This week saw the release of another of Marvel's Phase 4 properties, She Hulk. This, up until the release of the first trailer, was something that a lot of people were excited about. She Hulk has been a popular character in the comics for a long time, and to see the MCU on screen version of her was an exciting prospect.
Enter the first trailer where the world at large were clearly not impressed by the visual effects. No one said much about the inclusion of Bruce Banner's smart hulk, and nothing but praise for Tatiana Maslany. But the visual decisions made for the CG She Hulk model were questionable at best.
Here we are, then, able to finally see the product we have all been debating over for the last several months and I must say, it is surprisingly not bad while at the same time being bafflingly dumb.
Let me qualify by saying that the visuals aren't as bad as any of us had expected, while at the same time other choices they made offset the apparent lack of the poor visuals we anticipated.
Before I go on let me say that there may or may not be some spoilers in this blog post so if you haven't seen it yet do yourself a favor and head on over to Disney+ and give it a watch. If you are not so inclined but still wish to read on consider yourself warned of any potential spoilers that may be present.
The show starts off with a decent opening that at first feels very 4th wall breaking. Maslany is speaking directly to the camera and giving what turns out to be a closing argument for a case she is working on as a lawyer. This pseudo 4th wall break becomes a direct break in the next 3 minutes when she blatantly turns and looks at the camera to give us as viewers what she says we will need to be interested in this "legal show".
Let me just pause here for a second.
I don't have an issue with 4th wall breaks. I think Ferris Bueller was great, Thomas Magnum and his show, Magnum PI, are my favorite, and I absolutely loved Deadpool. The complication comes when there doesn't seem to be the need for it. In the universe of marvel we are already confirmed to have one dramatic 4th wall breaking anti hero in the likes of Deadpool now that Disney has the rights to all of the properties previously owned by Fox. So the question begs itself " why make another character have this quirk when you already have such a well established character who does it?"
The only conceivable reason for this is to set up a joke between she hulk and Deadpool in a future film/show where they are constantly fighting for the attention of the audience. This would make for a funny exchange, and would give some great opportunities for meta jokes to abound around the inclusion of the X-Men into the MCU and why Deadpool is the only one who stayed the same, etc.
While this would be funny, and would make for a great third entry into the Deadpool franchise, it just seems like its a painfully obvious move from a company, who up to this point, has a pretty decent record of throwing us off the scent.
If this is a simple attempt to introduce a plot device into the universe in advance of bringing over Deadpool, I suppose I can understand except that the story telling tool this feature is isn't NEW. It is a well established style choice for a beloved character.
If it is a way of planting the idea of a possible crossover in our minds only to never pay off, well that just seems like a stupid idea over all.
Ultimately, the decision here is baffling and even if it were a well thought out concept, which it doesn't appear to be, it would still just be a poor story telling choice.
MOVING ON...
If you some how get past the awkward 4th wall breaking decision you find yourself face to face with what is easily the worst part of the show at this point.
BRUCE BANNER.
Now, that's not to say that I'm not a Ruffalo fan, or that I'm not a fan of his portrayal of Bruce/Hulk, or even that I disapprove of him being in the show. It is simply a statement of "WHAT THE ACTUAL CRAP MARVEL" in response to their flagrant disregard of his Endgame injury.
In Avengers: Endgame we see him make a significant sacrifice of personal safety to undo the snappening and took sever personal injury in the process. Injury that the Russo brothers stated was "Irreversible". The idea that he lost so much in the death of Natasha, among others, and then has to suffer this physical damage right at the moment he has finally been able to merge the two halves of himself to become a whole person.
Then, here comes She Hulk to completely undermine that sacrifice, and to do it all OFF CAMERA.
To think that Maslany's characters blood is somehow special? Ok, I can get behind that.
To think that, because she is a woman, she is better suited to handle the emotional turbulence of being a hulk? Ok, I can see it.
HOWEVER.....
To think that, SOMEHOW, while she was asleep Bruce just happened to find a CURE FOR HIS INJURY IN HER BLOOD AND WHOOPS NOW HES BACK TO BEING WHOLE AGAIN SO THE TWO HULKS CAN FIGHT IN THE FIRST EPISODE BECAUSE......REASONS?
NO THANKS, MARVEL.
YOU CAN DO BETTER.
I say all that to say; it surprisingly didn't suck.
Will i keep watching to give Maslany a fair chance to win me over?
Yes.
Will I recommend it to any of you based on this first season's inaugural episode?
I'll leave that up to you.
The comedy in the show seems to be building to a good place which I like. While at the same time the shoehorned "I can control my powers already don't ask how" mentality of the show just feels like lazy writing.
What I want to know is; have you seen it? What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my assessment? Join in the conversation!
Written by:
David Kennedy
Co-host of The A&D Show
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