From left: Serinda Swan, Iwan Rheon, Anson Mount
Currently in Imax theaters is Marvel’s disaffecting live-action, made-for-TV adaptation, “Inhumans,” based on the comics’ royal family of superbeings, whose existence is hidden from Earth’s general populace.
Considered by some as Marvel Studios’ attempt at replacing the X-Men, whose film rights belong to 20th Century Fox, the Inhumans have that potential to be the constantly growing film universe’s premier misfit heroes—too bad, though, that its translation is too contrived and rushed.
The first two episodes are being screened at Imax theaters, running for an hour and 15 minutes. The big-screen treatment, however, just accentuates the fact that it doesn’t begin to compare with Marvel’s blockbuster epics and other small-screen serials. Nope, “Inhumans” is thinly plotted, and possesses none of the grandeur that has made many of the previous films and shows must-watch superhero fare.
It has a promising premise: The realm of the Inhumans, Attilan, is invisible on the surface of the moon. Its people are led by the royal family, which includes a king with a devastating voice, Black Bolt (Anson Mount); a queen with deadly hair, Medusa (Serinda Swan); her elemental sister, Crystal (Isabelle Cornish); and their cousins, the hoof-footed Gorgon (Eme Ikwuakor) and the super-analytical Karnak (Ken Leung).
The outsider in that circle is Maximus (Iwan Rheon), who is the powerless brother of Black Bolt, and a vocal critic of the king’s authority.
Rheon plays the rebel leader Maximus
Attilan is basically a peaceful urban area that looks populated by Americans with powers—some of them with more obvious mutations than others. It also has a narrow tunnel where those without “special” abilities are banished to work, for some unclear reason.
Maximus, the charismatic outcast that he is, suddenly reveals his plot to overthrow the royal family and declares a conflict with Earth’s inhabitants. Former “Game of Thrones” actor Rheon initially makes Maximus interesting, but he’s given material that ultimately dulls the murkily motivated character, which immediately becomes drab and tiresome.
The rest of the characters are just poor and dull reflections of their otherwise distinct and magnificently garbed comic-book selves.
Effects-wise, there’s a giant CGI dog—Lockjaw, the royal family’s pet teleporter—that doesn’t stick out. And thankfully, Medusa’s mighty locks move quite well.
While there’s a nod to Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” where the Earth-based Inhuman species and their backstory were introduced and developed well, there’s no indication that the shows will connect any time soon.
Instead, we have Black Bolt and company marooned on different parts of Hawaii, forced to mingle with humans, while being hunted by Maximus’ men—truly an unconvincing uprising, with boring action scenes to match.
Will it get better? It doesn’t look very promising. These characters just look like unintentional misfits in Marvel’s live-action pantheon, outsiders who won’t be replacing the X-Men any time soon.