With the start of the new year many people in Hollywood are hoping that they can turn there luck around with one of those companies being Marvel Studios. Who had a pretty rough year last year and well the company has just put out there first new piece of media for this year and well you all just know that I had to check out the first episode of this show the very first chance that I got and so then join me as I give you my SPOILER FILLED first impressions of the show that sees the MCU earn it;s first ever TV-MA rating with the show in question being called simply just "Echo" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is the very first thing that's wrong with the episode as just like the first episode of Adventures Of Superman this episode has no plot to speak off. On top of that this episode does spend around twenty eight minuets of it's running time just giving us the heroes backstory which granted is needed as she's that much of a well known character but it doesn't need to spend that long on her backstory which made even worse when you take into account that this show is a spin-off show with this first episode just retelling events that happened in an episode of the parent show which already covered alot of her origin which means that there really was no need to cover her origin story again as the people that will already be watching this show would already know it due to the previous show already covering it and the mainstream audiences will be turned of by the fact that there spending so much telling you who this character instead of giving us a good story to get us interested in the rest of the show and make us want to watch not only episode but the rest of the shows first season of episodes in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez / Echo , Chaske Spencer as Henry Lopez and Tantoo Cardinal as Chula Battiest. Also starring in this episode is Devery Jacobs as Bonnie , Zahn McClarnon as William Lopez , Cody Lightning as Biscuits , Graham Greene as Skully , Julia Jones as Chafa , Thomas E. Sullivan as Vickie Tyson , Katarina Ziervogel as Taloa , Morningstar Angeline as Lowak , Dannie McCallum as Tuklo , Dakota Ray Hebert as Gretchen Sarnoff , Dallas Goldtooth as Shikoba and Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well the in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With the episodes cast doing the best that they can do but the issue is tho is that not only does the episodes director seem like someone who doesn't know who to direct there actors but at the same time the script for this episodes is just so bad as it doesn't give any of the actors in this episode much to work with interms of what there respective characters personalities are even meant to be and as a result of that is the fact that the episodes cast really just can't turn in that really good of a performance as this episode really just won't allow them to do so.
For once I cannot find out who did the CGI for this episode anywhere online which is such a shame as the episodes CGI was actually not that bad. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as the episode does have very minimal CGI with it only really being used to remove a leg and replace it with a fake leg which is how CGI should be used as it's something that isn't to distracting with the effect itself looking really good and blending in really well with the live action footage with this kind of CGI being a great use of CGI as all it's basically doing is enhancing what was there on the day of shooting.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!
There was one name that was left deliberately of the episodes cast list and that name is Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil. With the character only showing up in the opening few minuets of this episode with his scene being the best scene in the whole entire episode as it shows that he can still kill it as Matt Murdock and given that Wilson Fisk was also his main foe on Daredevil it does make sense for him to be in this episode as well as the two characters do share history with each other but at the same time tho he doesn't appear in the episode for very long with his scene basically being nothing more then a cameo appearance which does make sense as he is getting his own show at somepoint but at the same time if your going to bring back an actor that alot of people love then why not give him a slightly bigger role in the episode as that is something that the fans of the character would actually like to see and not have him just be a cameo appearance and really nothing all the more then that.
For the release of this show Disney did something new and that's the fact that they released all of the shows first season on the same day. This is something that I don't think works for the Marvel shows as those shows are built around the cliffhanger ending which are designed to make you want to watch episode two and half of the fun of watching a good TV show is the week long wait between episodes this is something that all of the other Marvel shows have done well with as alot of them have a large amounts of people talking about them on social media the day of an episodes release and because of that they do mange to last alot longer in the public's conscious which is just not going to happen with this show as the show is going to be watched in a day or two and then it'll be forgotten about by alot of people and while the idea of releasing all the episodes is a solid idea it needs to be with the right show and with the property and sadly this is neither.
The key theme of this show seems to be about family and what it means to have a family and be apart of a family. Which in all honesty really isn't a bad theme as while we've seen this theme explored to death in other Marvel media it is still an interesting and seeing this episode set that theme by having Maya be an outcast from her own family due to the work of her father and the fact that her Grandmother blamed her father for the death of her mother made it feel fresh and new as that's a take that we havn't seen before now and to the episodes credit it does dedicate alot of time to fully setting up this theme but with that being said it would have been nice if they came up with something more creative with the Maya character as having her be a former assassin that's really estranged from her own family does seem rather really over done at this point and such it's obvious where all of the drama and conflict for the show is going to be coming from and it's really obvious that it's all going to resolved by the end of the shows fifth and final episode as well.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly forty eight minuets and forty eight seconds. Which is a tad bit on the long side for this episode to have but given that large portion of this episodes running time is spent on Maya's origin story it is kind of understandable why the episode episode is as long as it is as even without the pointless origin story recap in the episode the episode itself still has alot of characters that it needs to set up and establish which it wouldn't be able if the episode was say under thirty minuets but at the same time tho there's no need for this episode to be as long as it is as the episode really doesn't have alot there interms of plot with Maya's origin recap feeling more like padding as it doesn't really add anything to the actual plot of the episode but I will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured . presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty the best part of the episode. As the action in this episode was just so good with there being a really impressive one take action scene near the midway point of the episode which was just so cool to see and was the best action scene of the episode just from a pure technical standpoint with it doing a really good job of showing us that Maya really can hold her own in a fight with most people with it really being helped that we get to see alot of really cool moments in that one action scene with the best part of the whole scene being the fight between Maya Lopez and Daredevil which is just co freaking cool to see in the episode and was the best part of not only that action scene but the episode as a whole in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!
Overall this first episode was a solid if somewhat flawed first episode but at the same time it is one of the better MCU efforts when compared to a few of there recent films from last year in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in his very episode in this very post and while this is only my first impressions I won't be giving the series as of yet but if you guys want a full on series review of the show as a whole then all you have to do is let me know down in the comments section below and i'll really think about reviewing this whole series.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very post well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very post from the official Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website that I personally preferred to use to get the images that I personally used in this very review being the wonderful the official Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom wiki page since all of the images that are currently up and and on the official Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom wiki page are all fairly high in quality and as well as being really fairly freaking high in definition.