Producer: CW Studios
Writers: Greg Berlanti (developed by), Marc Guggenheim
Director: Glen Winter
Featuring: Capster Crump, Arthur Darvill, Franz Drameh, Victor Garber, Falk Henshel, Caity Lotz, Wentworth Miller, Dominic Purcell, Ciara Reneé, Brandon Routh
ReleaseDate: OUT NOW – US/UK – 3 March 2016 (TBC)

I wanted to like DC’s Legends of Tomorrow – there is that ‘blurred around the edges’ look of Alan Moore’s The Watchman in the cast of superheroes. Or, maybe that’s just me – but trust me, I really did want the idea to work: a super-hero ensemble traveling through time and facing an immortal adversary. Some of the characters like supercilious Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller), dim Mick Rory/Heatwave (Dominic Purcell) and naïve Ray Palmer/Atom (Brandon Routh) as an Iron-Ant-Man, are interesting and engaging enough to get the ball rolling.

Cheeky rogue Time Lord, um, Agent, Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) travels 150 years into his past to trick those characters plus Hawkman (Falk Henshel) and Hawkgirl. (Ciara Reneé), the binary Firestorm and White Canary (Caity Lotz, pandering in a bare shoulder and halter top) to join Hunter’s revenge quest.

In DC’s Legends of Tomorrow there are some wacky turns, like Firestorm’s insufferable ass Martin Stein (Victor Graber) selfishly drugging and kidnapping cocky young Jefferson “Jax” Jackson (Franz Drameh), Firestorm’s symbiotic other half. And the episode is salted with decent enough dialogue; non-ironic and delivered without anybody’s tongue being in anyone’s cheek. For a change. Holy seriousness!

Well, in many ways for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, so far so good, but this opening episode quickly devolves into a formulaic cliché-ridden narrative, where plot holes abound and there is a sharp descent into a disjointed collection of missed opportunities and botched possibilities. But sin of sins, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow settles into its own dull farrow.

Of the performances in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow the timber strewn Falk Henshel as Hawkman and Ciarra Reneé as Hawkgirl have no chemistry. But Wentworth Miller was born to play Leonard Snart. For his part Dominic Purcell hams it up as the scary, slow-witted Heatwave.

If you can look past the many and annoying blemishes, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow may still push your buttons. That is, if you are happy with a promise which starts off well but falls to completely meet your expectations. There is disappointment in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and it threatens to overwhelm it.

 

Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker