Ninja857142
Since: Nov, 2015
11/21/2023 00:00:00
After more than a decade, the most memorable moment in the MCU for me is still the time Hulk punched a cyborg leviathan in the face. Simple pleasures, I guess. It's sad to hear that the CGI is downgraded and probably churned out by overworked VFX artists.
Tuckerscreator
(4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
11/22/2023 00:00:00
This review doesn’t go into a lot of detail as to why MCU Jen is supposedly terrible but comics Jen is better. It just applies a bunch of adjectives for “annoying” on her but doesn’t actually describe how they apply. The closest it gets to a concrete example is the twerking bit, which strikes me as a shallow claim considering comics Jen did stuff like that too (such as breaking a printer scanning her butt on it.)
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Can't even be enjoyed ironically
Comic books always had a hook, something that made them different from others. There are so many characters and reboots and everything like that that there is truly nothing original under the sun, but She-Hulk was always Breaking the Fourth Wall comedy. Similar to Deadpool, She-Hulk was always aware of where she was and was unafraid to mention it. She does it on a much larger scale and uses it as her comic hook, whereas Deadpool feels more like a Meta Guy.
It was moved to a series, and, true, or at least tru-ish, to its roots, it went to be an over-the-top comedy. And it couldn't even do that.
Timing is everything, and She-Hulk's jokes fall flat. It attempts, badly, to create a character. They supposedly took their inspiration from Elaine from Seinfeld, and it shows in all of the worst ways: Jennifer Walters is just as insufferable, obnoxious, incompetent, and utterly lacking in self-awareness as her inspiration. Interestingly, it would be incredible comic irony to make the one character fully self-aware of where she is to be so impossibly dense. However, it's purely unintentional. At one point, She-Hulk begins twerking, and you can almost hear the people behind the camera screaming "Are we interesting yet?"
And it doesn't. She-Hulk attempts to be a number of things, but it never commits and fails at all of them. It's no good as a legal story because Jennifer is an incompetent lawyer. It's no good as a superhero setpiece because the CGI such things needs are horrendous and the stakes are too low. The attempts at comedy are nothing more than cringe. As a slice-of-life comedy, the main character possesses no interesting traits, and the heavy-handed lectures are as subtle as a brick to the face, and of course, given by a deranged sociopath.
If you're looking for comedy with insufferable jerks, watch Archer. At the very least, the writers know the characters are so awful. She-Hulk would be interesting if she was aware she was, while not the villain, at least in no position to be the hero. In this, She-Hulk is at least somewhat aware. But anticipating that the audience knows your story is awful is not an excuse for bad writing. Nor is it a substitute for good writing. She-Hulk belongs with other bilge like Velma, which clearly took inspiration from She-Hulk, sharing in the self-referential "humor."
Do yourself a favor, dear reader. If you want to see why She-Hulk was a comedic genius, get the older comic books.