[7.4/10] Part 1 of the “Night of the Sentinels” two-parter is a solid introduction to the X-Men and their world. The smartest choice the series premiere makes is to root the story in the perspective of Jubilee, who is as new to this as the audience is.
On a practical level, that gives the show a chance to introduce everyone and everything. It’s hard to put myself into the shoes of someone new to the X-Men, but this was my introduction to the characters when it originally aired. If you’re uninitiated, you get a good sense of Professor X and his crew, their team dynamics, and their powers from Jubilee bumping into the various team members and watching their abilities in action.
Some of it’s a little blunt. Rogue’s random discussion of her backstory along the way of a mission, or Professor X clarifying to Cyclops that the Mutant Control Association is a private organization even though he presumably ought to know, comes off a little ham-handed. But for the most part, the show does a good job of showing each of the main members with their powers in action, and enough of their personalities and banter to get a sense for how they fit together.
Gambit is debonair. Storm is theatrical. Morph is playful. Cyclops is strait-laced. Rogue is a bit sarcastic. Beast is intellectual. There’s obviously more shading to be done, but you get the gist of each of the main players, which is important when situating viewers with a new show. And hey, most notably for X-Men fans, you get a good sense of Wolverine as someone who is gruff, sometimes outright insubordinate, but who cares enough to go after Jubilee even when it’s not the current mission.
Channeling all of thai through Jubilee lets the audience share in her confusion and chance to learn about these ostensibly scary but genuinely heroic major players. Sure, it’s a little blunt to have Cyclops just announce the team’s mission of doing good deeds to show regular humans that mutants aren't to be feared. But for the most part, Jubilee makes for a fine entree into this world and its major personalities.
Beyond the pure introductory function though, she serves a deeper purpose -- to drive home the key themes of the series: the unjustness of prejudice and the plight of people who are subjected to it. As Jubilee herself says, she’s just a kid. She didn’t ask to be a mutant. And yet, she faces bigotry and downright hatred from the people she encounters simply for being who she is. Even her own foster parents are worried about what she might be.
Seeing someone so innocent subjected to thai builts sympathy, and plays into the metaphors that have long been the stock and trade for the X-Men in the comics. It’s easy to put yourself in Jubilee’s shoes, and wonder why people would hate a person just for being who they are. The fact that she’s a young Chinese-American woman drives the anti-xenophobic perspective of the show home. Couple that with her struggling to control her powers which is an apt metaphor for growing up, and Jubilee having to hear politicians rail against her kind on national television, and you have the recipe for someone whose very existence helps you understand what the X-Men are fighting for and why.
Along the way, while the animation is a little choppy to start, the imagery is quite cool. The gigantic sentinels are terrifying, stomping through neighborhoods and malls, leaving destruction in their wake. Small touches like Beast’s ability to operate in any direction, or Rogue using an escalator as a shield make for some neat moments. And I’m completely blinded by nostalgia, but the designs for the X-Men really pop off the screen.
Overall, this one delivers on the promise of an X-Men series out of the gate, with an array of personalities with cool powers, a crisis of the week worthy of their talents, and a perspective character who brings their plight and their cause to the forefront.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-04-04T21:35:37Z
[7.4/10] Part 1 of the “Night of the Sentinels” two-parter is a solid introduction to the X-Men and their world. The smartest choice the series premiere makes is to root the story in the perspective of Jubilee, who is as new to this as the audience is.
On a practical level, that gives the show a chance to introduce everyone and everything. It’s hard to put myself into the shoes of someone new to the X-Men, but this was my introduction to the characters when it originally aired. If you’re uninitiated, you get a good sense of Professor X and his crew, their team dynamics, and their powers from Jubilee bumping into the various team members and watching their abilities in action.
Some of it’s a little blunt. Rogue’s random discussion of her backstory along the way of a mission, or Professor X clarifying to Cyclops that the Mutant Control Association is a private organization even though he presumably ought to know, comes off a little ham-handed. But for the most part, the show does a good job of showing each of the main members with their powers in action, and enough of their personalities and banter to get a sense for how they fit together.
Gambit is debonair. Storm is theatrical. Morph is playful. Cyclops is strait-laced. Rogue is a bit sarcastic. Beast is intellectual. There’s obviously more shading to be done, but you get the gist of each of the main players, which is important when situating viewers with a new show. And hey, most notably for X-Men fans, you get a good sense of Wolverine as someone who is gruff, sometimes outright insubordinate, but who cares enough to go after Jubilee even when it’s not the current mission.
Channeling all of thai through Jubilee lets the audience share in her confusion and chance to learn about these ostensibly scary but genuinely heroic major players. Sure, it’s a little blunt to have Cyclops just announce the team’s mission of doing good deeds to show regular humans that mutants aren't to be feared. But for the most part, Jubilee makes for a fine entree into this world and its major personalities.
Beyond the pure introductory function though, she serves a deeper purpose -- to drive home the key themes of the series: the unjustness of prejudice and the plight of people who are subjected to it. As Jubilee herself says, she’s just a kid. She didn’t ask to be a mutant. And yet, she faces bigotry and downright hatred from the people she encounters simply for being who she is. Even her own foster parents are worried about what she might be.
Seeing someone so innocent subjected to thai builts sympathy, and plays into the metaphors that have long been the stock and trade for the X-Men in the comics. It’s easy to put yourself in Jubilee’s shoes, and wonder why people would hate a person just for being who they are. The fact that she’s a young Chinese-American woman drives the anti-xenophobic perspective of the show home. Couple that with her struggling to control her powers which is an apt metaphor for growing up, and Jubilee having to hear politicians rail against her kind on national television, and you have the recipe for someone whose very existence helps you understand what the X-Men are fighting for and why.
Along the way, while the animation is a little choppy to start, the imagery is quite cool. The gigantic sentinels are terrifying, stomping through neighborhoods and malls, leaving destruction in their wake. Small touches like Beast’s ability to operate in any direction, or Rogue using an escalator as a shield make for some neat moments. And I’m completely blinded by nostalgia, but the designs for the X-Men really pop off the screen.
Overall, this one delivers on the promise of an X-Men series out of the gate, with an array of personalities with cool powers, a crisis of the week worthy of their talents, and a perspective character who brings their plight and their cause to the forefront.