Mikes Film Talk

“Legends of Tomorrow” headed back to the “old west” in “The Magnificent Eight.” Or at least the DC version of the west, otherwise there would be no Jonah Hex there to titillate the viewer and fans of the verse. Johnathon Schaech played the TV Hex and the heroic team of Rip Hunter got to play cowboy, and cowgirl, for one episode.

 The visit back to the 1800s included a chance to save a future “time travel” author, H.G. Wells. It seems to be almost a tradition in time travel productions to reference someone connected to the theme of a particular episode. If the theme is horror, Stephen King has been referenced repeatedly, in science fiction it is fitting for Wells to be “saved.” 

(As far back as “Quantum Leap,” that  show featured a “little Stevie King” in one of its Halloween special episodes. It also had the show’s star Scott Bakula (who played Dr. Beckett) face the devil (in the guise of “Al” played by veteran actor Dean Stockwell.)

In this episode of “Legends of Tomorrow,”  there is no devil, but instead the “legends” will have to face a boogeyman, or woman, in the guise of The Pilgrim, in the next episode.  This fearsome assassin is the ultimate mercenary killer who “never fails.”

Taking a page from “The Terminator” this murderer for hire kills the younger versions of the people she targets. Hence her 100 percent kill rate. The group face local thugs and villains in this installment only to come up against more mercenary time travelers later.

Kendra faces a past version of herself, in what must be the shakiest part of the entire episode, and learns that if her romantic partner is not Hawkman, her love-life will be dire. Speaking of shaky parts, it seems that wardrobe must have been mixing up hats on Jonah Hex. One moment the brim dwarfed the character’s head and in other’s was a perfect fit…

There is a bit of backstory that ties Hunter (Arthur Darvill) to Hex, the former Time Master even named his dead son after Jonah, and the jacket Rip wears is one of Hex’s.  Ray Palmer  (Brandon Routh) gets to play John Wayne as the new sheriff but it is Hunter who does the quick draw that kills the lead badman.

(Actor Routh in his black outfit and huge gold star only needs a white hat to make one think of a certain former Texas Ranger. Although unlike that masked man,  Palmer does dispatch villains with extreme prejudice. As do the rest of the magnificent eight…)

The team of  legends face three bounty hunters who wield futuristic weapons. This allows for a splendid moment of action where the superheroes power-up and kick hunter butt, or more accurately kill hunter…butt.

Standout Moments:

Sadly not many, but the barroom fight was good fun featuring some great old-fashioned stunt fighting with breakaway chairs and tables. There was even a “Wilhelm Scream” in the  sequence, a sound effect used in hundreds of films. (One of which was the 1969 Sam Peckinpah  film “The Wild Bunch” used during the robbery scene at the beginning of the film where one of the bunch is shot in the face with shotgun.)

Ray Palmer, as The Atom, seemingly blasting through a villain’s chest killing him.

In an episode that featured long coats and big hats, Dr. Stein  (Victor Garber) choses not to wear a hat or a duster-style coat.  Jax (played by personal favorite Brit actor Franz Drameh) is the only male to chose a “non” cowboy hat that, like Hex’s chapeau changes brim sizes apparently. 

Final Thoughts:

This episode allows Hunter’s character to reveal a bit more backstory and lets Stein snub his nose at time-travel rules, in order to save the future H.G. Wells. The time travel old west theme was a bit blasé  with the time periods denizens not reacting to the futuristic technology at all, but who cares?

It was no more disconcerting than the Kendra meeting herself in the episode.  Perhaps part of that has to do with Savage not killing the old west version of Hawkgirl and allowing her to live. With the emphasis, in the show, on both the doomed lovers always dying either together or at least very near it, the surviving old west Kendra feels like a glitch or a device manufactured to explain future Kendra’s problems with Ray.

Still, “Legends of Tomorrow” ends with the promise of a formidable foe (The Pilgrim) and a “Terminator” type storyline, sort of.  The series airs Thursdays on CW.