User Reviews

Much like last year's crossover episodes, 'Legends of Today' will probably be the most fun we have with Flash all year. Flash normally has plenty of humor, great action, and intriguing character moments, but tonight had all of that and more. Even though the episode does feel pretty packed, the writers did a solid job at giving everyone their moment. Now that we have a third show in Legends of Tomorrow starting up in a month or so, I expect even more crossovers. Especially due to the fact that this episode hit it out of the park.

Speaking of Legends, the big bad for that show will be Vandal Savage, and we got a good look at the direction they are heading and some interesting details regarding why he's after Hawkgirl and Hawkman. For the most part, this is an introduction into Hawkgirl and very much her episode. While I've been on the fence with her relationship with Cisco, I think I can consider myself pleased with her performance even though those costumes for them still look iffy. It's also very much Cisco's episode as well. As always, I loved his one liners and banter with all of the characters. How the writers snuck all the great quick little dialogue between Team Arrow and Team Flash in is unbelievable. So much fan service.

With it being a crossover, I was happy to see the writers seem to find a better way to weave the shows together than last year. With that said, I think some of the Flash material in Central City gets lost in the shuffle with all that's going on in Star City. The stuff with Wells, Caitlin, Jay, and even Patty was very interesting. But I think it could have been better served for next week's mid- season finale of Flash. I mean literally every character from both shows, besides the Lance family, has a role. It's okay to cut a few out.

As I say that, I keep thinking about how great the Diggle-Barry, Barry-Felicity, Thea-Barry, Cisco-Felicity, Malcom-everyone dynamic is so I'm also glad that all of that material is in there. A 2 hour episode for both shows would have been welcomed.

The teams pretty easily welcomed Kendra into the fold relatively quickly, especially considering we don't really need anybody else knowing about both Flash and Arrow's identities. It was smart for the show to acknowledge that by Oliver questioning Barry why he didn't question her a little more. Nevertheless, she was invited to the Queen apartment get together AKA superhero team meeting. Didn't this whole sequence feel a whole lot like Age of Ultron's sequence where Ultron interrupted things? As did when both teams are sitting around in the new Arrow cave arguing. Felt like that helicarrier scene from the first Avengers. All of them were great scenes, they just felt very similar.

Speaking of just showing up, Malcom stole every scene he was in as he informed both teams about Vandal Savage's history. Just from what I've seen in this episode, I think he COULD be a decent villain for Legends. I'm more just glad the many Legends of Tomorrow set ups seem to be done for both shows. We can get back to the bigger issues for both cities.

Damien Darhk has been a big problem for Team Arrow and tonight was no different. He put Oliver down pretty easy before Barry got there. And I have to admit, I really enjoyed this cameo from Darhk. His reaction to Flash alone is worth re-watching.

As I said last year, one of my personal favorite parts of these crossovers is the mixture of scores that Blake Neely uses. It helped make the scope of this episode feel big like it's supposed to. A technical side I wasn't too fond of was the excessive slow- mo. I understand for Flash when he's stopping a bullet or a knife, but there was just a little bit too much. Overall though, it was a fantastic episode. May even be my favorite episode of Flash. Of course, that would have nothing to do with the lack of Laurel and Iris. (So grateful)

One last note. It was bittersweet seeing Moira in the opening flashbacks telling Oliver's baby mama to move to Central City. Which leads to the fact that Oliver saw his son at the very end. I would assume we pick up right there tomorrow night on Arrow?

+So much fun

+Everyone catching up with each other

+Unusual interactions between characters

+Score

+Solid intro to Savage

+Darhk

+Malcom kept showing up

+Massive scope compared to last year

+Team-up made sense

-Central City stuff was good, but overshadowed

10/10

This is the first part of the two-part annual crossover with Arrow and it does not disappoint.

A guy named Vandal Savage comes to Central City to kill Kendra Saunders, Cisco's current girlfriend, so the two of them and Barry travel to Star City to take the help of Team Arrow. I liked the scenes between the two casts as they showed how much the characters have changed since last season. We are also introduced to Hawkman and get the backstory for the two of them.

Back in Central City, Harry and Caitlin develop a serum to periodically increase Barry's speed but Jay refuses to test it and Patty finds out about Harry.

Honestly I was very disappointed with this episode. Obviously I don't really give this episode a one, but it sure as hell doesn't deserve a 9.6, so that was the only way to make my vote somewhat matter. This episode was absolutely ridiculous from the beginning and they could've done so much more with an episode like this, maybe they'll do better tomorrow, but I doubt it. Now let's see...

Problems: -This team-up made no sense whatsoever: The Flash runs into new villains all the time that are arguably much tougher than Savage originally seemed, so him contacting Oliver was ridiculously forced and there are so many other people he would've turned to first, or he'd do this practically every episode making Arrow and The Flash into one show.

-The change in atmosphere was too much: This is a problem that occurs whenever these two shows crossover. You have a generally more serious, darker themed show like arrow and a lighthearted show built on jokes like the flash, the two don't mix very well (although to compensate Arrow is becoming increasingly less dark and realistic to fit the flash). Sadly most of the compensating is done on the side of Arrow. I have never seen Damien Darhk act so...weird. He seemed extra incompetent and he was cracking jokes in a non-creepy way, I mean he was never a super "serious" villain, but it was a little bit too much

-Inconsistency of the characters: I don't get it. Carter Hall, who can grab Barry while Barry is running at super speeds and kicked Oliver's ass in no time flat can be held by normal chains. And what the hell is up with the Flash's speed. He's running over 1300mph, can likely perceive time at a much slower rate than us, or else his powers would simply get him killed, and yet he's just casually tagged by every villain he faces to make them a credible threat. And I still don't exactly get what Vandal Savage can do...he throws knives. I mean I get the staff will give him cool powers, but I mean come on, before that he did nothing cool whatsoever. He made handcuffs switch owners just like the dude in Catch Me If You Can, he hit Barry with one of his knives, and he did better than hold his own against Oliver in a knives vs. arrows fight...wtf??? Nothing makes sense any more. IMO if Barry had turned to other metahumans as opposed to Oliver, he and his team probably could've beaten and contained Savage in their first fight.

-This episode was way too packed and it could've been much more: It managed to achieve nothing yet too much at the same time. They're still technically at square one, they're trying to keep Hawgirl and Hawkman from Savage who is trying to kill them, yet they also have managed to introduce, lazily I might add, a bunch of characters that did nothing. They introduced Darhk for like a second. Malcolm Merlyn, a total badass in season one who has sense turned into Thea's father figure/bitch that she constantly mistreats, but he takes it like a champ, was turned into the official back-up exposition guy behind Carter Hall. By now Malcolm has been declared a joke by everyone and his character has been ruined and the fact that Oliver made him Ra's al Ghul is just bs to try to make a fan favourite character rise back to glory. And now the writers are cramming him back down our throats. Harrison Wells made a temporary speed formula for the purpose of it being used later to revive him after he was shot. On another note, I would've loved to have seen how Zoom would've done against Savage with the rod he obtained at the end, but I never will. This episode actually lacked a lot of depth, which is probably why it was so sub-par.

-Acting: The acting was poor in a lot of areas, but that was mainly due to a lot of the lines and humour being completely weird with the change of atmosphere. Like whenever Thea said anything it seemed out of place, as well as Barry and Oliver on the job together with their different ideals and ways of solving problems just makes me feel uncomfortable. It also doesn't help that Grant Gustin is a terrible actor and can't portray emotional depth, so even in the toughest and darkest of situations he manages to make everything a joke.

-The lack of mystery: Ever since Arrow Season 3 these shows seem to lack mystery. I mean Flash s1 had some good mystery and s2 does too, but I honestly don't think Arrow s4 has really any besides the question of what Darhk will do, but it just seems hard to watch nowadays. I don't see Legends of Tomorrow having any good plot whatsoever due to the fact that there won't be a lot of mystery.

Positives: -The episode was kind of fun

Final Rating: 4/10