Kevin Tancharoen does not maintain a tight enough focus on Skye as she kicks ass against a half-dozen H.Y.D.R.A. agents. If you're going to have a big stunt sequence, it makes sense to make sure the viewer can see it and appreciate it. Tancharoen does not light the scene or keep Bennett framed well-enough to actually make the sequence as impressive as it ought to have been. It's unfortunate because for one scene, Skye is as efficient a fighter as Captain America or any of the other Avengers!

Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen and Elizabeth Simmons dominate "The Dirty Half Dozen." This might not be the most character-driven episode, but for those who are not fans of Brett Dalton (Grant Ward), "The Dirty Half Dozen" gives him a decent role (even if the dialogue in his big scene is pretty obvious and atrocious). If this was his exit from the series, it would be a good one.

"The Dirty Half Dozen" plays Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a direct lead-in to The Avengers: Age Of Ultron and that is fun, but it still requires the enduring element of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to pay fealty to where the series came from.

For other works directed by Kevin Tancharoen, be sure to check out my reviews of:
"One Of Us" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"All Star Team Up" - The Flash
"Face Of My Enemy" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Glee: The 3-D Concert Movie

[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 Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season here!
Thanks!]

8.5/10

For other reviews of components of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, please check out my Marvel Cinematic Universe Review Index Page for a listing of reviews from best to worst!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Might Not Need An "Afterlife" . . . But It Gets One With A Decent Episode!

The Good: Moments of character, Decent plot development, Good performances
The Bad: Serves a VERY large cast, so it feels somewhat soap operatic
The Basics: "Afterlife" continues the sprawling story of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. well-enough, with some legitimate surprises, but without truly delving into any of the characters substantively enough to be compelling.


It is a rare thing that Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. beats The Flash in my estimation. Last week, though, was one of the rare weeks where Marvel's Tuesday night television show kicked the ass of The Flash. "One Door Closes" soundly thumped "Trickters" (reviewed here!) and left Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. with the momentum coming into this week. The new episode is "Afterlife" and it manages to take the potentially disappointing end of "One Door Closes" and run with it in a good direction.

"One Door Closes" (reviewed here!) ended (not a huge spoiler) with Coulson on the run and his only immediate asset was . . . Agent Hunter. Hunter has been, arguably, the least-interesting new character on Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Hinging a major plot on him is a risky proposition, but given how "Afterlife" focuses on Coulson with Hunter as a wisecracking sidekick, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. makes it work.

Coulson attempts to buy a new car when Agent Hunter steals him a new one and the two head off to try to rescue Skye. Skye is in the care of Gordon, where she has been for two days, and he is "healing" her. Back at Coulson's headquarters, Gonzales and his S.H.I.E.L.D. cel try to figure out what is in Fury's "toolbox" and Fitz and Simmons opt to quit, rather than help him. Meanwhile, Skye learns about her Inhuman heritage from Lincoln Campbell, who tells her about the society of people who are prepared for transformation at Gordon's enclave. There, Skye is frustrated when she it told that the transition is irreversible and Gordon cannot undo what has happened to her.

Coulson and Hunter remain in the bunker designed for Bruce Banner where they await Gonzales's S.H.I.E.L.D. team. While they are able to initially incapacitate the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Gonzales's team turns the tables on them. Fortunately, Coulson has some surprise back-up and that plays remarkably well for getting him and hunter the Quinjet that they need. While Fitz abandons Simmons (based on her machinations), Skye finds Raina at the compound and that leads to both revelations and a reunion she was not expecting.

"Afterlife" is, ostensibly, the proper introduction of the Inhumans to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Skye is an Inhuman (though the difference between Mutants - X-Men - and "Inhumans" seems to be more a matter of choice and engineering at this point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and by having Gordon and his whole compound revealed, it seems like Skye is a logical transition from Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. to the announced Inhumans film that is due out in several years.

As The Avengers: Age Of Ultron looms, "Afterlife" seems to be doing exactly what fans of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe would expect. The Avengers: Age Of Ultron will feature some cataclysmic events which might fundamentally change the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. are now the most regular part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the only excuse not to have its members in the film or suffering dealing with the consequences of the film is to have the characters in this corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so overwhelmed with their own conflict and plots that they cannot possibly be involved in the events of aftermath of the big cinematic event. "Afterlife" actually sets that up incredibly well. Having a schism between Gonzales and Coulson makes for a reasonable conflict that would keep the Agents out of non-S.H.I.E.L.D. conflicts.

Because "Afterlife" has threads with Coulson, Skye, Gonzales, May, Bobbi Morse, Jiaying and Calvin and Fitz, the character element of the episode is stretched ridiculously thin. Skye learns about her nature, but the only real development comes in the rather unlikely form of Simmons. Simmons has been waffling about working around Fitz and in "Afterlife," she chooses S.H.I.E.L.D. over her lab partner. The plot-heavy nature of "Afterlife" makes it hard to develop all of the characters or give any of them significant attention.

Ironically, in the plot-heavy "Afterlife," the best performance comes from Elizabeth Henstridge. It's impossible to write about what Henstridge does as Jemma Simmons without spoiling the end of the episode, but Henstridge's performance is what sells it.

"Afterlife" is an engaging hour of television in which a lot happens, but the scatter approach makes for an episode filled with stuff, but not a lot that is easy to describe. The episode moves Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and it has some decent surprises, but it is more pulp television than great television.

For other works with Stoney Westmoreland, please check out my reviews of:
World Trade Center
Matchstick Men
"Muse" - Star Trek: Voyager

[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 Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season here!
Thanks!]

7/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Other Side Of The Island: "One Door Closes" Explores "The Real S.H.I.E.L.D.!"

The Good: Decent performances, Engaging plot, Special effects, Moments of character development
The Bad: More plot-heavy than character motivated
The Basics: "One Door Closes" answers a number of questions that have lingered in the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and it does so in a satisfying-enough way to please most fans.


One of the cool ways that Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has managed to keep the Marvel Cinematic Universe alive and well in the collective unconscious of viewers is to make allusions to the Marvel films. Chief among the Marvel films to get referenced in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is Captain America: The Winter Soldier (reviewed here!). "One Door Closes" is yet another Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode that heavily relies upon that film.

Picking up after "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." (reviewed here!), "One Door Closes" is analogous to the Lost episode "The Other 48 Days," which retold Lost from the perspective of those in the tail section of the plane. "One Door Closes" explores the post-Winter Soldier events from the perspective of Mack, Bobbi Morse and the S.H.I.E.L.D. survivors/loyalists in the immediate wake of H.Y.D.R.A. taking over S.H.I.E.L.D.

Opening during the H.Y.D.R.A. takeover of S.H.I.E.L.D., Mack is cornered by a H.Y.D.R.A. agent when he is rescued by Bobbi Morse and Agent Hartley. In the present day, Morse returns to Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. base, where she and Mack are preparing to move on Coulson's team. Simmons contacts Skye about using the new gauntlets that she designed, but discovers that Skye has not yet tried them. Coulson confronts Mack about the Chief Engineer's true loyalties and when he claims to work for S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson turns his security forces on him. At the same time, May and Bobbi square off before Morse sets off an EMP to evade May. Fitz realizes that Mack and Morse were after Vibranium that Coulson was keeping in his desk and that Morse managed to get Fury's toolbox.

As Coulson's team works to contain the two saboteurs, Skye lets the eyeless man (Gordon) into her safe house. He begins to mentor Skye about her post-mist abilities. While Simmons manages to incapacitate Morse, May discovers that Mack and Morse are not trying to escape the facility, they are helping others break in. Gonzales, Weaver and the rest of the other S.H.I.E.L.D. break into Coulson's base. They successfully take the base and that leads Coulson and Gonzales to face off for an important conversation. While they have their discussion, Morse leads the team to recover Skye.

"One Door Closes" is plot-intensive, but it finally makes decent use of Lucy Lawless. Lawless appeared early in the season and the only real disadvantage of her appearing so efficiently as Hartley in the flashback scenes is that it makes how easily she was dispatched in this season seem ridiculous. And while Hartley's character is strengthened here (and retroactively weakened), Agent Melinda May once again is illustrated to be the uber-efficient badass of Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. team. When she and Morse square off, May does what viewers of Fringe find themselves screaming for Olivia Dunham to do every time she squares off with any guy who can outrun her; she shoots at Morse to try to incapacitate her. That's efficiency and it's refreshing to see among people who are supposed to be smart, efficient, super-spies.

Coulson and Gonzales are given an interesting dynamic in "One Door Closes." Both men believe they are the head of the legitimate S.H.I.E.L.D. and much of the episode hinges on the two actors having roughly the same level of screen presence. Clark Gregg is seldom considered as being the same (or similar) caliber as Edward James Olmos, but in "One Door Closes," he illustrates that that is a conversation worth having. Gregg has a subtlety and force to him that he is able to deliver even questionable lines perfectly. To his credit, Gregg is asked to sell one of the toughest lines of the episode and he pulls it off. In fact, when Coulson says that he went looking for Gonzales after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Colson delivers the line with such intensity that only the nitpickers will sit, screaming at the screen, "Bullshit! You were chasing Garrett and never had the time!"

"One Door Closes" also enhances Morse's character by having her take an ethical stand in the takeover of the S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier and while it's refreshing to see her given some depth, it makes one question how Gonzales could actually trust her as part of her inner circle. In re-creating S.H.I.E.L.D., Gonzales would need loyal agents. Morse's first act is to take a stand that shows she cannot just take orders.

The acting in "One Door Closes" is homogeneously good, even when there is not a ton of character development in the episode. "One Door Closes" has pretty awesome special effects, though, and it has enough moments of exploring character relationships to make it one of the better episodes of the season!

For other works with Christine Adams, please check out my reviews of:
"Turn, Turn, Turn" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Seeds" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Tron: Legacy
Batman Begins
"The Long Game" - Doctor Who

[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 Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season here!
Thanks!]

8/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Ward Returns: "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A."

The Good: The few moments that focus on the main characters, Special effects
The Bad: Soap opera elements, Some poor character moments, Dull plot
The Basics: "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." is a fractured episode that underwhelms on almost every front.


As Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. progresses and racks up more airtime than any of the associated films combined, the show is belaboring to remind viewers it fits in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A.," that takes the form of significant direct allusions to Avengers of various stripes and, especially, Nick Fury, who has not been seen since the first season finale of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Oddly, for a series where most everyone seems to accept that Agent Phil Coulson is now the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., the belief that most of the remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. agents have that Nick Fury is dead (who else could have handed him the keys?!), it has taken until "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." for that to come up.

"Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." formally introduces "the real S.H.I.E.L.D.," who have only been alluded to before now. Picking up after “One Of Us” (reviewed here!), the remaining high-level S.H.I.E.L.D. agents come out of the shadows in the Mack and Mockingbird subplot. Bobbi Morse and Mack's "conspiracy" is finally revealed as they bring Hunter before Roberto Gonzales and other members of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s inner circle (Agent Weaver being the only familiar member of the group). The result is an episode that is very much split between its a- and b- plots and neither are particularly compelling.

"Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." marks the return of Grant Ward to Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the oblique references to his family mean nothing to those who have not kept up with the show. Either way, his tutelage of Agent 33 makes for a surprisingly dull plotline; Agent 33 is just another villain in a season getting more bloated by adversaries. At this point, none of the enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D. are particularly compelling.

Ward and Agent 33 kidnap a repair man to fix Agent 33's face, while aboard the Bus, May and Coulson debate taking Skye out of the field. With the nanomask repaired, Agent 33 and Ward prepare to reinvigorate H.Y.D.R.A. Elsewhere, Mack brings Hunter to "the real S.H.I.E.L.D." There, Gonzales details his concerns about how Coulson has been compromised by alien DNA and Nick Fury's methods of doing business. Coulson moves Skye to a safe house after removing her from active duty while Ward and Agent 33 make a move on General Talbot.

Talbot smartly realizes quickly that his facility has been infiltrated and he locks it down. While Talbot rounds up the women, Agent 33 takes the form of a man in his outfit and Ward gets Agent 33 in front of the H.Y.D.R.A. agent who abandoned her after Whitehall's death. That leaves the military scrambling and Talbot calls upon an unlikely person for help.

Allusions to the Hulk aside, "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." does surprisingly little to detail Skye's growing new powers. She creates earthquakes and that happens as a result of her losing emotional control. So far, in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., Skye seems like (at best) a b-rate version of the Hulk. That said, "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." does what the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been unable to do with the Hulk; Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is slowly developing a superhero (who is essentially a mutant) and experimenting with the powers and ways to limit the powers of that individual. The problem with attempting the same while making a movie focused on that character is that it is hard to make it entertaining. While I applaud the effort with Skye, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is running into a similar problem.

To fix that problem, "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." dilutes the Skye plot with the plotlines involving Mack and Agent 33. Bobbi and Hunter have, essentially, a ridiculous soap opera plotline in "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." Hunter has been a tough character to care about since he was introduced at the beginning of the season and Morse's obsession with him only serves to weaken her character. In a similar way, Talbot seems especially idiotic at moments in "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." - knowing he is looking for someone who has the ability to look like his wife, he does not wave her off from visiting the military facility to which she is headed.

"Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." is not packed with great performances, either. While the acting is (mostly) competent, it is very much below the talents of Edward James Olmos and Christine Adams to deliver the technobabble and plot exposition that they are forced to. "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." is hardly an exceptional character study and Adrianne Palicki is saddled with such a poor character arc in the episode that her acting abilities cannot make her screentime watchable. Instead, Palicki makes Morse seem like a man-obsessed woman who is unable to control "her bad boy."

The central characters who have been with Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. since the beginning are severely minimized in "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." Coulson and May have a few scenes, as do Fitz and Simmons. The only real impressive moment of character is the one where Coulson and May finally figure out that Mack cannot be trusted.

"Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A." is ultimately notable only in that Ward shows back up. Unfortunately, as he grooms Agent 33, it becomes more and more clear that his story is pretty much already done. The writers and producers of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. might be making Ward's ascent to the head of H.Y.D.R.A. a more realistically-paced endeavor, but it is hard to care. Ward wasn't a great hero and he is a mediocre villain; he's no Arvin Sloan and that makes his time on screen utterly uncompelling. Ultimately, that's where the placeholder episode "Love In The Time Of H.Y.D.R.A" falls.

For other works with Kirk Acevedo, please check out my reviews of:
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
The Walking Dead - Season Four
Fringe

[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 Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season here!
Thanks!]

4/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Partial Payoff, Partial Tease, “Aftershocks” Advances Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

The Good: Performances, Moments of character, Mood, Special effects
The Bad: Plot is virtually non-existent.
The Basics: Likely working better in context, “Aftershocks” reflects on the powerful events of the prior episode while making minimal exploration of the fundamental characters of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D..


Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns at an awkward time. After weeks of being pre-empted by the period spy show Agent Carter, also set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and at a time when House Of Cards fans are still binging on the just-released season three (reviewed here!), Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. finally returns to television.

Given the climactic events of “What They Become” (reviewed here!), the new episode of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., comes in at an awkward position. The burden on “Aftershocks” is to illustrate that the investment viewers have had in Skye is a good one. Since the first season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., there has been the tease that Skye is something other than human. Her father, introduced in the second season, has been teased as being non-human as well and in “What They Become,” it seemed that Skye would make a dramatic transformation, which would reveal her true nature. “Aftershocks” was set up to explore what Skye was after encountering the Obelisk in the alien temple . . . and it ends up as more of a tease than a payoff for the faith viewers have had. Even so, it is remarkably satisfying on the level of human drama than many spy shows after cataclysmic events.

Opening in 1983 in a laboratory where Gordon, an eyeless young man who inexplicably teleports around his cell, Jiaying is revealed to be a shepherd of people who have undergone such dramatic transformations. Skye wakes up in quarantine where she mourns the loss of Trip. There, Coulson commits to bringing down H.Y.D.R.A. and declaring their mission a success – whatwith Whitehall being killed. While H.Y.D.R.A. meets to consider a successor to Whitehall within their organization, Raina, altered by her encounter with the obelisk, kills S.H.I.E.L.D. workers to escape the alien temple.

Simmons blows the temple and Coulson reassembles his team to hunt H.Y.D.R.A. Coulson prepares to trade Bakshi for information on H.Y.D.R.A. with Talbot, when he and May are waylaid by a truck. Setting Bakshi up to lure Coulson’s team back to their H.Y.D.R.A. base, Simmons returns to base where she compares Skye’s blood with Raina’s altered DNA. Raina, for her part, reunites with Calvin Zabo (Skye’s father) where she questions exactly what has happened to her. Hunter leads Morse to H.Y.D.R.A.’s headquarters, where Bakshi attempts to kill him and Morse. In the ensuing showdown, H.Y.D.R.A.’s leadership turns on each other creating a power vacuum.

“Aftershocks” makes it very hard for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to no entirely accept mutants. While Quicksilver and the Scarlett Witch were seen in the post-credits scene to the otherwise grounded Captain America: The Winter Soldier (reviewed here!), the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been largely unable to utilize or acknowledge the Fox-owned Marvel X-Men mutants. “Aftershocks” entirely shakes up the real-world formula of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Gordon, Raina and Skye. The burden it puts on the Marvel Cinematic Universe is to explain how wealthy, powerful, brilliant, and well-informed individuals like Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and Nick Fury would not know about “mutants” in the next major Marvel movie.

On the character front, Mac asserts himself as one of the more interesting characters of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. in “Aftershocks.” Mac, who was possessed in the prior two episodes leads Fitz to an oblique reference to “Yes Men” (reviewed here!), takes an episode that is packed with supernatural/extraordinary and roots it with a realistic character that is very appealing to the audience. Mac grounds the audience well and he makes the episode far more accessible – even if his key scene is interrupted by Skye having a telekinetic incident.

The confrontation between Raina and Zabo is an intriguing one. While Zabo is now obsessed with revenge on Coulson because Coulson robbed him of the opportunity to kill Whitehall, Raina seeks guidance. Raina has been transformed into a mutant with porcupine spines and Zabo implies that she has the ability to change her form or control her mutations, which keeps Raina in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. as a wild card.

“Aftershocks” is notable in that its tone is a clear departure from the action-adventure tone of prior episodes. Instead, Coulson’s team is reeling from the death of Tripp and their sense of loss is expressed by every member of the team. Each of the performers in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is given a moment to plumb the emotional depths of their characters. “Aftershocks” gives both Chloe Bennet and Iain De Caestecker the chance to truly let loose in ways they have not previously. Bennet plays Skye as afraid and suspicious in a somewhat minimalist way that plays to her talents.

Iain De Caestecker has had the biggest transformation in his performance of Fitz over the course of the series. After delivering mostly technobabble in the first season, De Caestecker has spent the first several episodes of the second season essentially in shock, playing Fitz as diminished by brain damage. In “Aftershock,” he is assertive, intuitive and De Caestecker plays that out without going over-the-top. The resolution to Fitz’s arc is an interesting one and it affords a great chance for both De Caestecker and Bennet to advance their characters in new and interesting ways in forthcoming episodes.

But “Aftershocks” belabors the set-up more than the substantive reflection on the prior episode. Raina is given more of an exploration of the effects of the Obelisk than Skye is. Sure, she moves things around with her mind, but the full extent of how Skye was altered is not known and only Fitz is clued into the truth. While the emotional ramifications of the prior episode are followed-through well in “Aftershocks,” the plot points are far less compelling.

The result is an episode that might enhance the serialized aspects of the second season of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. but holds up less well on its own.

[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 Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season here!
Thanks!]

6.5/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Underwhelming Vision Of The Future, Blade Runner (The Definitive Edition) Is More Blah Than Bang.

The Good: Vision, Concept, Moments of character
The Bad: Pacing, Mostly flat characters, Performances that are hardly noteworthy, Choppy editing, Somewhat pointless overall story
The Basics: The final cut of Blade Runner, now on Blu-Ray, presents a science fiction “classic” that is far less compelling than its die-hard fans would have the general populace believe.


Back when I was in college, there was a lot of hype about Blade Runner. It was probably because it was right around the fifteenth anniversary of the film and Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut was being cinematically released to the joy and ire of the fans. I vaguely recall watching the film on VHS and the experience was so anti-memorable that I could not even tell you which version of the film I saw at the time. After a new friend recommended Blade Runner to me, I decided to give it another chance. For that, I decided to use the latest Definitive Edition from the multi-disc Blu-Ray pack that Ridley Scott is currently assuring fans will be the last version of the film.

The newest version of Blade Runner has the film as a stark, straightforward narrative, without any voiceovers and without much in the way of real charm or thematic meaning outside its own narrative. In other words, unlike the best in science fiction, Blade Runner says little about who we are or who we might become and instead creates a dystopian future that is much harder to get into than the Ridley Scott sycophants would have the rest of us believe.

In 2019 Los Angeles, the world is dark and the skyscrapers are tall and so large that people get around in flying cars. In this world, where Earth has colonies off-world, a mega corporation (Tyrell) has built androids so realistic that they cannot be told apart from humans. To prevent humanity from being replaced or menaced by the Replicants, the androids are given a four-year lifespan, after which they automatically deactivate. Unfortunately, rebellious Replicants are fighting for their survival and four violent Replicants make it back to Earth (Los Angeles) where they begin to infiltrate the Tyrell Corporation and neighborhoods where they create a (largely unseen) menace.

As a result of the imminent threat represented by the four surviving escaped Replicants, the retired Blade Runner (those sent out to manually deactivate – kill – the Replicants) Deckard is called back into service. Deckard begins to hunt the leads needed to find the four Replicants as they close in on the head of the Tyrell Corporation. In trying to understand the Replicants, Deckard visits Dr. Eldon Tyrell and discovers the doctor has built a Replicant so perfect she was not aware of her true nature. This begins to blur the lines for Deckard as he pursues the renegades and is forced to put them down.

Blade Runner is a mess. There are a number of classic science fiction works I enjoy, but Blade Runner is not one of them. First, the story is an incredibly basic one. After a pretty awesome bang of a beginning (which involves one of the escapees being interrogating and then snapping, shooting his interrogator out of the blue), the movie descends into one of the laziest investigation films of all time. Indeed, Blade Runner takes its time having Deckard get on track with his investigation that it makes Chinatown look like a focused roller coaster of a film by comparison. Because it takes so long for Deckard to get focused and commit to actually hunting down the Replicants, the film relies a great deal upon mood and setting instead of character, substance, or even plot to engage the viewer. Sadly, this fails for Ridley Scott because the film is slow and does not make an effort to immediately build to anything (even a consistent sense of mood).

In other words, once you’ve flown by the giant Coke ad in the flying car in the smoke-filled metropolis once, it’s not doing much to fly by it another three times. That’s not great cinema and it is not interesting storytelling.

On the character front, Blade Runner is filled with characters, not a single one of whom “pops.” The main antagonist, Ray Batty, is a villain who ostensibly wants nothing more than to be able to survive beyond his expiration date, which frustrates him because he has no idea when that expiration date might be (Replicants are programmed with a full range of memories, so they often have no idea where their remembered lives end and their actual lives in the real world began). Batty is a militant leader who is focused upon getting the answers he needs to survive or, barring that, revenge upon his creator. That said, he doesn’t have much that he really wants to live for. Life for the sake of living isn’t a terribly compelling characterization. Ray Batty does not seem to have any particular dreams or aspirations outside living and given how filthy and smoky the world of Blade Runner is, it is hard to take his (or his associates’) drive to survive all that seriously.

At the other end of the spectrum, Deckard is an equally unlikable protagonist, played by Harrison Ford. Ford plays Deckard with such ambivalence and stiffness that fans have wondered for the past 25 years, as one of the Replicants in the movie questions, if he is even human. Deckard has no zest, no spark of life, nothing interesting in his life and his fling with Rachael is little more than sex . . . and not even particularly interesting sex.

The result is a film that is thematically murky as the sets are smoke-obscured and a “classic” that is far less satisfying than many other engaging science fiction works from before, the same time, or since.

For other works that Ridley Scott has been involved in, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Prometheus
The A-Team
Cyrus
Gladiator
Matchstick Men
Alien

3.5/10

For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Batman And Kick-Ass Blasted Together Make The Lackluster The Green Hornet

The Good: Moments of humor, Decent character arcs, Special effects are fine
The Bad: Utterly predictable plotting, Mediocre acting, Uncertain footing.
The Basics: When Seth Rogen helps to create a super hero flick, The Green Hornet rides onto the screen leaving the viewer utterly indifferent.


The last few days, my wife and I have been having a minor conflict. The conflict is pretty simple: I just ended a five-week work stint that took me away from her, except on the weekends, and she has wanted a lot of my time since I returned home. For her, this has meant a daily desire to go to the local casinos. For me, it has meant a desire to catch up on my work and go see new movies. After a few days of going to casinos to keep her happy, I put my foot down and insisted I was going out to the movies. This meant I went alone. This might not all seem germane to an opening for my review of The Green Hornet (originally, I planned to write about how Kevin Smith must be pissed), but there is relevance here. The first is that had my wife accompanied me, I might have enjoyed The Green Hornet more; I always seem to like mediocre things more when I share them with my wife because she is not as critical as I am (conversely, if she had been as bored with the film as I was, odds are it would have suffered even more in my review!). The other thing is that if my wife and I had the wealth of the protagonist of The Green Hornet, I seriously doubt we'd argue so much about movies vs. casinos. I think we'd have no problem doing both. Either way, I find myself regretting using my time out without her on such an unremarkable movie.

The Green Hornet is the latest in a long string of super hero films (apparently before Alien Invasion films take over in 2011) and it was co-written by its star, Seth Rogen. This works to the detriment of the film as Rogen is clearly writing for himself and does not push himself - or his friend, James Franco, who makes an enjoyable early cameo - in any direction we have not seen him go before. In other words, Rogen writes the jokes one would expect out of Seth Rogen and this is the equivalent of Sylvester Stallone co-writing Rocky, the actor performs exactly within the range we expect of him without ever leaving the comfortable box of our preconceptions.

That said, The Green Hornet suffers most because the movie is nothing new. Between last year's Kick-Ass (reviewed here!) and the Batman franchise, there is nothing presented in The Green Hornet that is at all shocking, new or interesting. Indeed, perhaps the better comparison would be Iron Man (reviewed here!) meets Kick-Ass. The Green Hornet is Kick-Ass where the protagonist is not in high school and has a budget that matches his ambitions. Unfortunately, The Green Hornet lacks the excitement or gritty realism of Kick-Ass and it is that much more likely to disappoint viewers as a result. There is a formulaic quality to The Green Hornet and the only thing shocking within the context of the action hero/super hero origin story is the dialogue . . . except to those who have seen any Seth Rogen films. This leaves viewers entirely unsurprised.

When Danny Clear tries to muscle out Chudnofsky to establish a criminal enterprise in Los Angeles, Clear meets with an untimely end and the local newspaper, The Daily Sentinel writes about it on the front page. The owner and editor-in-chief of The Daily Sentinel is James Reid, an amazingly rich man whose main bone to pick in life comes in the form of his son, Britt. Britt parties, sleeps and slouches through his life, coasting on his father's dime until the day James dies of a bee sting. With James's death, Britt inherits The Daily Sentinel and the responsibility he never wanted.

But when his search for his daily cup of perfect coffee leads him to Kato, a mechanic his father used to employ for his massive car collection, Britt takes his recklessness to a new level. After decapitating his father's statue, Britt and Kato get into an altercation where they rescue two people from a gang, leaving a lot of damage in their wake. Britt decides to use The Daily Sentinel to bring hype to his nighttime activities - his alter ego is dubbed The Green Hornet in a meeting - and Britt and Kato begin a nightly war on crime and gangs in Los Angeles. This raises the ire of Mike Axford, the intellectual heir to The Daily Sentinel, and Chudnofsky, who sees his control of the gangs slipping. As Britt attempts to clean up the streets, he finds himself uncovering uncomfortable truths about his dead father and the District Attorney, all of which may spell the end to the Green Hornet!

The Green Hornet is a mix of action film and comedy and, unfortunately, it does not live up to its potential on either front. On the humor front, The Green Hornet is very much a typical Seth Rogen comedy. Rogen plays a mild-mannered man who likes to party and has moments where he is deeply sarcastic. His humor comes out in mumbles, undertones and with the generally agreeable persona one might expect from Seth Rogen. In other words, Britt Reid is not particularly likable or special, but Rogen is and as a result, the viewer is expected to forgive him his drinking, sleeping around and ridiculous pursuit of Lenore, when she finally arrives in the movie.

Lenore, played by Cameron Diaz, is certainly a step back on all fronts. It introduces into The Green Hornet a pretty obvious romantic triangle issue for Britt and Kato and forces a character conflict that did not have to be present. The buddy action hero movie is usurped in its second half by a series of canned plot events that put Britt chasing after the obvious, stereotypical blonde while Kato attracts her using his superior intellect. The result is a predictable series of misunderstandings between Britt and Kato which threaten to push apart the newly-formed crime-fighting duo.

Indeed, the only real plus for The Green Hornet on the plot and character fronts are the whole idea that the sidekick is the powerhouse of this crime fighting duo. Britt is constantly plagued by his father's "Trying doesn't matter when you always fail" ringing constantly in his ears. Kato is the one other person in the world who saw that less-than-savory side of James Reid. As such, Kato has implemented Reid's paranoid visions for car protection and is prepared when Britt wants to become the Green Hornet. But Kato is both the brains and the brawn of the Green Hornet and his inevitable split with Britt is therefore that much more dangerous to the duo.

Chudnofsky is a pretty generic villain and even as the film pokes fun at that, it remains true and is troubling to find interest in him as a result.

Ultimately, what keeps viewers watching The Green Hornet are the gadgets, the tools and the high speed deployment of them. The fight sequences are fun and the movie tries (though it does a whole Daredevil way of looking at things that is odd) to be engaging on the action-adventure front. But in the end, The Green Hornet is nothing truly new for fans of action comedies.

For other works with Seth Rogen, check out my reviews of:
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Step Brothers
Donnie Darko
Freaks And Geeks

5/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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