- Written by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg & Phil Klemmer
- Directed by Glen Winter
Time-traveling rogue, Rip Hunter, has to recruit a rag-tag team of heroes and villains to help prevent an apocalypse that could impact not only Earth, but all of time.
Catch ‘DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’ Thursdays at 8/7c on The CW and in the UK coming Sky One on Thursday 3rd March at 8pm.
Finally after all the hype and promotion ‘DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’ (hereby known as ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ ‘Legends’ or ‘LoT’ for the sake of typing) premiered this week to some surprising reviews.
Fans of the Guggenheim/Berlanti TV universe, currently home to ‘Arrow’, ‘The Flash’ and ‘Supergirl’, have been thoroughly excited since the show was announced back last year and have been eagerly following the great many trailers that have been shown. Excitement was thus that The CW felt it warranted a whole half hour special ‘DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: Their Time is Now’ which aired on Tuesday of this week ahead of the premiere.
So how did the show live up to the hype?
The best way to put it is… okay.
After living with many of these characters throughout the opening few weeks of both ‘The Flash’ and ‘Arrow’ the first half of the pilot story of ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ benefits from being able to quickly introduce each of its characters. However this does show that the creative team were reliant on the audience having watched both other shows.
It’s fair to say that ‘Legends’ is made for the fans. Hopefully it will pick up some new viewers along the way but for this pilot there’s no room for learning who is who beyond their names.
The pacing of the episode is fast throughout, the opening gathering of the heroes takes very little time and before we’re giving chance to breathe they are off travelling through time. The story continues at break neck speed throughout cramming in a visit to 1975 as well as glimpses of the awful future of 2166 where Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) Originates.
It was a good move on behalf of the writers to expand this story in to two episodes but a shame that The CW felt it necessary not to air them back-to-back given all the work it has done on brand awareness.
My only fear is that so much of the story is centred on Vandal Savage (Casper Crump) a that the show may never be able to create another credible villain. At this early stage we’re not aware for the plans for ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ beyond its first season but I’m not sure of its longevity if each season focussed on the same battle for the future.
The casting of the show has always been its selling point. Taking much loved characters from across the various franchises in the DCTV Universe and pulling them all together is genius.
I’m personally most interested to see what character development is thrown at them whilst on this journey. With characters like Firestorm (Franz Drameh & Victor Garber) at the beginning of their career together and Sara Lance fresh from the grave there’s a wealth of development that could be tapped in to but it remains to be seen whether ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ is geared up for anything more than action adventure.
There is likely to be very little room for a supporting cast given the need to balance screen time between the nine leads.
With only one episode for evidence the only weak link in the chain feels like Rip. His dialogue comes off as very preachy throughout although Darvill does his best to find his feet amongst the crowd of established characters.
One aspect of ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ that definitely does not cause concern is the special effects. They are outstanding throughout. The episode opens in future London featuring a battle in the air and on the ground, future technology stands out and flying vessels impress.
The time ship (resisting the urge to call it a TARDIS) has an impressive exterior and interior sets of the ship are equally as well put together. Scenes of ATOM (Brandon Routh) in costume; Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Firestorm in mid flight but also the weapons used by Leonard Snart and Mick Rory are all beyond that of what we get to see weekly on ‘Arrow’ and ‘The Flash’.
If the creative team can maintain this level of effects throughout then I have no doubt that the show will continue to impress visually from week-to-week.
Music is once again provided by franchise composer Blake Neely, there aren’t any standout themes yet but the ground is laid for another great score.
Reviewers have called the show out for being a little saccharine around the edges and it’s true. These are lot more cheese here than ‘Arrow’ and even more than ‘Supergirl’ which is probably the most saccharine of the DCTV Universe shows to date. It was a little unexpected but I think it’s what the show needs in order to make the premise work.
It’s a good pilot, not a great one. But we’ll definitely be tuning in for part 2 next week. Check out the trailer for ‘Pilot (Part 2)’ in the player below and let us know your thoughts on ‘Pilot (Part 1)’ in the comments!
3 stars
‘DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’ episode 2 ‘Pilot (Part 2)’ trailer:
