The Defenders

It's unfortunate that most people who go through the trouble of writing IMDb reviews are pretentious, pompous, and hopelessly opinionated. As an effort to offset their negativity and wannabe film buff nonsense, I thought I'd chip in. I took some film classes in college, so I'm not totally ignorant when it comes to filmmaking, but I'm by no means an expert. I'll skip my criticisms altogether and just say that it's not a perfect show. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was engaging, suspenseful and fun. The music, setting, acting, cinematography, etc was all pretty solid. It's a superhero show, folks...no one should expect something that rises to the level of 'high art.' There have been only 2 exceptions to that rule that I can think of: the dark knight and legion. Go into this expecting to redefine your view of the universe, and you'll undoubtedly be disappointed. Go into it expecting to be ENTERTAINED and not much else and you should be happy. Also, if you're the type that enjoys poking holes in plots and spotting every error possible, you might have issues....but really, people....it's NOT BASED ON A TRUE STORY. Fiction and especially comic books have the luxury of telling stories unencumbered by facts. They're more like modern day Aesop's fables (which have many plot points that don't make sense btw).

Enjoy it for what it is: Good entertainment.

While not as good as the original shows, The Defenders is still a pretty good superhero show that brings all of the Netflix Marvel heroes together in one show (except The Punisher). I have to admit that it wasn't as good as I hoped for a crossover, because most of the original shows were so amazing, but it's still a pretty good show that's absolutely worth watching!

As a huge fan of Marvel I'm a little biased because I pretty much like everything they put out. My bias aside, The Defenders is a pretty good show. If you don't believe me just read through the reviews here and look at the ratings. Even the critics loved this show. It's definitely not as good as the characters original shows but it's still worth watching. This wanted to be like Avengers where they take a bunch of Superheroes from their core shows/movies and bring them all together for one amazing team up. This is not the Avengers. All four of these heroes (Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist) are used to working as individuals but quickly realize that won't work this time and have to have to come together and team up to save New York City. The show starts a little slow but after the four heroes finally come together the show finally picks up and becomes a lot of fun. It blends the best of the four shows into one and makes it pretty enjoyable. This is a must watch for any fan of the MCU.

So you can google this, but in case you haven't here is what you should watch before seeing this, in the order I write them:

• Daredevil S1
• Jessica Jones S1
• Daredevil S2
• Luke Cage S1
• Iron Fist S1

If you watch those, you are fully informed about what is going on with every superhero and can fully enjoy the limited series as they call it that is Defenders. Now I have some issues with some character moments (Jessica Jones trying to convince us she doesn't care about other humans, when her first season was running on that premise, which made her look a bit weak to be honest, but more on that on her own show), but overall, this is just a lot of fun, with things happeninng that do have impact for the future. It is a bit of shame Netflix cancelled the shows, but it made it possible for me to finally say, hey let's binge those. Defenders may be stand alone and I would not have minded another reunion, but as it is, production values are high, effects are great and the fact it is only 8 episodes (the other shows ran for 13 episodes), makes it short and sweet and a lot of fun to watch. Especially with having some prior knowledge for the characters involved.

...and I don't get it.

Certainly not a big budget, heavy on the special effect blockbuster like the Avengers, but then again it wasn't supposed to be.

On the good side:

Excellent choreography of the fight scenes. Not quite up to the Daredevil series, but definitely well above average.

Cinematography and use of color well done.

Well acted by all 4 of the lead characters and excellent work by the supporting cast. Personally thought the actors had a decent chemistry.

Plot...not overly original but not bad.

Writing...again not overly original, but gives a workable vehicle for the actors.

The not so good:

CGI...not much here...the glowing fist doesn't see too impressive.

Directing and especially the pacing could have been better.

Overall:

I found this to be a highly watchable show, though well short of great. While I found Luke Cage and Iron Fist series heavily mired in mediocrity, this one holds its own in my opinion.