Well, here I am again talking about Inhumans and X-Men. Instead of focusing on the comics though, this time, the subject has finally spilled over onto the TV side of things. Within the last week, we've had the series premiere of both "Inhumans", set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Fox's "The Gifted" based on the X-Men comics. Mutants and Inhumans are two of Marvel's super-powered races, and while the timing may have been coincidental, now this is the chance to see how they compare outside of the comics.
Let's start with the Inhumans. While "Agents of SHIELD" has featured apparent normal humans on Earth transforming into super-powered Inhumans after being exposed to Terrigen, the proper "Inhumans" show focuses on the prominent Inhuman characters from the comics: Black Bolt and his Royal Family, along with a whole society of Inhumans living in secret on the moon in the city of Attilan. And while I tried to watch the premiere with an open mind despite all the negative reviews received, I'm afraid to admit that it sucks. The acting, costumes, and CGI are all just below the quality I've come to expect from the MCU, even by TV standards. And unfortunately, maybe this shouldn't have been a surprise.
Inhumans had originally been announced as a film to be part of Phase Three of the MCU. After some time, the project had been transferred to television. While this is just speculation, this may have been done due to many disagreements between Marvel's film and television divisions, eventually leading to Marvel Studios to split from the overall Marvel Entertainment umbrella and report directly to Disney. As I've said before, Marvel themselves have been trying to give the Inhumans a push, and while the comics and the use of them on SHIELD have been the most prominent examples, the film would have been the ultimate goal. Let's not forget that Inhumans were and have been intended to fill the role of mutants in the MCU due to the X-Men film rights being owned by Fox. Of course, things always change, and once Marvel Studios became its own entity, the Inhumans film inevitably fell out of the plans. When the Inhumans TV series was announced, they stated they believed the property would work better on TV rather than try to insert them along with all the other films already planned out. From my view, this makes sense, as while I don't know what the original plans for an Inhumans film were, at this point, I don't know how it would have fit in the grand scheme, especially with Infinity War looming.
At the same time though, it probably would have been better if Inhumans had remained part of the film slate. Again, everything about the premiere of the show was just so underwhelming. Let's take the CGI for example. Ghost Rider had been featured last season on "Agents of SHIELD" but he still looked awesome, especially compared to Medusa's hair. In addition to that, we have the character Gorgon, who has bull-like legs with hooves, but I forget half the time that he even has those. It really doesn't help that the show was reportedly made "fast and cheap". According to Roel Reine, director of the first two episodes:
"I think they liked me for the job because I was able with my action movies to shoot in a very short time, or with very low budgets, action that looks like a big-budget movie," he said. "It was not a feature film, it was a TV episode, but they still wanted to have the scope."
And speaking of the action, there's a fight between Medusa and Auran and it was so disappointing. There's a constant use of slow motion, and I think the only reason for that was because they couldn't make the fight look convincing enough.
There are so many examples of the poor acting, mostly due to lack of inflection from the actors' voices, but I'm saving one big instance for later.
Let's shift to "The Gifted" now. Much like the approach to the Marvel Netflix series, we put the world of the X-Men under a microscope and focus on a more grounded story compared to the grander scale of the films; the same can be said for the other X-Men related show on FX, "Legion", which focuses on Charles Xavier's son. And while we never get a straight answer to these shows' place within the X-Men film continuity, in my opinion, they're still able to tell their own stories in a way that doesn't contradict the films and retain the somewhat grounded aesthetic that the franchise has created.
But keeping in line with the tone of an established franchise isn't the only thing "The Gifted" has over "Inhumans". The acting is much more believable here. The prominent example for me was when Andy, the son of the lead family of the show, is dragged into the school gym showers by bullies, who turn on the water and apparently make it scalding hot. You can really feel the anguish as Andy screams and his mutant powers manifest. Let's compare that to a scene from "Inhumans" where Maximus shaves off Medusa's hair. In what's supposed to be an emotional moment, her screams are drowned out by the music and she's able to get over it pretty quickly a couple minutes later. I mean, she lost her hair, which was the whole basis of her power, and instead of feeling sorry for her, my main thought went to "Oh, so that's how they're gonna save on the CGI". Seriously, Natalie Portman showed more emotion when her head was shaved in "V for Vendetta."
In comparing these two shows, I think this verifies the feelings I expressed last year about why the X-Men work better than the Inhumans. "Inhumans" focuses on the Royal Family and the society of Attilan, where they're literally cut off from the world. And while much of the main cast are trying to get by after being stranded on Earth, the main conflict is still among themselves. "The Gifted" however focuses on a family that goes on the run from the government when their children are outed as mutants. While these are both stories of family, one rules a city and the other is from suburbia. Mutants have always been a metaphor for puberty and minorities, something prominently shown in both ways on "The Gifted". In terms of relatability, the X-Men will always win out.
So after these first episodes, I felt excited for what comes next on "The Gifted", while "Inhumans" just left me feeling like, "Let's just make it through these six remaining episodes." Of course, the feelings I'm sharing about "Inhumans" here are just based on the premiere. It could always get better with the rest of this season. My feelings on the X-Men/Inhumans debate in the comics aside, I really did want Inhumans to succeed within the MCU. But obviously something went horribly wrong, and perhaps another route should have been taken. They could have still done an Inhumans movie, which most likely would have prepresented them in a better light. Or if they still wanted to put them on TV, they could have tested the waters first by having the Royal Family appear on "Agents of SHIELD" and then spin-off their own series. But what's happened happened, and this series may have been the final strike for the Inhumans to become a household name.
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