THE FLASH "KING SHARK VS. GORILLA GRODD" REVIEW
Season 5 Episode 15:
Hey everyone, after a long hiatus, the Flash is back with a big grand episode directed by Stefan Pleszczynski, where we see the DCTV's King of the sea, King Shark, face off against Gorilla Grodd. Spoilers ahead for the episode, lets recap.
Flashforward to twelve hours ahead, Barry and Nora and knocked over by Grodd, King Shark appears and goes toe to toe with Gorilla Grodd.
Back in twelve hours ago, the Meta-human cure complete, the team only needs one thing, a test subject. Barry lands on the idea of using the cure on Earth-2's Shay Lamden, A.K.A, King Shark, who has been held at Argus for the past couple of seasons. With access from Lyla, the team is taken to a port where marine biologist Tanya Lamden is working on communication with King Shark. The team tells Tanya that they have a cure, and she tells King Shark who comes out of the water. King Shark goes rampant, knocks down Barry and swims off.
The Barry, Nora, and Cisco track down King Shark with the help of Lyla and Tanya, as Nora gets the communicator inhibitor back on him. However, King Shark grabs Cisco, so Barry uses the Meta-cure on King Shark (without his consent), as King Shark transforms back into a human. At STAR Labs, the Caitlin discovers that Shay still has some shark-like cells in his brain, as he starts to transform back into a shark, and quickly reverts back. Cisco and Caitlin have a discussion about consent with the cure. Tanya talks to Sherloque about multiverse relationships, as she gets the courage to find a love interest in Earth-2 Shay.
At the West house, Joe is back, and he has a talk with Iris, and how she needs to get her confidence back after she learned of all the alternate timelines where Cicada killed her, so Joe takes his daughter to do some boxing.
Barry goes to apologize to Cisco and Caitlin, however, Cisco starts to fight Barry, so he places him in a Meta-cell. Barry runs over to Caitlin who has the communicator inhibitor, as she hands it Grodd, who jumps away.
With Grodd out the minds of Cisco and Caitlin, Lyla tells the team that Grodd may have started his escape when the power went out for a second during the enlightenment. The team discovers that Grodd will be using the Cerebral Inhibitor to take control of everyone in the city. Barry and Nora get the telekinetic dampeners on, as they run to stop Grodd.
The two speedsters take down Grodd, however, he knocks them over, injuring them. Running out of options, Shady volunteers that he turns into King Shark again to stop Grodd, however, if he does turn to King Shark once again, he won't be able to become human again. Cisco blasts Shady with a current, as he turns into King Shark, and is breached to Grodd, who is wrecking the city.
King Shark and Gorilla Grodd go at each other throughout Central City, as they bust through a building and throw construction equipment at each other. On the roof of the building, Grodd gets the upper hand on King Shark, and drags him on a crane, hanging him upside down. The team realizes that Grodd is trying to paralyze King Shark, and what he needs is electricity to wake up. Barry and Nora throw a lightning bolt at King Shark, waking him up, as he gets the upper hand and slams Grodd the ground.
Back at STAR Labs, the team has won, Grodd is in Argus and in a coma, while Tanya spends time with Shady as King Shark in an aquarium, and Iris starts to write a story on the fight between King Shark and Grodd. Barry apologizes to Cisco and Caitlin about the cure, as he tells them about offering it to Cicada.
Overall, this episode was very much an enjoyable episode which had an interesting premise. I was curious about how the story would flow, and it was structured well. It did feel like the plot was rushed along a little bit towards the build-up to the big headline fight of the episode, and I wouldn't have minded it to be a little more drawn out, especially seeing the Grodd side of things, to hype up the fight a little more, and to play the title of the episode itself into the episode.
The fight itself, Gorilla Grodd versus King Shark was well scripted and choreographed. I did like how the movement of the fight flowed, and how it was a fast-paced fighting movement for both characters. The fight could have been a little longer in my opinion, there weren't really any grand spectacle shots which the episode could have benefited from (as well as the thumbnail)
One of my genuine complaint about the fight was the rain. It was unnecessary and definitely heightened the obviousness of the CGI because up until that point, it did genuinely feel like that there was a twelve-foot Gorilla fighting a twelve-foot Shark.
CGI on the Flash has been very questionable. This episode made somewhat of an effort with the CG in creating both Grodd and King Shark. The King Shark CG was most consistent throughout the episode was really good in my opinion. From the glossy watery texture, and the shadows and reflections used, there was a neat portrayal of the character in the real world. That especially worked well with seeing the believability in seeing Shady in his human form and being a shark.
Grodd as always was awesome to see on screen. The first scene we saw of him in the cold open, the CG did look a little jumpy, in his movement, but other than that, for this episode, it was great as always, with the fur. As I said earlier, the rain effect, and how that looked on Grodd did not look the best, and that could have been avoided.
The visual techniques in the episode were okay. There was nothing which stood out in terms of the stunningness of shots, through the use of angle, lighting, the range, which is a shame, because the big episodes like this make every shot look expensive, and exciting through the visual means.
Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry's feud was an interesting concept to dive into. I am glad that the show isn't lingering on it for too long, and it was all resolved in this episode. However, there were interesting points set up in the episode from both sides of that argument, which were explored.
In the episode, I did love Nora's reality getting twisted with the Flash museum leaving out critical information such as Grodd's telekinetic powers not being used on the Flash, or the epicness of the King Shark and Grodd fight.
The voice actor for Grodd, David Sobolov was incredible in the episode, and that voice is so menacing. It was a shame that we didn't get to hear more from him, and explore more of his motivations in this particular incident.
I also did like the return of Jesse L. Martin to the show. He has been away for several months, but he is back, and I hope we get to see him do more detective work in the season.
Everyone in the episode as a whole was great, and all played a part in bringing this episode to life and setting the dire yet hopeful tone in the episode. Starring in the episode, we had Grant Gustin (Barry Allen/ The Flash), Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramone/ Vibe), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow/ Killer Frost), Jessica Kennedy Parker (Nora West-Allen/ XS), Audrey Marie Anderson (Lyla Michaels), Tom Cavanaugh (Sherloque Wells), Dan Payne (Shay Lamden/ King Shark), Zibby Allen (Tanya Lamden), David Sobolov (Gorilla Grodd), Candice Patton (Iris West-Allen), Danielle Nicolet (Cecile Horton), and Jesse L. Martin (Joe West).
In conclusion, this episode of the Flash was an interesting one, to say the least. It had a great structure, and the episode as a whole could have been extended a bit. The CG overall for Grodd and King Shark was great (well, at least when it wasn't raining), and there was exciting character development with Shay Lamden, which Dan Payne played in a fascinating way. I will give this episode an 8.7 out of 10.
What did you think of the episode? Comment your favorite scenes, characters, or thoughts you have on the episode down below. You can click on the left for more Flash, or on the right for the new Shazam trailer, and if you haven't already, subscribe. As always thanks for reading, take care.
Hey everyone, after a long hiatus, the Flash is back with a big grand episode directed by Stefan Pleszczynski, where we see the DCTV's King of the sea, King Shark, face off against Gorilla Grodd. Spoilers ahead for the episode, lets recap.
Flashforward to twelve hours ahead, Barry and Nora and knocked over by Grodd, King Shark appears and goes toe to toe with Gorilla Grodd.
Back in twelve hours ago, the Meta-human cure complete, the team only needs one thing, a test subject. Barry lands on the idea of using the cure on Earth-2's Shay Lamden, A.K.A, King Shark, who has been held at Argus for the past couple of seasons. With access from Lyla, the team is taken to a port where marine biologist Tanya Lamden is working on communication with King Shark. The team tells Tanya that they have a cure, and she tells King Shark who comes out of the water. King Shark goes rampant, knocks down Barry and swims off.
The Barry, Nora, and Cisco track down King Shark with the help of Lyla and Tanya, as Nora gets the communicator inhibitor back on him. However, King Shark grabs Cisco, so Barry uses the Meta-cure on King Shark (without his consent), as King Shark transforms back into a human. At STAR Labs, the Caitlin discovers that Shay still has some shark-like cells in his brain, as he starts to transform back into a shark, and quickly reverts back. Cisco and Caitlin have a discussion about consent with the cure. Tanya talks to Sherloque about multiverse relationships, as she gets the courage to find a love interest in Earth-2 Shay.
At the West house, Joe is back, and he has a talk with Iris, and how she needs to get her confidence back after she learned of all the alternate timelines where Cicada killed her, so Joe takes his daughter to do some boxing.
Barry goes to apologize to Cisco and Caitlin, however, Cisco starts to fight Barry, so he places him in a Meta-cell. Barry runs over to Caitlin who has the communicator inhibitor, as she hands it Grodd, who jumps away.
With Grodd out the minds of Cisco and Caitlin, Lyla tells the team that Grodd may have started his escape when the power went out for a second during the enlightenment. The team discovers that Grodd will be using the Cerebral Inhibitor to take control of everyone in the city. Barry and Nora get the telekinetic dampeners on, as they run to stop Grodd.
The two speedsters take down Grodd, however, he knocks them over, injuring them. Running out of options, Shady volunteers that he turns into King Shark again to stop Grodd, however, if he does turn to King Shark once again, he won't be able to become human again. Cisco blasts Shady with a current, as he turns into King Shark, and is breached to Grodd, who is wrecking the city.
King Shark and Gorilla Grodd go at each other throughout Central City, as they bust through a building and throw construction equipment at each other. On the roof of the building, Grodd gets the upper hand on King Shark, and drags him on a crane, hanging him upside down. The team realizes that Grodd is trying to paralyze King Shark, and what he needs is electricity to wake up. Barry and Nora throw a lightning bolt at King Shark, waking him up, as he gets the upper hand and slams Grodd the ground.
Back at STAR Labs, the team has won, Grodd is in Argus and in a coma, while Tanya spends time with Shady as King Shark in an aquarium, and Iris starts to write a story on the fight between King Shark and Grodd. Barry apologizes to Cisco and Caitlin about the cure, as he tells them about offering it to Cicada.
Overall, this episode was very much an enjoyable episode which had an interesting premise. I was curious about how the story would flow, and it was structured well. It did feel like the plot was rushed along a little bit towards the build-up to the big headline fight of the episode, and I wouldn't have minded it to be a little more drawn out, especially seeing the Grodd side of things, to hype up the fight a little more, and to play the title of the episode itself into the episode.
The fight itself, Gorilla Grodd versus King Shark was well scripted and choreographed. I did like how the movement of the fight flowed, and how it was a fast-paced fighting movement for both characters. The fight could have been a little longer in my opinion, there weren't really any grand spectacle shots which the episode could have benefited from (as well as the thumbnail)
One of my genuine complaint about the fight was the rain. It was unnecessary and definitely heightened the obviousness of the CGI because up until that point, it did genuinely feel like that there was a twelve-foot Gorilla fighting a twelve-foot Shark.
CGI on the Flash has been very questionable. This episode made somewhat of an effort with the CG in creating both Grodd and King Shark. The King Shark CG was most consistent throughout the episode was really good in my opinion. From the glossy watery texture, and the shadows and reflections used, there was a neat portrayal of the character in the real world. That especially worked well with seeing the believability in seeing Shady in his human form and being a shark.
Grodd as always was awesome to see on screen. The first scene we saw of him in the cold open, the CG did look a little jumpy, in his movement, but other than that, for this episode, it was great as always, with the fur. As I said earlier, the rain effect, and how that looked on Grodd did not look the best, and that could have been avoided.
The visual techniques in the episode were okay. There was nothing which stood out in terms of the stunningness of shots, through the use of angle, lighting, the range, which is a shame, because the big episodes like this make every shot look expensive, and exciting through the visual means.
Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry's feud was an interesting concept to dive into. I am glad that the show isn't lingering on it for too long, and it was all resolved in this episode. However, there were interesting points set up in the episode from both sides of that argument, which were explored.
In the episode, I did love Nora's reality getting twisted with the Flash museum leaving out critical information such as Grodd's telekinetic powers not being used on the Flash, or the epicness of the King Shark and Grodd fight.
The voice actor for Grodd, David Sobolov was incredible in the episode, and that voice is so menacing. It was a shame that we didn't get to hear more from him, and explore more of his motivations in this particular incident.
I also did like the return of Jesse L. Martin to the show. He has been away for several months, but he is back, and I hope we get to see him do more detective work in the season.
Everyone in the episode as a whole was great, and all played a part in bringing this episode to life and setting the dire yet hopeful tone in the episode. Starring in the episode, we had Grant Gustin (Barry Allen/ The Flash), Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramone/ Vibe), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow/ Killer Frost), Jessica Kennedy Parker (Nora West-Allen/ XS), Audrey Marie Anderson (Lyla Michaels), Tom Cavanaugh (Sherloque Wells), Dan Payne (Shay Lamden/ King Shark), Zibby Allen (Tanya Lamden), David Sobolov (Gorilla Grodd), Candice Patton (Iris West-Allen), Danielle Nicolet (Cecile Horton), and Jesse L. Martin (Joe West).
In conclusion, this episode of the Flash was an interesting one, to say the least. It had a great structure, and the episode as a whole could have been extended a bit. The CG overall for Grodd and King Shark was great (well, at least when it wasn't raining), and there was exciting character development with Shay Lamden, which Dan Payne played in a fascinating way. I will give this episode an 8.7 out of 10.
What did you think of the episode? Comment your favorite scenes, characters, or thoughts you have on the episode down below. You can click on the left for more Flash, or on the right for the new Shazam trailer, and if you haven't already, subscribe. As always thanks for reading, take care.
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