First Things First…
Down to three left in the season, but this sounds like it’s just a one-off, which I’m not as excited about.
1 Thing I Like
1. Sauron
“The creature attacking the woman is Sauron. His powers would make him a dangerous foe, even if we still had our own.”
Magneto
With how disconnected this episode feels, I didn’t think we’d even get a Savage Land scene. Thankfully we do, because it’s the only part of the episode I liked.
It’d be easy to say this is no different than the scenes that introduced Barbarus and Amphibius in earlier episodes. It’s just another cool-looking Mutate, but seemingly no storyline progression.
There’s a difference, though…
Magneto fears Sauron. Sauron seems to have some kind of mind-control power, which he uses on a woman running through the Savage Land. And Magneto stops Xavier from trying to help her.
Will any of this matter? Will Sauron factor into the endgame of this Savage Land storyline? I don’t know. But at least this is more intriguing than the running in place we’ve been doing most of the season.
0 Things I’m Mixed On
2 Things I Don’t Like
2. Team Shopping Spree?
Scott and Jean look like they’re out as a couple, buying a TV, when Mojo makes his presence known. But after some back and forth, Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, and Beast arrive out of nowhere to try to help, only for all six of them to get sucked into Mojovision.
It’s weird, because Scott and Jean clearly never call for backup. But the others never say they were already there, maybe in another store if it’s at the mall.
1. Mojovision
“You’re a soulless, sadistic bag of pus, and you smell!”
Longshot
Mojo looks and acts like the love child of Jabba the Hutt and Hades from Disney’s Hercules. Which sounds like it could be cool, but it’s not. Even though he’s clearly powerful, there’s nothing serious about him. He really feels like an attempt at a villain that would make kids laugh and squirm. He plucks his own nose hair, he burps, he slugs Pepto Bismol and lets a lot of it pour down his chest. Compared to villains like Apocalypse, Mister Sinister, Mystique, or even a lesser-used foe like Omega Red, he’s just so goofy.
Add to that the ridiculous circus music used throughout the episode, instead of the usual theme, and it comes off as a joke.
And maybe I’m nitpicking here because I was so turned off by the episode, by how is it that this bloodthirsty audience all have books with them so they can start reading as soon as Mojovision turns off? Is that just so he can make a stupid joke about losing to dead trees?
Tim Matassa
