Da 5 Bloods

During the Vietnam War, five African American soldiers lead by Norman (Chadwick Boseman) seize a cache of gold from a crashed CIA plane and conspire to keep it as repayment for injustices they have faced. They bury the gold so they can retrieve it later, but their markers are destroyed and Norman is killed in the combat that follows. Decades later, the four survivors – Paul, Otis, Eddie, and Melvin – return to Vietnam to retrieve the gold and Norman’s remains. Otis (Clarke Peters) reconnects with an old girlfriend, Tien, who puts the group in contact with a French businessman (Jean Reno), who is willing to buy the gold from them. They are also joined by a guide, Vinh (Johnny Tri Nguyen), and by Paul’s estranged son David (Jonathan Majors). Internal tensions threaten to tear the group apart if mine-laced terrain and opportunistic mercenaries don’t do so first.

Spike Lee’s first Netflix film is ambitious and messy, blending elements of a war film and heist film with his usual sociopolitical commentary. The crossgenre combination doesn’t sink Da 5 Bloods – if anything, it’s a selling point – but a bloated run time, tonal whiplash, and stylistic inconsistencies detract from a powerfully acted and timely film.

While the same cannot be said of the stereotyped supporting roles, most of the leads do a phenomenal job. Lindo makes Paul uneasily sympathetic: despite him being an angry xenophobe and terrible father, he’s racked with both guilt and PTSD and is painfully aware of his own mortality. Peters and Isiah Whitlock Jr., veterans of The Wire, do solid work as Otis and Melvin as well, adding tension and camaraderie as needed. Only Eddie isn’t quite up to par: Norm Lewis is about a decade too young for the role and overacts when given any dialogue almost as if to compensate. On the other hand, Boseman radiates charismatic leadership during his brief screentime.

Da 5 Bloods weaves together past and present and, like previous Lee films, uses archival footage and historical cut-aways. That much works to give the movie a coherent message and sense of purpose, but there is a lot here that is simply off. The war-era flashback scenes are shot in 16-mm film for a retro look, but the authenticity is undone by having the 20-something soldiers still played by 60-something actors who look every bit their age. At times, Da 5 Bloods borrows documentary techniques such as a traveling handheld camera or Paul offering an up-close confessional/monologue. At other times, however, it both looks and plays like an 80s/90s B movie. Despite the characters being named for The Temptations and despite the film being scored by a jazz trumpeter (Terence Blanchard), the soundtrack borrows heavily from Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On.

These inconsistencies and a sense of ending fatigue can make Da 5 Bloods a bit of a chore to get through at times, but it has enough powerful moments to make it worthwhile.

The Punisher

In the course of waging a war on the criminals responsible for killing his family, Force Recon Marine veteran Frank “The Punisher” Castle (Jon Bernthal) stumbles across a criminal conspiracy involving drug trafficking and extrajudicial military killings overseen by high-ranking CIA operative William Rawlins (Paul Schulze). Frank is aided by David “Micro” Leiberman (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), a presumed-dead former NSA analyst-turned-whistleblower and ex-Navy corpsman Curtis Hoyle (Jason R. Moore), who runs a support group for veterans. Another friend from the service, Billy Russo (Ben Barnes), has founded a private military firm whose operations are threatened by Frank’s quest for vengeance. Meanwhile, DHS agent Dinah Madani (Amber Rose Revah) is running her own investigation that puts her on a collision course with both Frank and the conspirators alike.

Since debuting in the 1970s, the Punisher has been a divisive character not only among comic book fans but among comic book writers. Some treat him as a fundamentally decent family man who was pushed by tragedy to resort to extreme methods; others portray him as a brutal psychopath who happens to be pitted against even worse people. Despite this controversy, Bernthal won much-deserved acclaim for his depiction on season 2 of Daredevil, and so a solo Nextflix series seemed like as much as a safe bet as could be made for such a violent character. While this show has a far narrower appeal than that of Luke Cage or Jessica Jones, it is far from mindless sadism. Tough yet topical, The Punisher serves up character depth and moral dilemmas with its expected gore.

Because Castle has never been one to stray from using lethal force, developing lasting plotlines and recurring characters has not been easy despite The Punisher’s longevity. However, rather than go the all-original route (a la the little-loved 1989 Dolph Lundgren movie), showrunner Steve Lightfoot borrowed when he could, pulling in characters from the comics’ regular continuity and adults-only MAX imprint. He also wisely gave the setting an update: Castle was originally a Vietnam veteran; here, he and other former servicemen are haunted by what they saw and did in Afghanistan. Add surveillance state concern, gun control advocacy and opposition, and the media’s glorification of violence to the show’s thematic mix, and suddenly we’re in quite a bit deeper than “Frank shoots bad guys.”

But of course, Frank still shoots plenty of bad guys. Bernthal humanizes Castle by showing him to be more than just a killing machine. He is, at varying times, a grieving husband and father with a massive guilt complex, a snide and sarcastic New Yorker, and a helpful and protective presence in the lives of Micro’s family (albeit for less than altruistic reasons). Once he picks up a gun (or a knife or a hammer), however, he becomes a growling mass of deadly rage.

It helps that he has some strong personalities (and strong performances) to play off of. Schultz plays Rawlins as a self-serving sadist, a man with no qualms about framing the murder and torture that he orchestrates as being in the national interest. Russo is a more complicated case. In the comics, he was a hot-tempered Mafia thug whom Frank disfigured and made an archenemy out of. Here, he comes across as more calculating and not without honor though still a ruthless operator. As Madani, Revah more than holds her own. She plays the agent as resourceful, tough, determined and fair, and her Persian-American identity is never exploited for cheap filibustering. On the other hand, Moss-Bachrach’s portrayal of Leiberman strikes an odd note. In the comics, Microchip was a scheming fat bastard whose partnership with Frank was of the love-hate variety. Here, as an Edward Snowden stand-in with a familial concern that parallels Frank’s, he is a lot more sympathetic though arguably not as interesting.

As with other Marvel Netflix shows, The Punisher is a slow build at times. The extent of the conspiracy doesn’t become apparent until several episodes in, and a side story involving a disturbed young vet in Curtis’s support group comes to dominate some of the run time. That said, the last few episodes are as tense as peak Daredevil, and there are high emotional beats (the presumed-dead Micro seeks a reunion with his family, Madani copes with loss and betrayal, etc.) to match the shootouts and fisticuffs. True to form for Marvel Netflix properties, there are also unpleasant post-combat medical scenes though this time Rosario Dawson’s nurse character is nowhere to be found.

The Punisher requires a strong stomach, but beneath the agro surface gloss is a character-driven show that offers a grim yet vital look at a war-affected violence-inundated society that rightfully distrusts its corrupt authorities. Sound familiar?

8/10

The Defenders

When sinister ancient ninja organization The Hand sets its sights on the destruction of New York, its archenemy Danny Rand, aka The Immortal Iron Fist (Finn Jones) resolves to stop it at all costs. Meanwhile, superpowered private investigator Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is hired to investigate a missing man who has knowledge of The Hand’s activities. When she attracts police attention, blind attorney Matt Murdock, secretly the masked vigilante Daredevil (Charlie Cox), bails her out. The Hand’s decision to hire local youths as a cleanup crew also attracts the attention of recently released Luke Cage (Mike Colter), a nigh invulnerable watchdog who was wrongly imprisoned. The four heroes are brought together by a common foe, but will they be able to set aside their considerable differences long enough to make a difference?

Fresh off disappointing fans with Iron Fist’s mediocre solo series, Marvel’s Netflix team has again gone out on a limb. This time, the risks include a shorter format, a mystical menace, and a decision to use The Defenders name for a team that doesn’t resemble its comic book counterpart. While not all of these risks paid off, they do show that Marvel is capable of adapting and responding to criticism rather than doubling down on past mistakes.

Series creator Douglas Petrie is an old television hand (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and despite the short run, The Defenders has an episodic feel in the early going, gradually laying groundwork before ratcheting up the action in the latter episodes. This mitigates some of the pacing problems present in the characters’ solo series, but there is still some lag.

The decision to utilize The Hand as antagonists is both a blessing and a curse. The organization poses a threat of an appropriate scale to unite the heroes, and a look at its inner workings – there are five “fingers” that don’t always see eye to eye, mirroring the heroes’ dischord – humanizes the group to some extent. On the other hand (pun not intended), for a supposedly secretive organization, the group’s disruptive activities are laughably conspicuous.

The decision to involve the hand also places Rand front and center, a questionable move giving his poor reputation among fans. However, to the credit of all involved, he comes off better here than in his own show. His fight scenes are more fluid and convincing and his teammates regularly call him out on his stubbornness and immaturity. Still, the mysticism inherent in his plotline seems an odd fit for the grittier exploits of Daredevil, Cage, and Jones.

Though Rand (and Finn Jones’s portrayal of him) remains a point of contention, the rest of the cast generally comes off well. Luke and Jessica, a married couple in the comics, enjoy some nice banter, and their incredulity at the show’s supernatural turns casts them as audience surrogates. Matt reveals the difficulty of trying to compartmentalize as his worlds come perilously close to colliding. The supporting roles continue to showcase strong characters, from repentant ex-Hand swordswoman Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) to tough yet sympathetic cop Misty Knight (Simone Missick) to Matt’s crusty, badass mentor Stick (Scott Glenn) to everyone’s mutual acquaintance/favorite nurse Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson). On the villain side of the spectrum, Elodie Yung gives a nuanced, emotional performance as Elektra, a recently revived Hand assassin with conflicting loyalties while Wai Ching Ho continues to drop veiled insults with aplomb as the recurring foe Madame Gao. Though Sigourney Weaver lends star power and a touch of deadly class to the role of Hand honcho Alexandra, the character is bland and familiar, with some clichéd dialogue to boot.

These performances, coupled with some well-choreographed fight scenes and a lively soundtrack, make The Defenders consistently watchable though it never reaches the highs of the best of the characters’ solo outings. Those who have yet to break faith with Marvel’s Netflix offerings will not be driven to do so now, and by the groundwork is laid for further developments. However, The Avengers this is not.

7.5/10