Ok, this isn’t going to be a traditional review of the first two episodes of Marvel Studios’ newest show, Inhumans, which had a special debut this week in IMAX theaters. In fact, I wasn’t even going to do this post initially because I’ve never really done episodic reviews of TV shows before. However, given the circumstances of how it’s being released, I figured that I’d briefly give my two cents on it. Like series creator Scott Buck’s other Marvel show, Iron Fist, the reviews have not been kind to this new take on the society of mutated humans who had originally been introduced in its sister show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. However, upon watching it, I can say that it’s honestly not as bad as some people are putting it out to be. As far as these two episodes are concerned, they’re a decent start to the impending series, and they at least do their job of setting up the story and its main characters. Granted, it admittedly doesn’t do much to connect with other facets of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; that and I also hope that the show’s opening plotline of having the main characters be separated from each other isn’t stretched out too much. Still, I liked the ways in which it established the Inhuman kingdom of Attilan along with some of the interesting bits of character development that’ll be coming for its main cast. On that note, of the series’ ensemble cast, some of the biggest standouts so far include Anson Mount as the silent but powerful ruler of the Inhumans, Black Bolt, Game of Thrones alum Iwan Rheon as Black Bolt’s scheming brother Maximus, who is established as someone who is a ‘late bloomer’ when it comes to his Inhuman powers, and perhaps my personal favorite, Ken Leung as Black Bolt’s top adviser Karnak. Karnak possesses some of the coolest powers of any Inhuman we’ve seen so far in the MCU, as he’s able to foresee the weaknesses within any single thing. However, while this does make him a strong strategist… it also means that he often tends to be quite the social buzzkill, which does provide the show with some great bits of the MCU’s trademark sense of humor.
And as for Inhumans’ overall presentation in IMAX, at the very least the filmmakers didn’t half-ass it when it came to converting these first two episodes into a feature-length IMAX release. The big screen does allow for some great cinematography of the series’ main locales, Attilan and Hawaii, the latter of which being where the series was mainly filmed. And despite all the backlash towards some of the effects and production design as witnessed in the marketing (e.g. Medusa’s hair which, trust me, looks far better in the final product than it did in the trailers), the show does have a solid polish to it in terms of its visual designs. In short, these first two episodes of Inhumans, along with all the critical derision that it’s currently been getting, reminds me a lot of the first half of Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Of course, as many of us know, the first season of AoS got off to a rocky start but, thankfully, it managed to turn things around during the latter half of the season. And unless proven otherwise, I’m confident that the same will happen for Inhumans. After all, what we’re getting right now in IMAX is just the first two episodes of the season, and I think it’s safe to say that just because the first few episodes fared poorly with critics doesn’t mean that the show is entirely doomed just yet. Now, admittedly, I can only recommend this ‘IMAX Experience’ to those who are already fans of the MCU, as I have the feeling that non-MCU fans aren’t going to get much out of this. Still, I can assure you folks that I will be tuning in to watch this series when it premieres on ABC later this month, and I’m especially interested in seeing how these first two episodes will differ on TV compared to them being paired together in IMAX.
And on that note, you can also expect a full season review of this show once it finishes airing. I will, at least, try to get it out before the premiere of Season 5 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which will debut not long after Inhumans ends.
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