A Spoiler Free Look At "The Defenders"

The Defenders (2017)

TV-MA

Starring Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, Mike Colter, Finn Jones, Elodie Yung, Jessica Henwick, Scott Glenn, Simone Missick, Eldon Henson, Wai Ching Ho, Rosario Dawson,

Created by Douglas Petrie & Marco Ramirez

The Story:

The Hand has used the last of their mysterious life restoring energy to resurrect Elektra from the dead. With her leading the charge, their goal is to retrieve the Iron Fist to unlock an ancient door and give The Hand the ultimate power. The downside, opening that door will cause the total destruction of New York City. Looks like the heroes of New York will need to band together and save the day.

Now that is more like it.

8 episodes.

Very little drag to them at all.

Not as much time for redundancy and stalling as the tale needs to be told and finished with far fewer episodes than the Netflix series have previously enjoyed.

And it shows.

The first 2 episodes cut back and forth between Jessica Jones (Ritter), Luke Cage (Colter), Daredevil (Cox) and Iron Fist (Jones) and the members of their supporting cast who will be seen briefly in The Defenders.

I would argue if you've not seen, or didn't care for certain characters, this is the show for you that will give them a chance to shine and change your opinion on them.

The weak link is still Iron Fist, but the show acknowledges that, and actually spotlights that this is kind of the point.

He's still "a kid" in theory. He's learning the ropes as a superhero who has been handed a ton of responsibility in life and realizes he's already failed at just about everything he was born to do.

Everything wraps up fairly nicely and sends the heroes back to their own shows, ready to hit the ground running.

There are also a few surprises and changes for some characters along the way as well.

Finally, once you've completed episode 8, stick around after the credits for a trailer for Marvel's next Netflix Original.

Final Grade: A-

With Friends Like These..."Search Party"

Search Party (2014)

Rated R

Starring Adam Pally, T.J. Miller, Thomas Middleditch, Shannon Woodward, Alison Brie, J.B. Smoove, Krysten Ritter, Jason Mantzoukas,

Directed by Scot Armstrong

The Story:

Nardo (Middleditch) is set to marry Tracy (Woodward) but his best friends Evan and Jason (Pally & Miller) try to talk him out of it at the bachelor party. When the ceremony begins, Jason puts his foot down, and Tracy leaves to Mexico to enjoy the honeymoon without him. Distraught, Nardo pursues her, and winds up spending much of the rest of the film naked and covered in cocaine as his friends attempt to rescue him before Berk (Smoove) can catch him and kill him.

Yep, it's one of those movies.

Old School. Road Trip. The Hangover. 

So you know the type, and you know if you'll enjoy this one or not, already.

Much like this variety of movie, they throw nearly every joke at the wall and see what sticks.

Some do, some don't.

What helps these films is the actors that are asked to do the crazy things or say the wacky dialogue.

This movie is elevated on the performances of Miller, who can do the wacky best friend possibly better than anyone in film right now, and Middleditch.

His earnestness and sincerity shine through all the situations he's placed in.

Like spending the majority of the film naked and smothered in cocaine.

Okay, clearly (hopefully) it wasn't actually cocaine, but dipped in a powder of some sort, he's still giving a bravado performance.

Plus, they keep running into various wackos (Ryter, Mantzoukas (!!!) and Smoove) who make the most of their character and keep the laughs coming.

It's not a film for everyone, but there's enough there to make it worthwhile for those that choose to go on this journey!

:)

Final Grade: C+

Too Bad "Jessica Jones" Wasn't As Intersting As The Villain

Jessica Jones (2015)

TV-MA

Created by Melissa Rosenberg

Starring Krysten Ritter, David Tennant, Rachael Taylor, Eka Darville, Carrie-Anne Moss, Wil Traval, Mike Colter

The Story:

Jessica Jones (Ritter) is a former superhero who has hung up the costume and now uses her powers as a detective in the hopes of making ends meet. Her troubled past is never far behind, and she tries to keep those demons at bay by continually hitting the bottle, hard. However, when she learns that Kilgrave, (Tennant) the man with the power to make people do whatever he says, is back in town, Jessica vows to stop him, by any means necessary.

The latest from Marvel and their collaboration with Netflix did not disappoint many rabid fans who devoured this show immediately upon its arrival.

I'm still not the world's biggest binge watching fan, mostly because I have more important things to do with my life than power through 6, 8, 12 or more episodes of anything all at once.

I'll get to the end of the season when I'm darn good and ready, quit rushing me.

:)

I'm sure there are many fans that loved this show much more than I did.

For the record, I didn't hate it, but I was troubled by certain aspects of it.

It came across very much like the comic, Alias, that inspired this show. I gave up on that comic early in its run as well. I didn't really care for the MAX line of comics. It seemed like an odd way to shove sex, language and more graphic violence into mainstream comics.

Now, adult situations are one thing, but doing those things for the sake of pushing the envelope as a "look what we can do now" sense of storytelling, I find that boring.

And that's where I fell with most of this series.

There were some pacing issues with Daredevil, but at least things were happening and people were getting killed, so there was always a sense of moving forward with the storyline.

With Jessica Jones, this storyline could have easily been resolved in 8 episodes, 10 tops, so it began to feel padded and dragging as the storyline went along.

Another issue I had with this one is that I liked just about every character in the story...

Except the main character.

Just like in the comics, Jessica Jones comes across cold and not very likeable. Couple her with Hogarth (Moss) and you've got a tandem of the most powerful, yet unlikeable characters in the Marvel universe.

Thankfully, I was interested in the majority of the supporting cast from the series. I'm looking forward to seeing Luke Cage (Colter) get his own series, and hopefully team up with Iron Fist to make the Heroes for Hire. Then there's Trish Walker (Taylor) who I hope will be suiting up as Hellcat by the time The Defenders rolls across Netflix.

Even Malcom (Darville) was a more interesting, well rounded supporting character and I looked forward to seeing what happened to him next.

However, the very thing I praised Daredevil for doing, Jessica Jones made the cardinal mistake of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and killed the villain at the end.

Oops.

Spoiler alert.

Sorry.

:)

Tennant's Kilgrave was the best part of the show, and he could have been a force to be reckoned with (especially against the Defenders) at a later point. Maybe enough to even bridge to the cinematic universe as well.

I've often said that the hero is often only as good as their villain. In this instance, that didn't pan out.

I'd love to watch a Kilgrave series where he tried to reform (Thunderbolts?) but sometimes failed and reverted to his evil ways.

Plus, while we should have hated Kilgrave with ever fiber of our being, the show ended up painting him into a rather sympathetic corner. Really, his powers weren't his fault, and yes, knowing what he had the power to do, he could easily make his choices less gruesome and final.

But still, they lost a great character and actor that would have been fun to have pop up again.

Is it Kilgrave messing with people...or are they really making these decisions on their own.

So many possibilities.

Flushed.

I'm curious when Marvel will realize that they've only got a finite amount of characters. They keep killing them off at the end of every movie and show, eventually they'll run out.

Not the best way to run a long-term strategy with the shows/movies.

Anyway, it wasn't terrible, by any means, but it also could have been so much better.

Or shorter.

Final Grade: B-

Love at First Bite? "Vamps"

That bites!

The Story:

Two vampires in New York, Goody (Alicia Silverstone) and Stacy (Krysten Ritter) mostly enjoy their night life.  Taking college courses at night and working as exterminators to catch rats and drink their blood.  Yep, they and many other vampires have shunned human blood and concentrate on the vermin of New York as their sustenance.  Ah, but when the Van Helsing family moves to New York, the girls' existence is about to get really complicated...

Following up the latest viewing of Clueless, I wondered whatever happened to Amy Heckerling?

Turns out she wrote and directed this one last year, and brought back Alicia Silverstone (and Wallace Shawn!) in the process.

I'm not sure if she gave up on Hollywood, or vice versa, but there just hasn't been very much Amy Heckerling product in quite some time.

She comes out of the gate in 1982 with Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and then enjoys success again in High School in 1995 with Clueless.

Other than that, her career is filled with long gaps from the Director's chair, and even longer since she's had a box office hit.

Vamps apparently didn't help her much, which is a shame, because it is a cute little movie.

Perhaps that was the problem?    It's nothing special that screamed "I must be a movie" instead of something that could have been made for tv.

Her cast is impressive, with Sigourney Weaver playing the stem vampire that turned both Goody and Stacy.  As it turns out, only stems can turn people into vampires, and if a stem is injured or killed, it will have repercussions on the entire line of vampires that the stem had created.

So you can see where the plot device is coming from.

Either way, it's still a better film than Twilight.

: )

Final Grade: B-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Mostly harmless fun.  Not Heckerling's best, but it's a  movie that I could watch again with no problem.