Netflix Luke Cage Review (Spoilers allowed now :))

[Ryujin]

Tennant was good, as he always is, but I didn't feel he was as deeply committed to this character as he seemed to be in "Broadchurch." On the other hand I felt that D'Onofrio completely disappeared into his role as Fisk. Cottonmouth fell somewhere in between for me.

 

[Umbran]

That production is too far back in time (and not so great), so it's not current canon.

The Incredible Hulk (2008, the Ed Norton film) is canon. In The Avengers, we have this exchange:

Tony Stark: You should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top 10 floors all R&D, you'd love it... it's candyland.
Bruce Banner: Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke... Harlem.

There are other references to TIH scattered around. For example, in Iron Man 2, when Fury is having his discussion with Stark as to whether he'll be a member of the Avengers Initiative, or just a consultant, there are scenes of the College battle from TIH in the background on the SHIELD monitors.

That there's some continuity there is kind of important, as General Ross plays a notable role in Civil War, and what kind of man he is is established in TIH. The argument is that The Avengers cannot be trusted to operate independently, so they give control to a man who is notably responsible for the creation of the Abomination? That the political machine would turn control to such a man rather justifies Cap's resistance to the Accords, and sets the moral conflict for the movie!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The Incredible Hulk (2008, the Ed Norton film) is canon. In The Avengers, we have this exchange:

Tony Stark: You should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top 10 floors all R&D, you'd love it... it's candyland.
Bruce Banner: Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke... Harlem.

There are other references to TIH scattered around. For example, in Iron Man 2, when Fury is having his discussion with Stark as to whether he'll be a member of the Avengers Initiative, or just a consultant, there are scenes of the College battle from TIH in the background on the SHIELD monitors.

That there's some continuity there is kind of important, as General Ross plays a notable role in Civil War, and what kind of man he is is established in TIH. The argument is that The Avengers cannot be trusted to operate independently, so they give control to a man who is notably responsible for the creation of the Abomination? That the political machine would turn control to such a man rather justifies Cap's resistance to the Accords, and sets the moral conflict for the movie!

well, Cap is right even without Ross's untrustworthiness, but yeah, also that.

 

[Ryujin]

The Incredible Hulk (2008, the Ed Norton film) is canon. In The Avengers, we have this exchange:

Tony Stark: You should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top 10 floors all R&D, you'd love it... it's candyland.
Bruce Banner: Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of broke... Harlem.

There are other references to TIH scattered around. For example, in Iron Man 2, when Fury is having his discussion with Stark as to whether he'll be a member of the Avengers Initiative, or just a consultant, there are scenes of the College battle from TIH in the background on the SHIELD monitors.

That there's some continuity there is kind of important, as General Ross plays a notable role in Civil War, and what kind of man he is is established in TIH. The argument is that The Avengers cannot be trusted to operate independently, so they give control to a man who is notably responsible for the creation of the Abomination? That the political machine would turn control to such a man rather justifies Cap's resistance to the Accords, and sets the moral conflict for the movie!

True enough. I wish you hadn't reminded me, for now it will forever taint my memory of "The Avengers."

 

[Umbran]

True enough. I wish you hadn't reminded me, for now it will forever taint my memory of "The Avengers."

I don't see why. We can accept the events happening, without carrying along the not-great storytelling. And at least the mutated poodles aren't part of that bargain

 

[Ryujin]

I don't see why. We can accept the events happening, without carrying along the not-great storytelling. And at least the mutated poodles aren't part of that bargain

< SHUDDER! >

 

[Derren]

The timelines not clear so I'm going with the idea that Lukes story happens just before or in parallel to 'Civil War' which means 1) the Sokovia Accord isn't in effect 2) SHIELD is still recovering and 3) all of their resources are being dedicated to the Avengers break up.

whats more pertinent is that The Incident still looms large in public consciousness yet nobody in Harlem seems to remember Hulk and Abomination's "Harlem Terror"

Marvel movies have so far always been chronological. And according to a wiki Cage plays parallel to Shield season 4 and after Civil War.

 

[tyrlaan]

I really enjoyed the show. Like, really enjoyed it.

To clarify, I've liked all the Marvel Netflix series to date, probably ranking DD season 2 the lowest (which I won't go into since it's arguably off topic). Ultimately I can't decide if JJ or Cage was the better show, but I think I still put DD season 1 on top.

One of the things I really liked is that there are a lot of shifts in the story that I didn't expect. Not necessarily surprises per se, but just unexpected changes from a meta perspective; things most shows wouldn't consider doing (if that made sense).

Also, the show felt like a complete synthesis of all of its components in a way I don't think the other shows did. For example, the music didn't just fit the scenes but rather molded, framed, or was fused with the scene. The show itself seemed to ease into itself in a way reminiscent of the vibes the music style it leaned on exudes. I feel like the show could easily have been seen as slow, but instead it just felt comfortable in taking its time and being interesting along the way.

All the characters were strong, as seems to be par for the course in Marvel shows now. Some of the incidental characters were poorly acted, but overall stellar performances. I really liked that, despite being presented with gangsters again, it wasn't just a Kingpin rehash. Cottonmouth and others were their own people with their own motives and stories, etc.

I won't say anything else since I want to honor the 'no spoilers' tag on the subject line! (though we may have strayed slightly from that in this thread already)

 

[Umbran]

I think much of the idea of all the Netflix shows is that they are very "street level", and assume that issues of the world at large are rather lost in the local concerns. "Who cares about superhero registration in Washington? I'm not a superhero, or in Washington, I have this crime lord trying to lean on my business that is just scraping by as it is!"

 

[Tonguez]

I think I'm going to remove that no spoilers tag when I get to a real computer. It was there for the non-Bingers, but it seems we have avhieved critical mass of people who have watched it...