MARVEL TV ADAPTATIONS

The recent spate of Netflix/Marvel adaptations (Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist)  started with the fairly solid Daredevil Season One. As the titular blind superhero, British actor Charlie Cox (Stardust) admirably took a role that had been tarnished substantially by the 2003 Ben Affleck vehicle and turned it into a brutal knock 'em down, drag 'em out style vigilante hero story. Vincent Dinofrio's turn as his nemesis Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin, was possibly one of the most nuanced, disturbing and well-drawn comic book villain roles yet committed to screen  (TV or Silver). The follow-up season of Daredevil was wobbly in parts yet featured a central plot element that elevated it above many other comic book forays: The Punisher.

For years, filmmakers have tried and failed to corral the character of Frank Castle, who is ostensibly a brutal sociopath with homicidal tendencies, into a heroic lead. It has never worked, and really, in terms of mainstream comic book genre cinema, it never can. Frank Castle is a dark character, a relic of the 1970's and early 80's Death Wish style vigilante fantasies. The showrunner's of Daredevil seemed to be well aware of this and instead teamed Frank Castle with Daredevil in order to have their ideologies clash, allowing the 'good' and reasoned side of Daredevil to balance the brutal vengeance-driven, kill-crazy acts perpetrated by The Punisher. That particular aspect of Daredevil Season Two, worked amazingly well - so much so that The Punisher has his own Netflix series, premiering in 2017.

As Jessica Jones, Kristin Ritter has proven a real winner, fusing the role of a retired superhero turned Private Eye, with snark, caustic humour and aggression. David Tennant gave a terrific portrayal of Kilgrave, the villain who can (in Preacher style) command people to do his bidding using his voice. Likewise Mike Colter delivered in spades with his portrayal of an indestructible black man in New York's Harlem. Luke Cage's tremendous confidence and willingness to embrace the politics and racial issues inherent in the subject matter - coupled with Mahershala Ali's intense performance as the villainous Cottonmouth - were impressive. 

The weak link here, inevitably, is Iron Fist. A character steeped in wrongheaded 1970's attitudes about race: a rich, white teen trained to be a warrior in supernatural Himalayan Kingdom K'un Lun, in order to be its defender. His super strength is derived from his ability to summon his chi, his life force, into one concentrated point - his fist. In the lead role of Danny Rand, a Bruce Wayne-esque heir to a massive fortune, actor Finn Jones' appearance recalls N'Sync era Timberlake, blonde jerhi curls included. Everything about him screams 'why wasn't this changed to an Asian character?'. It's an appallingly ill-thought out choice and effectively sinks the ensuing episodes - which, in an equally appalling ill-thought out decision - were shot after the team-up series, The Defenders. So the more annoying aspects of the character could not be corrected.

Even so, The Defenders was enjoyable enough and watching all four characters knock about New York, attempting to defeat the ominous underground cabal of secret Kung Fu villainy known as The Hand was fun at times. Sigourney Weaver filled the big bad villain shoes and, although she was given little to really do, there was some amusing interplay between the team. That said, this series was probably the best evidence yet of the single biggest problem with the Marvel/Netflix adaptations - they are simply too long. Too many slight stories are padded within an inch of their life. Character exchanges and dramatic scenes play out with a leaden, lumpen eye towards editing and scripting. It's as if the showrunners are seated behind the camera delivering 'stretch' hand signal to the actors. Every scenes duration runs to the 'nth degree, to best deliver a running time that will pad out the 13 episode run of a story that in reality, could barely fill half that duration.

So despite the enjoyable aspects of Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist - the main obstacle to wholly enjoying the shows is the absolute bagginess of the editing and the devotion given to deliberately and systematically elongating the episode duration, across the board.

This obsession with volume of content rather than quality, could be the Marvel series' undoing - that's despite taking the risible Iron Fist into account. Let's hope the next series to land - The Punisher - has a running time that doesn't bore the hell out of viewers during the dreaded middle six episodes and - like its protagonist, is lean, muscular and punchy.