Review: JUPITER'S LEGACY Throws Powerless Punches
Not only has the media been supersaturated with superhero movies of grandiose battles of good and evil, but we’ve also been getting smaller-scale TV shows that question what it would be like to give powers to imperfect and flawed people. Jupiter’s Legacy has a few intriguing characters and a most interesting premise, but it takes far too long to get anything done, nothing is explored in-depth psychologically, and it would have been a bit more compelling ten years ago.
The idea is pretty simple, a group of superheroes are dealing with the ever-growing and changing climate of supervillains and problems in the world. As supervillains become more sadistic or more sympathetic, our heroes must deal with their ethical and moral beliefs and choices. This is a great concept and could create some profound dynamics, but most of the characters spend every episode explaining their feelings and thoughts about the situation they are in but never taking action one way or another.
The actual plot starts very early with a mysterious return of a villain, but it isn’t really answered or addressed until the last twenty minutes of the last episode. Having a season-long villain and problem is fine. But that, the main plot, was always backseat to flashbacks and family drama. The show could’ve easily been four or five episodes, that’s including the flashbacks. If they cut out the repetitive scenes showing that a character is rebellious or another character is pure of heart, they could have saved a lot of time and made the show more tolerable. The rest of the budget and time could’ve been the actual continuation of the awkward cliffhanger at the end of the season.
All the characters definitely have depth and interesting motivations, it’s just unfortunate that we see very little of it or only very surface-level glimpses of them. I never got emotionally attached to any of them, I never thoroughly enjoyed the presence of any of them or wanted any of them to succeed or fail. This the screenplay and writing of the character’s arcs are the biggest to blame. However, I also felt that the cast’s performances and even some of the visual effects/make-up all seemed a bit too unpolished as if everything was only shot once. Sometimes conversations were on point and really good while others were cringe-worthy and childish. Overall, Jupiter’s Legacy clearly has a lot to offer in its universe and character, but we don’t get to see that on camera.
There are some interesting concepts and characters which have a lot of potential of being cool, but the execution just wasn’t there. The greater concepts of what defines good and evil and a hero’s impact and influence were never really explored, only talked about between characters. With TV shows like The Boys, Invincible, Umbrella Academy, or even the Netflix Defenders shows, we’ve already seen fantastic examples of the negative effect that superheroes have on the world or what happens when heroes have no limits. Jupiter’s Legacy should have either gone deeper into its characters and its mature themes or made it more lighthearted and fun/family-friendly. But it’s now just sitting in an awkward in-between state of being too intense for children and not thought-provoking enough for adults.
