By: Dave Clark
After what seems like years of waiting and several thousand promos later, DC's Legends of Tomorrow is finally here. The DC Superhero mash-up brings together heroes and villains alike in order to save the world throughout many different times. The episode thrusts us into the immediate danger, Vandal Savage is on the verge of ruling the entire world. This poses a huge threat to humanity which drives Captain Rip Hunter to plead to the Council of Time Masters to allow him to make changes in the past. He goes back to our present from the year 2166 to assemble our Legends to stop Vandal.
We get introduced to the team, one at a time, doing what they do best. Saving people, and in the case of Captain Cold and Heat Wave, stealing things. Hunter assembles them all and explains the peril, allowing them a day to decide to their next move. Sara, Jefferson, Hawkgirl, and Heat Wave are hesitant, but they're eventually talked into the quest. We're introduced early on to the villain Chronos, a bounty hunter sent by the Council. In the comics he's the arch-nemesis of The Atom, so it'll interesting to see how he plays into his storyline going forward. The appearance of Chronos forces Rip Hunter to reveal his true intentions for gathering these eight people from the year 2016. They mean nothing to the timeline so their disappearances from the past would mean nothing to the future...Legends they are not.
Their first mission puts the Hawks into the path of their adult son from a previous life who is the world's expert on all things Savage and Hawks. Having them jump directly in the path of someone in the team's history was a brave step by the writers, but why not? Let's get it rolling, I say. The writers did a fantastic job of setting up Vandal Savage's history and his way of directing the events of our history, including the start of World War I and his influence on all wars in our past, present, and eventual future.
The episode comes together quite nicely. The second half really ramps up the action and the drama and reveals the true premise behind this series, or at least it's first season. I really enjoyed where it went and I can't wait to see where it goes from here and how many DC Comics easter eggs we get along the way.
What I Liked:
A look at the future and the past. The dystopian world that Rip introduces us to looks as bleak and desperate as it should. When they travel to the 70's the lighting has a tinge of yellow to it, which I've always felt that all footage and television shows from that era had a look to it that was very....yellow. It always looked like the brightness was on max when I watched shows from that era and it was captured quite well in this episode.
Sara is back! Sara and Laurel have a heart to heart that really made me like Laurel again. She explains to Sara that this is her time to come out of the shadow and be a light instead of a tool for pain. Her new white suit was a gift from Cisco, a lovely tie to The Flash. Caity Lotz's fight scene in the bar proved without a shadow of a doubt that she belongs in this role and in this universe.
The VFX team has outdone themselves. Along with the costume designer. The ship itself and the effect of it traveling through time didn't feel too much like Doctor Who, and more as it's own entity. The costumes were perfect! I felt like the era was portrayed quite well, and Chronos' suit was quite terrifying and fantastic.
The team and their different personalities. This team meshes well when it really shouldn't. We get to see so many different combinations of characters talking with each other and bonding or arguing that there's a lot of room for entertainment with this cast.
What I Didn't Like:
The pacing at the start. The assembling of the team and introductions all felt haphazard. Things were rushed and I understand why, they have an hour to get them up to speed and into action. Makes sense. The story just seemed so jagged for the first half of the episode.
Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell) is a little over the top with his acting. He could just tone it down a tad and I'd be happy.
These are just my thoughts on the show, what did you guys think? Did you like the first episode? Are you sticking around for the second episode? Sound off in the comments below!