Aries_cz

So, I liked Jared Padalecki in SNTL, but rebooting an 90s classic like Walker Texts Ranger without every problem being resolved by roundhouse kick, the main character being a drunken mess, rather than stoic and heroic USMC is just insult to the memory of the show.

Also, Jared, or rather, writing for the character is portrays, is pretty inconsistent. One scene, he is a mess over his wife's death, few scenes later, he is putting moves on a local bartender.

The rare fight is your very basic current-year Hollywood brawl, not the amazing karate moves we came to love from Walker.

Without the name, it is really bland buddy cop show (with the typical "straight cop" paired with "loose cannon cop") mixed with bland family drama. With the name, it is an insult to people who grew up with Chuck Norris being literal definition badassery.

Let me preface this by addressing some of the negative reviews, a lot of which seem to come from people who went into IMAX expecting a movie. Inhumans are not a movie, it is a pilot episode for a TV show (and both Marvel and IMAX theaters promoted it as such, if you still expected a movie despite that, that is your problem).

With this being a pilot for a TV show, some expectation adjustment is in order. You cannot expect a fully resolved story (you only saw a quarter), which I have seen certain reviewers holding against the episode. You also cannot expect Marvel-ous CGI, because obvious budgetary restraints. However, when CGi is used (Lockjaw/Medusa, mainly), it looks pretty good.

Now, to some actual reviewing.

As one can expect from a Pilot episode, the story presents all major characters of the "Royal Family" of Atillan and does some amazing world building. The setpieces and filming locations are beautiful.

As someone who has not read the comic books, but is somewhat familiar with some the characters and their powers, I think the pilot episodes do them justice. Anson Mount, given extreme limitations on range of expressions, was great as effectively mute Black Bolt. He shows extreme restraint when faced with danger, as a single word can obliterate everything in from of him, and a single involuntary grunt can send a squad car flying several dozen meters away. Serinda Swan as Medusa was also very good, playing a caring wife and queen. As I mentioned above, when she is using her prehensile hair, the CGI is pretty solid. When not, it deviates from her comic book version and just behave like regular long hair (probably to save budget). Iwan Rheon as Maximus is very much Ramsey Snow from GoT, but much more charismatic and somewhat less psychotic. Gorgon looks like he will be a very fun character to follow. I am still a bit on the fence regarding Karnak, whose powers are not really explained very well (I guess he sees probabilities and short term outcomes of choices, but the CGI of him visualizing things is pretty good).

I am certainly looking forward to seeing the rest of the show, as I was intrigued by most of the characters and the basic premise of the story, and I hope the CGI quality will not dip. However, I personally did not really notice any major benefit from seeing this in IMAX over watching a high quality version on TV/online. So unless you really cannot wait, I would suggest waiting until the 26th when it starts airing.

I have not read the source books (never even knew they exist), so I do not have any reference to how much the TV version deviates from it. But I found the world presentation pretty good, all the overgrown technology etc. I would welcome a bit more of the other races (Gnomes/Dwarves), but it might be too soon for that.

However, I think that the "eyes up here" scene at river in Episode 3 was a bit pointless, but probably had to be due to it being on MTV. Also, Wil in few scenes sounds like Hayden Christensen in SW prequels, which is to say, awful, but it is just few scenes, so it is bearable.

But, the special effects are pretty good or a TV show and most actors are pretty good as well.

I would give the series a chance, see how it develops.

I have seen a lot of people deciding between this show and TV adaptation of Limitless, a "yet another cop+savant procedural".

Personally, I have to say that this show is so far way better than Limitless. It offers some nice futuristic visuals without some extreme techobabble. The technology, while futuristic, seems like something our existing technology leads to (lenses, holographic tables, etc), and is a bit more believable than a super drug that feeds on the "we only use 10% of our brains" myth.

Main characters seem interesting, I think that Dash's behavior is pretty realistic for someone who spent their childhood in a water tank seeing only the horror of murders. Vega is your typical "good cop", but I think she will need more time to be fully developed as a character.

And while the plot so far seems like a "monster of a week" plot, it is way too soon to dismiss it out entirely, as the "threat" that Agatha sees is an interesting plot.

I definitely think that if you are deciding between this and Limitless, go for Minority Report, if only for the much more superior visuals