Marvel’s Inhumans Review

Marvel’s Inhumans gives us the tale of a royal family with super powers who have lived in secret on the moon and their first, forced visit to Earth.  I haven’t heard much in the way of glowing reviews, but below is my Bureau 42 review.

Spoiler alert: This is not a glowing review, either.

Title: “Marvel’s Inhumans” (8 episode first season)

Cast:

Anson Mount as Black Bolt
Serinda Swan as Medusa
Ken Leung as Karnak
Eme Ikwuakor as Gorgon
Isabelle Cornish as Crystal
Ellen Woglom as Louise
Iwan Rheon as Maximus
Sonya Balmores as Auran
and more.

Premise:

The epic story of the royal family including Black Bolt, the enigmatic, commanding King of the Inhumans, with a voice so powerful that the slightest whisper can destroy a city. After the Royal Family of Inhumans is splintered by a military coup, they barely escape to Hawaii where their surprising interactions with the lush world and humanity around them may prove to not only save them, but Earth itself. (From Trakt.)

High Point:

The effects and the look of the Inhumans is great, and while I didn’t see it in IMAX, the powers and sets look like what we have come to expect from a Marvel production.1

Low Point:

The story and scripts are not.  It meanders a while, and I didn’t read classic Inhumans, but they don’t seem to fit with the characters I have read in the last ten years.

The Scores:

Originality: 2/6 Not only is it just an adaptation of a comic, it also feels like any other generic group of powered people.  The concept of a brother coveting the king’s throne dates back to Shakespeare, and wasn’t even original then.  The saving grace is that, while they aren’t new for the comics readers, I don’t know any other super heroes with these types of powers.

Effects: 5/6 The sets and power usage looks typical for what we would expect to see from a Marvel Cinematic Universe production.

Acting: 3/6 I am not sure I can blame the actors for it, but “Just try to look smug for eight episodes” can’t be called good acting.

Production: 4/6 The show looks believable, but the CGI doesn’t blend as well with the “real” parts the same way it does for other similar shows.

Story: 1/6 There were points I outright laughed at the plot, and it wasn’t a comedy.

Emotional Response: 2/6 I was curious where they were going, but I didn’t really feel for any of the characters.

Overall: 2/6

In total, Marvel’s Inhumans receives 19/42.

1Another High Point I read elsewhere pointed out that at least Iron Fist wasn’t the worst of the Marvel shows now.

4 replies on “Marvel’s Inhumans Review”

  1. They seem to smooth out, my biggest complaint was that Lockjaw never seems like he was really in the room with the actors. I recognize he isn’t, but none of the other CGI characters feel like a cut-and-paste job.

  2. The only SFX I had an issue with were the giant dog. That didn’t look anywhere near real.

    I actually enjoyed the show. It didn’t bore the hell out of my like The Gifted which I’ve pretty much given up on. I found Inhumans to at least be slightly entertaining, and I thought the acting was (mostly) pretty good with an expected level of over-the-top from the one character you’d expect that from.

    As for originality, this is the thing. I think we’re out of luck on that one. I don’t think we’re ever really getting that from a comicbook based show any time soon — at least not from the plot. The last time we had anything original was Legion, and the originality in that show was more of a stylistic/storytelling thing than raw plot. That said, it was fantastic.

  3. Overall, I thought Inhumans was a decent show. It actually had a plot, and one that was at least sort of believable once they filled in a couple of details that were missing in the pilot with later flashbacks. Sure, Lockjaw wasn’t as seamless as you might want, but I think they did about as well as they could with the budget they had. Still, they could have staged a couple of the tranport scenes better.

    I don’t think there’s going to be a second season which makes me a bit sad. A second season could have done a lot to redeem the show, especially since they wouldn’t have to spend so much time establishing context. Then again, they are on Earth now and can show up on other shows. And they still have Lockjaw so select characters could show up pretty much anywhere in the future. If, by some miracle, it does get a second season, I hope they come through on the potential. Still, it wouldn’t take much to tie up the dangling plot threads in an episode of Agents of Shield (might only need some dialogue, even).

    I think where they screwed up bigtime was the cinematic release of the pilot. Why they thought releasing the first 1/4 of a story as a movie was a good idea baffles me, especially given the marketing leading up to said cinematic release. Still, even with proper marketing, it was an obviously stupid idea. As a result, I think they turned off potential audiences who didn’t bother watching the series, if they even knew there was one. In other words, it feels like a carefully calculated plan to tank the show’s ratings.

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