LEGENDS OF TOMORROW

“In the future, my friends may not be heroes, but if we succeed, they will be remembered as legends.”

The only way I can really summarise this series is that it’s one of those ones that while the last few episodes are pretty great, the journey getting there can be quite boring at times.

Legends of Tomorrow follows the former Time Master, Rip Hunter, as he assembles a group of heroes, and for some reason two villains, as he attempts to stop the immortal Vandal Savage from conquering the world in the future. It’s basically the Justice League mixed with Doctor Who.

Before I get onto the gaping plot holes the series has to offer, I’m going to go through the good parts of it, seeing as, although they are hard to find, they are there.

The first is basically the point of the show, the expansion of the DC-TV uni/multiverse. While these characters were doing fine in their respective shows, and part of me still thinks things should’ve stayed that way, having them put together, and elaborating on the stories of Hawkman and Hawkgirl makes for good character development. Slow, at times yes, but overall it pays off. Especially to those who want to see the characters done justice. It also means that these characters who have the spotlight in maybe a few episodes per-series are allowed to shine in their own spotlight for once.

I will say the story on the whole has ups and downs. As with any time-travel based show, you do wonder from the start why they don’t go back to when the villain first turned evil and just stop him then. Maybe they explained it in the time travel nonsense somewhere, but by that point I was struggling to keep up.

And now to the downsides.

The fight scenes are, how shall I put it? Badly shot. Yes, visually they look great due to the flame guns and laser cannons and all that stuff, but a mix of too much shaky cam and bad choreography make them look stupid way too often. Especially when a spinning shot reveals just how far away the actors are from actually hitting each other.

As with any show, there is a period where everything seems to grind to a halt story-wise. For Doctor Who, that’s been since about 2013-ish. For Agents of Shield, it was the majority of the first two seasons. For Legends, it’s about from episode 2 to about episode 13-ish. Whilst there are good episodes in-between, namely the episode with a future Green Arrow in it, nothing much seems to happen, or more accurately, the same thing happens. Over, and over, and over again. In truth, the series tends to thrive more when it takes a break from the main plot.

On the whole, Legends of Tomorrow is a series of ups and downs, sometimes drastically so. While the ensemble cast makes for a visually fun spectacle, at times the screen feels very crowded, and some important plot and character points tend to be looked over. The story might not be the strongest, but having a time travel based show is never an easy thing to do, and for the most part it pays off, especially when it breaks away from the main story. Also, knowing that this show is crossing over with Flash, Arrow and Supergirl next year is pretty great news.

On a slightly different, it does have a great cliff-hanger ending, both for those familiar with the comics and those who aren't:

“My name is Rex Tyler. I am a member of The Justice Society of America.”