'Inhumans' Is a Disgracefully Unimpressive Addition to the MCU

After seeing the first two episodes of Inhumans, the latest small screen addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’ve decided to write my thoughts on it already.  For I’m not sure if I’m still going to watch the remaining six episodes.

For all its flaws, Iron Fist – underwhelming, yes, but definitely not a trainwreck – isn’t the MCU’s first failure; Inhumans is.  It’s so disappointing and painfully bland that it left a taste of bile in my mouth.

I’m shocked Marvel allowed this to happen.  Though it’s not really a major blow to the MCU brand, it’s still astonishing that Marvel is willing to produce and release something so thoroughly mediocre and underdeveloped, ruining one of their properties forever – or, at least, until a hard MCU reboot.

I think the very first mistake is making Inhumans a network TV show.  It’s just that the whole concept of Inhumans – Black Bolt and the Attilan Royal Family – is quite grand, complex, and exquisite.  It features remarkable characters, like a king who is capable of leveling mountains with a shout or blowing someone’s head off with just a whisper to the ear; a queen with super, weaponized hair; a martial artist philosopher-priest who has the ability to detect and exploit the weaknesses of a target, be that a person, an object, or a system; and a giant, teleporting dog.  It’s like X-Men, but somehow weirder, and with more political and familial drama.  Plus, it has a hidden, technologically advanced, mobile city.

At the very least, a live-action adaptation should strike awe.  To give it justice, it needs to have the vision and budget of epic shows like Game of Thrones and Westworld.  Or be a major film production, as it was originally planned.  I’m not sure what happened behind the scenes – probably due to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. prematurely introducing the Inhumans to the MCU – but whatever the real reason, Marvel Studios cancelled the planned Inhumans movie.  So what’s made instead is a terribly cheap-looking, unimpressive show featuring unlikable characters, a mind-numbingly boring narrative, and laughably godawful costume and set designs.

I can’t think of anything positive about the first two episodes.  There’s this one scene I nearly enjoyed.  It’s the part where Karnak was simulating a fight scene in his head – it was like Robert Downey, Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes, or having a live-action Midnighter in action.  However, what I really liked is just the idea of it.  The execution, on the other hand, is lackluster.

Really, this show has no notable redeeming factors.

I really wanted to like Inhumans.  I’m a huge Marvel fan after all.  But when it got to the scene where Medusa’s hair was cut off by the bad guys, I had to give up on it.  It was obviously done to write off Medusa’s hair from the rest of the season, so that they won’t have to do the CGI work for it anymore.  This means that not only does the show not have the budget for the visual effects, but the whole thing was so blatant and lazy that it also doesn’t inspire confidence for the writing.

Inhumans is a disgrace.

(On the other hand, months ago, I thought the trailer for The Gifted, Fox’s new X-Men series, was horrible.  But I’m now reading and hearing good things about it.  Will check it out.)