Martin Carr reviews the first two episodes of Marvel’s Inhumans…
Presented in IMAX cinemas before arriving on television, Inhumans comes with baggage. To begin with there is that Marvel logo which now carries a certain expectation and quality assurance. Coupled with American network ABC it was supposed to mark the first true crossover of a televisual format into theatres. However what transpired was an indifferent reception, focus on box office and fundamental criticism of storyline and character. In short Inhumans was thrown under a bus.
Watching this feature length double episode without any preconceptions brings a certain freedom. It might have Marvel over the door which means lavish FX, sumptuous locations and high end production values, but also comes with limitations. Worlds take time to build, stories need room to grow and coups require a grounded reasoning for being. Rushing through introductions using whispered exposition, before inciting insurrection thirty minutes in makes everything strangely compressed.
Sets feel cavernous, dialogue is stilted and oddly clunky while our main protagonists drift around looking regal but slightly lost. Snippets of backstory are communicated through split second flashbacks, whilst past histories are all but ignored. Iwan Rheon’s Maximus comes out best in these opening episodes, giving us a sense memory of Ramsay Bolton behind the eyes. However even he struggles moving at the pace needed in order for his back room Iago to gain omnipotence. A mute Anson Mount fares no better through limited sign language, facial expressions and various degrees of eyeballing.
Despite the FX which include a lovable and useful teleporting pooch and character with HD projection for eyes, Inhumans fails to engage relying on production gloss and far flung locations. Their segregated class system is explained quickly while convoluted ceremonies employed to unveil dormant genres feel like a distraction. There is too much emphasis placed on driving plots forward while any human elements are relegated to ten minutes of screen time.
Inhumans also lacks humour and only contains moments of pathos as there are nine central characters to introduce. Each one from Medusa through to Gorgon and Karnak need an episode on their own, as every actor is good but has virtually nothing to work with. Relocating that to Earth as they do in episode two only compounds the problem. Together at least we would see interaction, bonding, confrontation and defiance, but apart all those opportunities are lost. Honolulu is great but when surfer dudes fail to even react as a cloven hoofed Gorgon sits down and starts chatting you have to wonder why. Other fish out of water scenarios are tried and tested and work a little better but also fall short.
This double feature has crammed so much of everything into one space that it watches like someone skimmed the surface of something great. Murderous mutiny, brotherly conflict and an unfair dictatorship sound like ripe themes for exploration. What we get instead are great set designs, solid location work and actors which look the part but have nothing to do. There is little sense of history although the sparse dialogue indicates otherwise, whilst family feuds run rife but again sadly lack any visual evidence. Those rare moments of pathos or tonal shift happen primarily through musical cues, police arrests and ritual head shavings. Only then do you get hints of what Inhumans could have been given a broader canvas and more time. Beneath the petty rivalry, genetic jealousy and lust for power is a politically driven Shakespearian tragedy. Grand in aspirations, steeped in lineage and driven by a need for legacy.
Unfortunately this abridged version of the vision is let down by its format. In my opinion this would have made a better series of films where the subject matter had time to breathe, rather than being relegated to a poorer platform. As it stands though this double episode is more watchable than you might expect, but less marvelous than you might have hoped for.
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