@lance_paul
Welcome to the party! This will be a hard path to follow, after such excellent nerd reviews and a much better Flash crossover.
I am excited about this “Invasion” crossover, unfortunately/fortunately it falls on Arrow’s 100th episode. Which means the third arc in itself is more of a celebration of Arrow-verse than any real character development for our main alien story. This can be confusing if you only tuned in for a continuation of the crossover, and wondered who all these new people were and why you should care. This also explains why only Arrow stars were beamed up to the mothership.
This episode had its high and lows as Oliver Queens’ (Stephen Amell) own version of “Flashpoint,” if only they had included that in a Flash crossover. It would of been amazing to actually see what life could of been like with an Oliver/Laurel combo and a Diggle-Arrow (David Ramsey).
I, for one, miss Katie Cassidy on the show and stopped watching after they poorly sniped her Canary. This well deserved victory lap brings back even more beloved characters, but leaves out a few much needed ones leaving the episode very rushed and thrown together haphazardly. Even the intimate moments felt like over played melodramatics, such as Thea’s (Willa Holland) heartfelt attachment to her past life and willingness to stay in a known alien dream. At the end our heroes went against illusions of their most fearsome villains while in a poorly lit raining backyard. Two Deathstrokes, with no Manu Bennett nor even a mention of Death’s name.
Outside the hallucination, we find The Flash (Grant Gustin) and Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) working with Arrow’s brat pack of wannabes to help remind us that there’s still an alien invasion going on. Though it barely kept me interested since it involved Wilddog (Rick Gonzalez) and a one-off villain that had less screen time than the return of Deathstroke. Wilddog is anti-anything-but-human hater and doesn’t look too kindly on the help of a Super alien and a Fast meta. But like any Lifetime film, he sees the error of his ways. (Can we get a head scratch?)
By the end, team Arrow has 5 more minutes of runtime to escape the dream world we come to find out they are in pods, unguarded and clothed in potato sacks… Budget cuts? Or did they save all the digital money on their poorly planned not combative escape into another unguarded escape ship, to be chased by a squadron of Dominator ships before being rescued by the Legends of Tomorrow.
The idea behind having Oliver have his own “Flashpoint” is glorious, but poorly developed and executed. Having original cast members come back to play and get a glimpse of what could of been with Laurel, just left me wishing and wondering if the writers questioned their possible mistakes.
Please Arrow writers, this is a request: learn from this episode and fix your mistakes. Thanks to Flashpoint you are working with a potential clean slate to return a certain integral Canary character–cause this show has certainly lost its heart. 2.5/5 Flash fans Agree.
@Cheeky_Basterds
Fellow nerds, we’ve come to the end of this live action comic book crossover and what a ride! We’ve had misfires, successes and distorted realities; oh my, so does Legends of Tomorrow stick the landing that had woefully started on the wrong foot or does it crash like a discombobulated gymnast on a balancing beam?
We start the episode with our heroes gathering up after team Arrow’s alien abduction and trying to formulate a plan. But this is as an LoT episode so you had to figure that time travel would be involved.
“Maybe in order to beat them in our time is to go to the past! Huzzah!”
The team consisting of Rory (Dominic Purcell), Nate Heywood (Nick Zano), Amaya Jiwe (Maisie Richardson-Sellers), Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards), and Cisco (Carlos Valdes) go to 1955 Redmond, Oregon to when the Dominators engaged in combat with the military, for reasons to move the plot along. The Legends get captured by some creepy MIB looking fools and are taken to some lab with one of the Dominators.
Meanwhile in the present Dr. Stein (Victor Garber) tries to deal with the fact that he now has a daughter all because he went about mucking with the space-time continuum, do you see Barry Allen time travel has consequences! Flash, Arrow, White Canary (Caity Lotz), and Atom (Brandon Routh) are supposed to have a meet and greet with the madam president, how progressive, but are duped by the same creepy MIB guy that the Legends are dealing with in 1955.
Speaking of which not only does Felicity and Cisco offer tech support they’re also backup. Who knew? They break out the Legends and as they leave Cisco sees the captured Dominator and has a change of heart and decides let the E.T. phone home. Present time MIB guy reveals that he’s had a deal in place with the Dominators for the past 65-years but Barry Allen fucking around with the time stream deems him a threat to the Dominators. Only after vibing and having a chat with the Dominator that Cisco set free in ’55 does he come to the conclusion that the reason they are attacking in present time is because Cisco messed the timeline by allowing the Dominator free.
Doesn’t feel too good does it? Unknowingly placing his bestie in harms way, Flash decides to give himself up to the Dominators but the super friends won’t allow that. So they decide to fight and what pure fan service that was!
Legends had the unenviable task of putting a nice neat bow on what’s been a tumultuous crossover. It had heart, heroics and comedy along with setting seeds for the Flarrow-verse going forward and exhibiting consequences of time travel. Every episode’s themes were addressed, except of course Supergirl’s because that was on Earth-whatever. But she has a nifty doo-hicky that lets her travel from her world to the Flarrow-verse whenever sweeps week hits. 3.5/5 Bibles.