The Defenders Review

MARVEL'S THE DEFENDERS: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE VERDICT

The Defenders brought together the stars and characters of the Marvel Netflix TV shows with Charlie Cox as Daredevil, Kristen Ritter as Jessica Jones, Mike Colter as Luke Cage and Finn Jones as Iron Fist to battle the evil ninja-esque organisation The Hand and its threat on New York led by the evil and mysterious Alexandra played by Sigourney Weaver. The show did have its ups and downs but overall I feel like it (kinda) lived up to expectations and wasn't too disappointing. So, for those of you who are yet to binge watch The Defenders (why???) and are allergic to spoilers, let this be fair warning but for the rest of you, lets get to it.

THE GOOD

The cast chemistry: 

the idea of seeing all four members of the defenders team up was already an exciting prospect but I have to say that the chemistry between the actors on-screen really made for good viewing especially in the case of Finn Jone's Iron Fist who was arguably better to watch when he shared scenes with the other defenders and the exchanges with Luke in particular were all great. The blend of all their different personalities came off really well and easy and didn't feel at all forced, I have to say some of the best scenes in the whole series were those shared by all four of the main stars but that takes nothing away from the supporting casts of all four of the protagonists.

The plot tie-ins: 
with the previous show before The Defenders being Iron Fist, the series did well to intimate us with what the three stars as well as their supporting casts from the other shows have been up to and where they are mentally. Matt Murdock finally leaving behind his costumed life and reconnecting with those he pushed away, Jessica is basically still Jessica and Alias Investigations is still closed, Luke just got out of prison and got some coffee 😉 with Claire. Also, the way their individual sub-plots (Luke investigating the hiring of Harlem youths to do some dirty work, Jessica's missing-person case involving an absent father who's harboring explosives in his apartment and both Danny and Matt already had run-ins with The Hand in their previous outings) ultimately dove-tailed and led them to the same place at the same time was really fun to watch and it helped to understand what drives each of them into the battle to stop The Hand and save New York.

Sigourney Weaver: 
casting Sigourney as the mysterious Alexandra helped raise the excitement for the series but it was spot on and she really came through for the character who was obviously created for the sole purpose of being the big bad of the series. Weaver properly locked down the characters mysteriousness, her unnerving confidence as well as her tact and wisdom acquired from the long life she's had.

8 episodes length: prior to watching the series, I was a bit worried about it being just 8 episodes long rather than the usual 13 in the previous standalone Marvel Netflix series but in hind-sight it was good choice as it removed the drag suffered by the previous shows when trying to fill 13 episodes.

The fight scenes: 
everyone knows that the most anticipated aspect of a superhero team up is getting to see the heroes fight as a team and witness the dynamic they share in the heat of battle like epic one-liners, combos and its always a joy seeing our heroes at some point face-off against each other. The action scenes shared by the group were really engaging and fun to watch.

THE BAD

Iron Fist:

Finn Jones' Iron Fist as in his own solo outing earlier this year was still difficult to watch in 

The Defenders. I still stand by my opinion that Jones was poorly cast to play the role as the actor's performance is largely forgettable and uninspired. Acting aside, Danny Rand's motives don't just seem to move me and I've failed to really feel anything but sad for the character's poor writing. Finn's fighting abilities are still not up to par and as in Iron Fist, his fight scenes are poorly done with a  lot of cuts and edits to make up for his shortcomings.

Alexandra:
yes!! I know I had earlier praised Sigourney Weaver's turn as Alexandra The Defenders big bad so this might come off as contradictory. In truth, Sigourney was great but I found certain things wrong with the story arc of the Alexandra character itself and I feel like someone of Weaver's caliber was greatly underutilized as the character was both badly written and treated. Earlier scenes inform us that Alexandra is terminally ill and is more than willing to throw caution to the wind in attempt to speed up The Hand's plan to achieve immortality for its five leaders and quickly establish that she has led The Hand since the beginning. The major disappointment here is the fact that the character is unceremoniously killed off before the climax of the series and is portrayed as significantly weaker than any other member of The Hand's five leaders (Madam Gao is wayy cooler). It would have been so much more fun to watch Sigourney kick ass as Alexandra, I really imagined her being fashioned along the lines of Wilson Fisk in the first season of Daredevil, being reserved, resourceful and having plenty expendable henchmen at her disposal but also capable of doing some dirty work by herself and holding her own in a fight when the circumstance demands it. Although we saw flashes of her fighting ability they were not enough wardrobe and the only thing really great about the character was her. The Alexandra character was a big hiss for Marvel and a total waste of Sigourney Weaver's talents.

The Hand: 
we were introduced to The Hand in the second season of Daredevil and even then I felt like their arc was the weaker (the punisher arc was much better) plot point in an otherwise great season. The Hand's story saw more light in the not so impressive Iron Fist and I have to say that ever since their introduction, I've always felt like the organisation didn't live up to par and were a bit underwhelming. In Daredevil season 2, their mystical element felt out of place in an otherwise very grounded series and for that reason they failed to win me over, in Iron Fist on the other hand, the absence of a proper backstory on the organisation and its motives completely put me off and I couldn't wait for things to be done with them. The Hand and The Five Fingers have always been fore-shadowed as this big secret powerful group with a hand (pun intended) in practically every thing but by the end of the series the hand appeared as basic as possible and I was largely unpressed. For an organisation that has lasted hundreds or even thousands of years with leaders as old as the organisation itself they seemed really loosely fit and their goals seemed to be set on the fly totally subject to impulse and nothing at all like what I had hoped to see and at the point where Elektra/The Black Sky or whatever killed Alexandria and took over, it was just too much for me to bear. The hand was all hype, all bark and no bite. An absolute disappoint.

Off-putting plot twist:
as mentioned above, The Defenders tried to pull of the same stunt Luke Cage did where the main antagonist is swiftly, brutally and unexpectedly killed by a trusted ally who then proceeds to run the show. The problem was that while it worked to great effect in Luke Cage, it came off as cheesy and entirely unnecessary. The fact that Elektra who was a single being was able to just take over the affairs of an organisation such as The Hand in such a fleeting fashion was depressing to watch and it felt extremely out of place, it was just terrible writing. Even worse than the hostile take over was the fact that Elektra had no plans at all whatsoever for The Hand, making the whole act even more senseless (she could've just disappeared or something..). In truth, the show lost me there and I only continued just to see how things would end.

THE VERDICT

The show was good if uneven and it sadly carried much of what didn't work in Iron Fist and season of Daredevil (The Hand). The chemistry between the cast was so good that it more than made up for the other shortcomings and with The Hand destroyed (hopefully) I'm excited to see each Defender return to their own solo outings and move on with their own stories. Overall, it was a great show and I'm really hoping for another season.

Rating: 7.0/10