Fan response to the Inhumans clips and trailers hasn’t been overly warm. Although some CGI changes were made to Medusa and other characters with just a couple of weeks to go before the big release, they weren’t sufficient to change anyone’s opinion. In fact, a first official review from IGN tears the show to pieces.
The review has literally nothing good to say about the show from costumes, to actors, to plot. IGN did mention that Karnak earns some sincere laughs, but his lines are buried beneath a script that’s more of a rough draft than a final product, so this is faint praise:
The costumes and makeup look like a group of friends decided to do Inhumans cosplay the day before Comic-Con. The royal palace, a main setting, looks like a warehouse on the outside and is full of bland, forgettable spaces on the inside. The clunky dialogue sounds like a first draft, not the sharp material you'd expect from the MCU.
Unfortunately, launching Inhumans as an IMAX movie does more harm than good. The story simply doesn't have the scope, scale, or polish to make use of such a bold format, and it shows. Even though the IMAX version is supposed to be presented as a movie, it still includes episode recap flashbacks halfway through, making me wonder if the editor didn't get the memo.
Iwan Rheon's Maximus is Diet Loki, the jealous, scheming brother of King Black Bolt, but he’s given such insidious dialogue and direction that his motivations are immediately obvious. Also, there's one scene in particular where it seems no one on set pointed out that Rheon's accent was coming through. The few action scenes we find the characters in are filled with unimpressive visual effects and tepid choreography. Not even Lockjaw, the obscenely cute giant teleporting dog, is enough to make you want to sit through another episode.
The cast includes some talented actors, but they're buried beneath the show's glaring flaws, making it impossible to get invested in anyone enough to want to see what happens next.
IGN also addressed the fact that Inhumans is just loosely based on the comics:
Inhumans isn't bad because it's not a loyal adaptation of the comics. Inhumans is bad because it's a slog to get through.
Will you catch the Inhumans in an IMAX theater today?
