(episode review) - X-Men '97 - Episode 5

 

I honestly feel that the people behind this show sat down with Disney and said exactly this, "So, Disney...hear me out. I have this idea where we want to make an X-Men animation, in the vain of all present-day animation, style and story, with modern-day animation techniques, but continuing the stories from the animated show from the 90's" Disney looked confused and asked, "why would you not just want to start from scratch with something new altogether like we have many times before?" And they replied "Why? Why not use what is already there and mine the stories even more. What did the X-Men do when Magneto took over? Is Charles Xavier really dead? What happened to Mr. Sinister? Is Apocalypse still around? Do we see any more stories with Cable? We can raise the stakes. We can make something from my childhood remain for children but age it up in line with today's animation. We will target the children who are now adults and possibly with their children, those who loved it. It would look spectacular and there are thousands of stories we can continue with" Disney apparently said, "Fine, as long as you bring back the old voice cast" And here we are, X-Men '97 which is essentially, season 6. A show from the 90's, continued from the 90's but with modern-day sensibilities; and this show is great. It simply raises the bar each week and it has become so engaging. It does not hold your hand or baby-feed you the story or what is going on, it trusts the audience to understand. It treats the audience as clever and that is an amazing thing.

Maybe it is just me, but I did feel like I knew what was going to happen in the show before it did. Certain moments were telegraphed. Everything was going too well for something bad not to happen and the second half of the show did not disappoint. The action was amazing because the tension was felt throughout the episode from the beginning and was steadily building. A love triangle is one thing, but to have two? Without going into any spoilers, I did think Mystique was in this episode and maybe we will see her later as THAT specific character. The thing at the end causing all that devastation was incredible and visually stunning. There was even a moment where it played like a movie with short bursts of a black empty screen, something you often see in trailers with the sound of a heart beating. Then to see that character pop up like they normally do only to disappear, there is definitely more going on with this storyline, but having not called it a part one (like in the original series), leaves me thinking that maybe the entire season has an over-arching storyline.

I was emotional, I am not going to lie. I am not sure how Omega mutants work and how they become Omega mutants but maybe there is a lot more to come that will flesh out the story a bit more than what we got at the end. Heartbreaking and emotional, the dialogue was great. The dialogue between characters was dramatic with a few zinger lines. Also, a top decision to have moments with no music to accompany the action. Next week can not come quick enough. Disney Plus is killing it!

You can comment down below to enter discussions. Thank you for reading, Subscribe and Spread the word! - Get your ReelReeviews, right here!