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Legends of Tomorrow: Leviathan

"When it comes to crap fathers, there is no 'deep down'."

Is this show getting better? Because I enjoyed this one, start to finish.

Okay, maybe the finish was a bit frustrating, and maybe Cassandra changed sides a bit too quickly. Great name for a character in a time travel story, by the way -- the classical Cassandra knew the future, but was cursed so that no one would ever believe her.

But... giant robot fight! Honestly, I'm not into the big fight scenes, but I loved Ray in his giant ATOM suit fighting Vandal Savage's giant Leviathan robot, with Jax kibbitzing along with him on the ship. It was a blast. Maybe they should rethink the group fight scenes, because this time, one on one was a lot more fun.


Anyway, Vandal Savage. This time he was the love child of Hitler and Darth Vader, complete with a bunker hideout and the very Nazi salute. And yet, the storm troopers were a bit too easy to infiltrate, and Cassandra somewhat easy to kidnap and convert. Maybe "deep down", she always suspected Daddy Vandal was lying to her about her mom, the virus and Per Degaton, and our guys did show her video proof. I liked Cassandra. She was badass, but clearly principled.

It's no secret that Snart is my favorite character, and I liked the way he stepped up and played "bad daddy, worse daddy" with Cassandra. And Mick made me laugh, over and over again. Mick was too Chronos in the last couple of episodes. Now he's more like his old pyro smart-talking self combined with Chronos. I love it.

The weakest link was, and yes, I'm repeating myself, Kendra. After the coolness of melting down the bracelet to cover Carter's mace and doing some minor Hulk-smashing, Kendra again crapped out when the chips were down, pardon the mixed gambling metaphor.

Come on, Kendra. You kill Savage first and save the world as well as Rip's family, and worry about the latest incarnation of Carter later. Or hey. Couldn't they just kill this particular memory-less Carter and have him reincarnate and then go forward in time twenty-five or thirty years and pick him up again? So I'm a bit shaky with how the Hawk rules works, but come on, Kendra. How can you prefer Carter to Ray? Ray just fought a giant robot, and he looks like Superman.

I thought Rip jumping in without making a plan first was a huge mistake. Again. You know, someone else with a bigger brain and better planning skills should be commanding this ship, and I nominate Martin Stein. Rip is growing on me, but he's too impulsive and way too emotionally involved.

Everybody remember where we parked:

-- London 2166, three days before Savage killed Rip's family. Apparently, Rip went back continually trying to change the outcome, which isn't a surprise.

-- Flashback to Iowa City, 1941, with the Hawks. Was that the same incarnation as when they were the Boardmans, I assume?

-- I loved the little Jurassic Park T-Rex homage when the Leviathan was tromping around and Martin was looking at the red liquid vibrating in the bottle. Followed by the globe shaking, also a nice touch.

-- I'm told that the mace is Hawkman's traditional comic book weapon, and that ATOM becoming huge has also occurred in the comics.

-- Poignant little scene with the starving kids. Isn't there some way to go back and keep all those millions of people from dying in that plague?

Quotes:

Jax: "Why is London shooting at us?"

Rip: "In order to capture him, I'll require the services of..."
Mick: "A killer, klepto and pyro?"
Rip: "Bingo."

Sara: "How am I supposed to teach someone to fight with a piece of jewelry?"
Rip: "Good question."
Sara: "It wasn't rhetorical!"

Mick: "We just like bright, sparkly objects. Like that bracelet."
Cassandra: "You'd risk dying for a bauble?"
Mick: "It works with my outfit."

Rip: "There I was thinking we could go a whole week without kidnapping anyone."

Ray: "Vandal Savage has a daughter?"
Martin: "Apparently it's true. There's a lid for every pot."
Jax: "And this lid is going to be very upset when he finds out we took his pot."

Kendra: (saying goodbye to Ray) "So I'm going to take on an immortal madman and you're fighting a giant robot. I can't believe this is our life."

Savage: "You do realize that she can do me no harm?"
Mick: "Clearly you didn't get the memo."

This first season has been mixed, but I thought this was another good one. Except that it should have been the penultimate episode, and it wasn't. There are three more to go.

Three out of four bright sparkly objects,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

7 comments:

  1. Is this show worth watching in your opinion guys? I dropped Arrow since it got boring, so I was thinking about getting into this, but the pilot didn't really impress me and I can't stand the lame Hawkcouple. So I don't know.

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  2. I'm enjoying it, Lydia. There have been hits and misses this season, but it's steadily improving and I'm a fan of some of the actors: Brandon Routh, Victor Garber, Wentworth Miller, Caity Lotz. I agree that Arrow isn't having its best season. Flash has been rocking, though. :)

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  3. I assumed that the Hawk's multiple lives are linked to Savage. If he is killed, they stop reincarnating, which would mean Kendra is left with the memory-less Carter. Which would not be such a bad thing actually...

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  4. I'm enjoying this show. But I agree with you, Billie, that Kendra is a weak link. Not only that, I find the whole Hawk/Reincarnation/Vandal Savage story line an uninteresting and too-complex-for-its-own-good detour that seems shoehorned into the intriguing overall possibility of Legends of Tomorrow. With this episode and the "I'm sorry, I just can't" Kendra anguish which shouldn't even be an issue... I find myself saying "I'm sorry, I just can't" myself. Coupled with the immature "Who should I take to the prom?" vibe I get from Kendra, it just frustrates me. There's a part of me that just wants to leave this show until the PTB make up their minds and get rid of that story arc so that the real fun can happen.

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  5. Hawkgirl finally has her mace! I've been complaining about the lack of it the entire season. She's not really Hawkgirl (or Hawkwoman) without a mace, but it's supposed to be an nth-metal mace so I'm not sure if this counts.

    I totally agree about Carter. Bigger picture, Kendra! I was thinking that after they kill Savage they could go back to before Carter was brainwashed and save Carter. Plus I find it hard to believe whatever Savage did to him is completely impossible to be fixed by anyone else with magic abilities throughout time. Hopefully that will be addressed in the next episode.

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  6. I think I would have liked this episode a bit more if I hadn't just seen Pacific Rim. They, understandably, did a better job at the whole giant robot fight thing. Mostly, I'm just annoyed about Carter. I like Kendra just fine, but the moment her "soulmate" is introduced, it all goes out the window. At least she finally got her mace.

    I really liked Cassandra, and I'm sad that this seems to be the end of the character. She had really good chemistry with Snart. (Who doesn't?)

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