Great finale -- until the last two minutes totally crapped the bed.
Being a fan of the comic series, I went into this with major trepidation. Yes, forget most everything from the comics but the character names, however, the dialog is snappy, and I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would, even if this ultimately just "Castle" with Satan.
Rollo is kind of a jerk.
Awesome battle scene. No appearance by Lagertha, though, which is always a shame.
The more "human" Lucifer gets, the less interesting.
"You're supposed to be blond."
"That's what everyone keeps telling me!"
I admit it -- I lol'ed.
As terrible and inteptly-made as this movie is, it's never boring and infinitely entertaining.
Elektra is still the weakest part of this season, but more Punisher... oh heck yeah!
The Pilot is spent mainly establishing the characters, and there was a lot of jumping around as the showrunners are trying to set the theme of the series. Of course, all the team members have their own closet skeletons.
With all the focus being on setting up the series, the plot itself seemed almost an afterthought, The case resolution was no surprise as the victim's mother spouts out a name with zero context, and surprise that's the guilty party.
I'm hoping future episodes get more focused on the cases, as the pilot was pretty disjointed, and I'm worried people won't come back. Despite the script flaws, it was well-acted, and Hayley Atwell is absolutely gorgeous. I'll give this a few more episodes to develop, but the show is fighting an uphill battle at this point.
This might have had more impact had I not seen the "Hearts and Minds" episode of The Outer Limits almost twenty years ago, since it has almost exactly the same plot.
"It turns out, brother, I understand women better than you."
I'll miss Princess Ellisif. She was almost as pretty as Lagertha.
Well, that's one way to resolve your daddy issues...
I'm curious to see if Harold remains dead, since Hand resurrectees are notoriously difficult to kill (again).
While I think people have been especially harsh on this series, there are a few problems (as I see them):
Pacing: I'd have to verify, but I was thinking the three previous series ran closer to 45 minutes per episode, while each Iron Fist episode ran around 55 minutes. Every episode had at least one point where I was checking the clock to see how much time was left. Tightening up the self-analyzing and philosophical debate sections would have helped everything flow better.
Character Development: When your title character seemingly grows the least over the season, there's a problem. I hate to blame Jones directly, as it could have been the directors and/or showrunners making some odd choices on the portrayals. I really feel by the end, Ward Meachum and Madame Gao were the most compelling of the cast. I was on board with Harold until the last two episodes, when he turned from background manipulator into one-dimensional, monologuing Bond villain. Likewise, Joy and Davos turning evil at the end... really? Davos I could buy since maybe if Danny dies, he'd be next in line for the Fist, but Joy seems like a major shift from how she was up to this point.
Fight Scenes: I hate the jump-cut, frenetic editing that seems to be the vogue these days. Since martial arts are the focus of the series, how about letting us actually see the fights instead of cutting the scene every 1/10th of a second?
I have a few more specific issues, but that jumps into major spoiler territory. Admittedly, I'll probably watch Season 2 when it comes out, but I'm hoping the creators saw some of the criticisms and make some positive changes.
Honestly, the entirety of Iron Fist Season 1 felt like the lackluster second halves of Daredevil Season 2 (Hand/Elektra) and Luke Cage Season 1 (Diamondback).
Did I miss something? When did Arvid hook up with Hildur? That big announcement at the end really threw me off what was otherwise a satisfying end to the first season.
So she had blueprints for the house, but no mention of a basement, nor did anyone ever bother to look down there?
This movie had potential and was executed decently for what it was, but the above spoiler and a few other glaring plot holes/deus ex machina moments knocked it down considerably. The "stinger" at the end didn't help either.
I want to like this series more than I do. It's somehow coming across as feeling decompressed yet loaded with plot-driving exposition at the same time, which is a weird dynamic.
Gorgon feels like he's trying to keep a straight face when he delivers his lines.
Karnak's arc isn't working for me at all.
I realize Black Bolt can't speak, but his expressions are coming across as creepy and not stoic.
Maximus is coming across the best, playing the duality between sympathetic villain and master manipulator pretty well.
Crystal is a close second. Her teenager forced to grow up in a hurry is working well, too.
I don't know where I'm going to fall on this show. It's not the pile of garbage some folks are touting it as, but it's got a lot of problems as well. I honestly think it would have worked better as a two-hour movie versus an eight-hour miniseries, considering it's following a near-identical plot to the first Thor movie.
The premise is decent, and both the acting and the production is solid. The story really suffers from the old trope where you have the antagonist down, but don't take two seconds to verify she's actually dead.
Worth watching if you can ignore some glaring story problems.
Why O why couldn't they have killed off Winona instead of Samwise? Bob is infinitely more useful, likeable, and less annoying than Joyce. Seriously, I'd like this series more if she wasn't in it.
Glenn Talbot may not be the hero we want, but he is the hero we need. :-D
That Graviton costume is almost spot-on. Regardless of the "heel turn" implications, it makes sense considering Talbot has been SHIELD's whipping boy for so long, that once he has the upper hand, he abuses it (complicated further by all the voices in his head).
This show is getting duller with each episode. I'm to the point where I'm not sure I even want to finish it...
Hashtags for this episode: #DirtyDan-ing #DiablosExMachina
Shouldn't half the members be dust right now?
I guess they're no longer even trying to pretend they're part of the MCU any more.
Why is every extra-dimensional being from a dimension of fear, pain, and/or darkness?
Are there no dimensions of happiness, rainbows, and ice cream?
"Daisy Ex Machina" digs the writers out of their own hole once again. Pretty good episode otherwise.
Overall, it's a ridiculous movie that knows it's ridiculous. I had fun with it, and got pretty much what I was expecting.
And then the end showed up. They try shoehorning in this layered conspiracy that really didn't work, and the whole two minutes with Susan Sarandon left such a bad taste in my mouth, I almost dropped the rating another star.
If a mashup of Crank, Atomic Blonde, and Adam Sandler's sports movies seems like something you'd want to watch, this fits the bill, otherwise don't even bother.
Ugh... Season 1 ends on a cliffhanger with a LOT of unresolved plot points.
Otherwise, it's a decent enough dramedy. Most people are going to know whether or not they like this after 2-3 episodes.
After everything that's happened in this series, they've finally managed to offend me.
Why does Swamp Thing have a freakin' MAN-BUN?!?!?!
This episode had more Dutch angles than a geometry textbook from the Netherlands.
Well, someone must have watched John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness recently...