-- FIRST EPISODE REVIEW ONLY --
-- THIS DOWN IS MY OPINION. YOU MAY NOT AGREE. IF YOU DON'T, EXPRESS YOURS, WITHOUT BEING A DICK. --
-TL,DR
When you think of X-Men, you think of Xavier, you think of Storm, of Cyclops, Rogue, Wolverine.
Forget those overused mutants.
The Gifted brings you the more underestimated, underappreciated of the mutants in the Marvel Universe.
The pilot was GREAT. It had the right formula to kick of a seaons that, in my opinion will be phenomenal. (It's a tv show so it's really unpredictable).
If I got them right in the pilot we see Polaris, Sunspot, Thunderbird, Blink and Shatter.
The Strucker family is new, really, but maybe there's a connection with Baron Von Strucker of hydra? We don't know.
Also, Sunspot isn't really Sunspot but "Eclipse" an alternate version created in Days of Future Past. (Basically the same hero). Maybe done to avoid having to create an entire CGI for one hero, being that Sunspot has a... peculiar look.
There's a mixture of easter eggs all over the first episode, there's a Stan Lee cameo, there's X-Men and Brotherhood name mentions, there's ringtones from the animated series. So everything a nerd needs to nerdgasm.
It is definitely worth a watch.
And if you're a fan of Marvel COMICS or just X-Men in general you won't be disappointed (at least so far).
It is clear that the FIRST EPISODE was produced by people who know what they are doing. Not like cough*Inhumans*cough.
-STORY-
This is basically an aftermath of the X-Men disappearing, for whatever reason. The mutants are hunted because humanity was tired of all the conflicts, the death. So we get a new federal police force called, "The Sentinels" (I know right?) and we see a kind of "Xavier's School", but more underground, so just like it was in the beginning of the X-Men story, outlawed mutants going out to discover and save new mutants that appear everyday.
Personally I think this is a great take to build up a "marvel mutant" story.
-ACTORS-
It's really early to express an opinion on the actors, but what I can say is that I have not felt any usual "fuck I hate this guy/girl" thought throughout the entire episode. The more dramatic scenes were pictured really well by the actors involved in them, everyone seems passionate about what they are doing. But I can't really get into details because I've not seen enough.
-CINEMATOGRAPHY-
I didn't enjoy the visuals as much as I could have. I can see they tried in the beginning into making scenes visually stimulating, such as slow-mo shots and nice color palettes, but then it really didn't improve. It got to a point where you aren't really amazed at what you're seeing. This isn't bad, to be clear, it's to be expected from a tv show that's divided, obviously, in episodes. But there's a whole lot of improvement that can be done. In general it's... just good.
This was a first episode concentrated in literally launching the season to the air, so I hope they will focus more on all the other aspects of what make good cinematography magical.
Special effects weren't too HARD on the picture, you can see they are really well done and well thought. All the powers we've seen so far have been produced in a well manner. There's no obivous impact on the scenes where you can say "that doesnt' belong there", which I think it's great.
Usually I don't think much about special effects, but clearly this is a show where it matters a lot. So it's important we see all of that budget money going into great effects. Blink's portals ARE FUCKING AMAZING.
Go watch the first episode.
I will update my vote with each episode (or not if it's not needed).
Please like my comment if you enjoyed my review, it makes me happy.
Also, share it with your doubtful friends.
