Marvel's Defenders:Mullet style Review

I have been waiting for this, I have been counting down the days till the defenders dropped. As the climax to the Netflix part of the MCU, there is a lot of hype, expectation and some trepidation. this is a mullet style review in which there is a spoiler free section first a spoiler warning then a spoiler section.

Spoiler Free review.

This show had big expectations to fill was a show that had to live up to 3 amazing shows and 1 good one I am going break down the review by sections, acting, fights, visuals, and story then give a rating.

Acting 

Where to begin, as usual, Charlie Cox's Daredevil/Matt Murdoch is great he can hold the room even with the Defenders he is a proven actor if you liked him in his 2 solo seasons then you'll like him in this. Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones is the same sassy hero as in her own series she interacts with the other cast members brilliantly often stealing scenes.

Mike Colter is yet again amazing as the unbreakable Luke Cage interacting with every cast member in a really believable way, hands down the best acted character and one that really makes it known that he cares for everyone. Finn Jones's Iron Fist is somewhat improved is a more confident character in both conversations and in fighting having improved his form in fights.  

Fight Scenes

In general, the fight scenes are very very well constructed often being more fluid. the fight scenes are well choreographed and play into each character's powers and prowess. by far the most improved is Danny Rand. 

One of the bigger complaints I and others had during the iron fist series was that Finn Jones/ Danny Rand's form or portrayal of martial arts wasn't as clean or refined as in Daredevil or CW's Arrow. However, in the Defenders his form has improved a lot, which fits with the character progression and while he is not as clean as Murdoch it pays to remember that Mat has a few more years of experience and uses a more MMA style than straight up Kung fu.

Visuals

There is little surprise that there are some clever transitions and camera work in a Marvel property and the Defenders is no different with some original camera angles and some quite ingenious transitions, the best bit though is the filters. This show manages to work in and mix the specific colour pallets of each character, Yellow for Luke, green for Danny, purple/blue for Jess and red for Matt.

Story 

Does it flow? is it easy to comprehend? Both good questions and yes it does flow there is a clear story and it is all linked very well in a concise manner that most if not everyone can follow, as far as I can tell there are no glaring plot holes.

Criticisms

There are some things that bugged me and one thing that irritated the crap out of me and somewhat left me both disappointed and impressed, one thing that bugged me was the inconsistency of Elektra's abilities, I will explain this below in the spoiler section 

The first thing that bugged me is that while Finn Jones has improved his form it is still quite poor for the 21st-century superhero TV show. Iron Fist is supposed to be the best martial artist in the world, yet any complex scene with Iron Fist who is clearly Jones has more mistakes and cuts in it and that really makes his form look even worse and less clean this also breaks the emersion of the fight and character. 

The quality of some fight scenes. This is only perceived as bad to me since we are living in an age where the CW is pulling out minute long fights, and Marvel is pulling out fight scenes like the 2 clean continuous hallway fights from Daredevil and Quake's prison and ship fight from agents of shield. 

The fact we know the kind of fights that Marvel can pull of these disjointed fights really make you wonder why they didn't hire a martial artist for the worlds greatest martial artist. Unlike with Charlie Cox, who is more skilled, uses a more mixed form and has a mask so can probably use a double easier, Iron Fist is meant to be untouchable he's supposed to be better than anyone else but he doesn't portray that 

The big this that irritated me was the misrepresentation of the Punishers role/appearance, this might be classed as both insignificant and as a spoiler yet is a thing so I've included it here.

The Punisher was teased heavily, in the come as you are trailer the N in Defend was from the Punishers logo.  There was a direct tease of him in the stan lee trailer of him saying "guess I arrived just in time" he is even listed in the cast list for the show on google. Yet he is not on the show at all, all we see is the international teaser for the Punisher. While not a direct lie it was terribly misleading and somewhat disappointed me.

Rating 

I give this show a solid 8/10 it was very good but it could have been better if you would like some more explanation then feel free to read the spoiler section.

Spoiler Section

Now this section I am going expand firstly on the criticisms I had that require spoilers to explain and
some contradictions in the story that confused me a bit.

Black Sky/Elektra's Powers

Yes as we all knew Elektra was an accomplished fighter before her resurrection, which gave her a power boost. She is now the black sky and she is now faster stronger and tougher than before, yet these abilities are somewhat inconsistent. 

She is shown to be capable of taking out any of the cast one on one. We see her take on and dispatch of Danny Rand, in normal fighting but she is unable or unwilling to stop his Iron fist. then we next see her take on Jessica Jones twice first time kicking her a few meters (we see jess confused at the level of strength used) then we see her knock Jess out with the same move, we also see her manage to knockout Luke and out fight Matt relatively easily, and of course, she kills Stick.

She is also shown being able to take on multiple opponents at once like In the Chinese restaurant where she can take on both Luke and Jess at the same time, In the climax fight she is also shown taking on All 4 defenders at once.

This confuses me because her powers are so vague like at her best she is shown to be as determined as Daredevil, a superior fighter to iron fist and Daredevil, stronger than Jess and more durable than Jess and faster than all 4. A woman who shown to be able to knock out Luke Cage and Jessica Jones who can out fight the Iron fist why are any of the ones on one fights so long.

How come the first Danny v Elektra fight last so long, why was the last fight scene with a weakened Daredevil so prolonged she should have been able to bear hug him, Matt should not have been able to restrain her even temporarily, or how come she wasn't just able to break Stick in half.

While this can probably be explained by creative choice it does beg the question where did she get these powers? She wasn't throwing people around in Daredevil season 2 yes she was shown to be an amazing fighter but that's it. Did the resurrection bring them out? Unlikely since no one else we have seen resurrected has been given super strength, But even if it was the resurrection, why did Stick go and kill the black sky in season 1 since all that would do is save the hand sometime.

The rules of the Resurrection substance

Right as we all know the Hand can bring people back to life, they do this via the substance which is discovered to be the bones of dragons. Now in the defenders, the Hand on their search to immortality or Kunglung have run out and are trying to obtain access to the Last source of the substance. There are still a lot of questions around this topic.

The last we were told the only way to kill a resurrected person was to decapitate them since their resurrection allows them to come back from most other illnesses or injuries. Now, this is contradicted by what they infer in the show, one of the fingers of the hand die and they infer that his death would have been avoided if they didn't use the last of the substance to bring back the black sky, suggesting that decapitation doesn't prevent another resurrection. If this is true then why didn't Stick, a member of the chaste 1 of 2 organisations that fight the hand, know this and didn't burn the bodies.

This resurrection is not eternal just provides a longevity to the recipient, what is the limit to the longevity? we know the hand are centuries probably millennia old but there is a limit as Alexandria finds out. But does taking a new dose restart the timer? Alexandria is dying she's out of time yet she says getting through the wall will provide her with a cure and freedom from death, yet there is a finite amount of the substance and in time it will runs out even if she uses it only it on her self in eons o come there will be an end so how does this provide immortality.

How did Daredevil escape?

In the final episode, the heroes blow up the building to bury the substance and the leaders of the hand with it, yet in the end scene we see Daredevil in a church or nunnery injured but alive, while clearly borrowing from the born again storyline, how did he survive.

Daredevil while arguably the best equipped and skilled member of the defenders he is just as durable as a normal human there was no way he should have survived a skyscraper falling on top of him, there would be a debate if Luke would due to the obvious lack of oxygen there would be. 

Even if the cavern survived and Elektra and mat were just trapped not crushed, how did she get them out without the teams digging through the rubble noticing, this is something I look forward to seeing explained late next year. 

How would burying the substance stop the hand?

Yes, the hand should have been killed by the collapse but Matt Murdoch survived, and if he could then so could Gao, not to mention what is going to happen when the disaster/construction teams find a skeleton of a dragon at the bottom? 

Why didn't Clare call Matt?

The moment that she made the connection between Luke's investigation and Danny's fight against the hand why didn't she link Matt into the loop, he out of everyone has had the most experience fighting crime and the hand. 

Tbh why didn't she ask Matt for help during Iron fist and why didn't she ask Jessicas during Luke Cages I don't know but hey

Why didn't the hand know who Daredevil was?

Yes he wears a mask, but at even after they made the connection that Elektra was protecting Daredevil they Can't figure out who he is like he walked into their headquarters without a mask he was assigned to Jess as her lawyer, he was at the Chinese without a mask, they don't make the connection that the blind guy who fought with the defenders and Stick is Daredevil. what do they think he was suddenly subbed for daredevil and don't care to find him once he's gone?

This from an organisation who knew where Trish was only minutes after Jess, who is so powerful that they knew where the defenders were in mere hours maybe minutes after they got there.

Don't miss understand this review

I really liked the show, the criticisms do I have just take more time and room to articulate properly. This show was very good it could have been better there is a reason I gave it an 8/10 can't wait for the next round of series.