Before I give my review, here's some things you need to know about me:
- I am a Marvel FANATIC. Sometimes I think fanatic doesn't do justice for my fandom love.
- I saw each of the Phase One movies in theatre multiple times.
- I saw The Avengers in threatre five times.
- I met Stan Lee in the summer of 2012 and it ended with me crying and shaking like an infant.
- I own all the Phase One movies, plus the Phase One special edition tricked out box set.
- I have a complete Marvel encyclopedia, which has become my bible.
- I have a blonde cat named Thor and a black cat named Loki.
I tell you all this so that you can understand how critical I will be of this show. I have ridiculously high expectations, so you'll get some honest answers.
Ok, hold on to your butts, because here we go!
WARNING: Obviously spoilers ahead. YOU ARE WARNED!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
So the show begins with the classic Marvel intro (comic book pages flipping), and the excitement ensued. We hear a woman's voice speaking about the world we live in, specifically the one since the Battle of New York. Shield has left the shadows and they're known to be associated with aliens and things we can't comprehend. We see flashes of the cast of The Avengers. The episode begins with a father and son looking at an action figure re-enactment of the Battle of New York, talking about the heroes that the world now knows exist.
There's an explosion, we hear screams from the top of the building across the street that is now engulfed in flames. The father, clearly concerned about the situation, walks over the the external wall of the building. He looks at his hands sighing, and proceeds without any aides, to climb the wall to the top of the building. He finds a woman inside and jumps out of the window, landing on the road below with injury. The 'Hooded Hero', seeing that people have become interested in him, runs off into the crowd. The SHIELD logo appears on screen.
It was most definitely a fancy, eye catching intro. It was written beautifully, but having seen the intro to The Avengers, nothing is quite as good (everything will always be compared to The Avengers, at least for me). The show doesn't start off slowly, we see some awesome action scenes and some INSANELY cool tech gadgets (like a serving tray that doubles as an x-ray machine, a napkin that can read finger prints from hard surfaces and inner ear communication devices [which also explains why all the characters in Avengers seemed to be talking to no one]), but nothing overly exciting seems to happen - it just seems like all the characters are going through the motions.
We are introduced to the main cast (which is rather slow, almost a little painful with their "I have so much back story, and we'll say I have it, but we won't tell you what it is" nonsense). The characters are likable. There's the lone soldier, Agent Ward (played by Brett Dalton), the apprehensive veteran, Melinda May (played by Min-Na Wen), and science buddies, Agents Fitz and Simmons (Ian De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge) the rebellious ally, Skye (Chole Bennet) and the mysterious leader, Phil Coulson (played by Clark Gregg). The cast seems great, but their initial story lines just seem kind of boring. Except for Coulson.
We all know the story of Agent Coulson in The Avengers, and there were many references made to the circumstances surrounding his apparent "death" in the movie. There is an exchange between Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and a Doctor (played by Ron Glass) about Coulson, saying "He really doesn't know, does he?" I think the major story line that will run throughout this season will be Coulson's 'resurrection'.
So it sounds like I didn't like the show, but I was actually quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it. There were a ton of references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the Extremis virus (which ties neatly in with the release of Iron Man 3), the Erskine serum, a lot of Stark-ish technology and lot's of name dropping. We have a brand new villain, who is funding "Project Centipede." We see that there are still many remnants of the Battle of New York, including a Chitauri neural link, and, mostly importantly, there were a bunch of laughs.
The series will be written by husband/wife duo Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, with Marvel Godfather Joss Whedon helping with writing for the first episode. While there's nothing new about the structure of the show, it aims to show us what it looks like when all the big superheroes are gone and the people behind the scenes are left to pick up the pieces.
I think the timing of the series is brilliant, given Marvel's absolute domination of movie box offices around the world. I am intrigued by the series and if you're a fan, or even if you aren't familiar with the Marvel world, you may get in to this one.
The episode ended with a call on a 084. We don't know what it is, but I'll be tuning in next week to find out!
Oh, and did I mention that Lola is a freaking hover car? Yeah, that happened! :)
Twitter: @Stepherland