WandaVision- Series Review

Ohh I have been waiting to write this review for so long…

Marvel is finally back after a long time with 'WandaVision', directed by Matt Shakman and starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany as Wanda Maximoff and Vision, two Avengers who are in my opinion extremely enticing and enigmatic and are worth discovering more. The series picks up where ‘Avengers: Endgame’ left us with Wanda Maximoff, and starts off as a rather mysterious sitcom, all in black and white. Soon we get to know more about the forces at work behind these mysteries and we dive into a world of magic inhabited by Wanda, Vision and the residents of Westview, which is quite a thrill ride.

Lets start off with the positive aspects.

Elizabeth Olsen. My goodness she is phenomenal as Wanda Maximoff. I liked her after ‘Captain America: Civil War’ in regards to which direction the writers were taking her story to, but I think this is the one that REALLY solidifies her character and really establishes her as a pivotal character for the future of the MCU. She reminds me of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron-Man or Christopher Reeve as Superman from the older Superman films- exuberant, lively and charismatic. The entire series seemed to be pivoting on her, she had to be the one carrying the series and she does her job in an excellent fashion. Olsen delivers a brilliant performance- her ability to display various emotions within a matter of a few minutes and her ability to lighten up the atmosphere every time the episodes got a little too dreary really fascinated me. She had this aura about her and did a scintillating job in the emotional scenes to make them poignant. Paul Bettany is amazing in this series too, and their chemistry is what really stood off as the best thing about this series.

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany as Vision

Other than Olsen and Bettany, Randall Park, Teyonah Parris and Kat Dennings does a marvelous job in their respective roles. Randall Park as Jimmy Woo from ‘Antman and Wasp’ is fun to watch, so is Kat Dennings as Dr. Darcy Lewis whom I didn’t really like back in the first two Thor films but here she does a great job, and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau was mesmerizing to watch. They form an unexpectedly enjoyable trio, one I would love to watch in future Marvel films or series. Every time they were on the screen, I expected some some really clever jokes and intellectual dialogues, and I can conclude that they were well utilized in this series. Speaking of enjoyable presences, Katheryn Hahn as Agnes also shines in this series, a character who flabbergasted me every time she appeared on screen.

It’s needless to say but the CGI is beautifully used in each and every episode. Moreover, the series did a great job setting up an eerie atmosphere, one that explains why future Marvel films like ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ will utilize the horror genre which is something unconventional for Marvel. Moreover, the way the riddles and mysteries were set up were smart in my opinion, and they kept me on the edge of my seat, guessing what was going to happen soon. Even the sitcom aspects were brilliant- all the references and callbacks to older Marvel films were enticing to watch. In fact, there is a presence in this film that you already might’ve known about, and the presence of the actor made me happy because I’m such a ardent fan of the character, however there are a few issues that I will be getting into soon. Other than that the sudden shifts in tones and thematic manifestations were all perfectly handled, and kudos to the writers for trying to discover ways to make this series fun to watch instead of following the footsteps of previous films. Moreover, Marvel also struck a perfect balance between humor and tension as always, there were scenes which were extremely funny besides scenes which were tense, nerve-wrecking and even scary at times.

It’s unfortunately time to move into some negative aspects of the series, because upon hindsight many issues have surfaced that I feel like should be discussed.

There is a character in this series named Director Tyler Hayward played by Josh Stamberg, who runs a corporation called S.W.O.R.D. I feel like he was the disappointing aspect of this series- he was more of a cliched villain who had some terrible plans to execute. His presence in each episode drained away the thrill for me, and made the episodes dreary. Not saying that Stamberg could not portray the character, it’s just that every time he appeared on the screen I wanted them to go back to Wanda and Vision or the Jimmy-Darcy-Monica trio. In fact, each and every scene with S.W.O.R.D seemed like a filler, and a tidbit boring.

‘WandaVision’ is called the launchpad for Marvel Phase 4, so you could actually feel studio executives pushing writers to push the storyline while the writers wanted to go for something more unconventional. This is kind of conspicuous in the story- every scene in Westview following Wanda’s story seemed fresh and revitalizing to say the least, while all the scenes with S.W.O.R.D was just Marvel’s constraints to carry the story further. So the series shines the best when there is no constraints, but becomes mundane whenever there is constraints by Marvel.

Moreover, there are some issues with the mystery character who appears halfway through the series. I was excited to see the character, and Marvel had a brilliant way to utilize the character. But in the later episodes, the backstory of this character and the explanation regarding how he came into this world discombobulated me, and at the end there is a reveal which kind of disappointed me, though I believe Marvel has certain plans with the character and how he fits into the multiverse storyline.

Overall, ‘WandaVision’ was worth the watch in regards to the heartfelt, poignant story built up surrounding Wanda, and though it has left many questions unanswered, we are yet to witness ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ where many of these questions will meet their answers. If this was an experiment by Marvel to find out whether series or TV shows work in keeping the audience invested, then they are successful in doing so.

I’m gonna give ‘WandaVision’ an A-.

Thank you for reading my review, hope you enjoyed it!