Luke Cage: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Luke Cage: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Power Man's show delivers powerful drama.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 18, 2018

Marvel's gritty television shows -- Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and now Luke Cage -- are less about colorful crimefighting and more about dense, dark, and absorbing character profiles. They're less about the characters' talents and more about what makes them tick, less about acts of heroism and more about what makes them heroes in everyday life. The shows have become, in many ways, more absorbing than the Marvel movies for their opportunities to explore complex characters -- raw, on the street characters who are much more relatable than a billionaire playboy, a blonde hero from another realm, or a man who transforms into a beast when he becomes angry -- in both an everyday life sort of way and as their daily routine is interrupted, enhanced, or ruined by their superhuman abilities.

Luke Cage (Mike Colter) cannot be harmed. He is an ex-cop, once framed and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, whose impenetrable skin and intimidating size have turned him into a reluctant hero who would prefer to live an ordinary life. As the show begins, he is working under-the-table at Pops Barber Shop and a local dance club. Luke’s career as an urban vigilante begins when his mentor is killed, the victim of collateral damage in a gun deal gone wrong. Cage sets out to right the wrongs done to him and right the wrongs that are deteriorating his Harlem neighborhood, too. As he traverses its seedy underbelly -- gun deals in strip joints, political corruption, and prison experiments -- he brings his brand of justice to his neighborhood while those he opposes work to find a way to harm him, to physically, and perhaps more effectively emotionally, penetrate the impenetrable man.

The story is superficially simplistic and not particularly imaginative from a very crude overview perspective, but as with the other Marvel shows, Luke Cage quickly develops its depth and reveals the much greater, much more satisfying character arcs and angles and intimate, detailed, and purposeful world building that make the show a triumph. Cage is not a classic Death Wish vigilante. Much like Daredevil, Cage often leaves it to the police to clean up the mess, to allow the system to bring criminals to justice. That’s not to say his job is easy, or that he’s just a gray-area middle man between right and wrong. His struggles are real, his thirst for vengeance sometimes works hard to get the better of him, and his body, heart, and soul are often tested and tugged in different directions. The show, set in modern-day Harlem, builds through an interesting blend of gangland/mafia drama and violence with not necessarily mild superhero overtones but a greater focus on character and world and less Cage’s superhuman physique and special power.

Cage is not the only strong character in the show. He’s surrounded by several strong females -- Claire Temple, Misty Knight, Mariah Dillard -- who are anything but the typical marginal characters. Mariah Dillard is a corrupt politician who uses Harlem’s criminal enterprises as a means of winning control over the neighborhood. Misty Knight is a cop who is able to piece together what’s really happening in Harlem; Simone Missick excels in that part. Much like Luke, she struggles with her internal sense of justice against the letter of the law she has sworn to uphold. Rosario Dawson is again excellent as the Marvel Universe crossover character Claire Temple, the nurse who finds herself caught up in the story thanks to her inquisitive nature and who also struggles with uncertainty about her future.

Mike Colter dominates the show, of course, as Luke Cage. He is the strong and silent type, never bellicose but rather quiet and contemplative, capable of fixing a problem but not looking for trouble. He is a thinking man who enjoys literature more than the loud, flashy lifestyle that so often has led his opponents down a path that leaves him no choice but to intervene in their nefarious affairs. He will step in as necessary, not for fame or fortune or to draw attention to himself but rather to fight for what is right and to protect the innocent. It sounds like typical Superhero fluff but it is most assuredly not. The depth of character and world are, much like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, nearly unparalleled in complexity. Colter shapes the character more through expressive eyes and a tangibly complex soul than he does through his actions alone. Colter’s is a dominating performance, and credit the actor for finding a range and character depth that exceeds even his imposing, chiseled physique.

One of the season’s villains, Cottonmouth, is a familiar style of villain in the Marvel television universe. Similar to Daredevil’s Fisk, he plays by a set of rules as he angles to control those around him. He’s also a villain who isn’t necessarily monotone, who doesn’t walk exclusively on the wrong side of the law. There are times when it’s difficult to root against him. He, too, will take justice into his own hands in his own way and for his own purposes but also, and perhaps more critical to the character and the show, Cottonmouth is constructed in many shades of gray, not as many as Fisk, but with enough diversity of character construction to make his character much more dynamic in the villain role. Mahershala Ali does well in balancing his business man façade with his portrayal or a hardened criminal boss.

Luke Cage: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Luke Cage: The Complete First Season was shot at 6K and finished at 4K but has received only a basic 1080p Blu-ray release. Nevertheless, the image excels. It's very pleasantly filmic, even as it was shot at high resolution digital. Noise is a little sharp at times, but textural qualities soar. Wall textures, grimy sinks, and odds and ends inside Pops' Barber Shop to open the season enjoy rich, realistic clarity. Facial and clothing textures are superb. Viewers will enjoy the most intricate facial revelations and fabric intimacies; the image pushes the Blu-ray format about as far as it can go in terms of basic, essential clarity, whether in well-lit interiors and sun-drenched exteriors or nighttime outdoor scenes or low-light locales, like the night club that plays so prominently throughout the season. Colors are fine, enjoying pleasing pop, vibrancy, and nuance when lighting allows and holding firm and true even in less revealing light. Black levels are absorbing without losing detail. Skin tones are natural but reflective of various lighting conditions throughout the season. Beyond noise, no significant source or encode anomalies are present. This is another terrific image of a Marvel TV show from Disney.

Luke Cage: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Luke Cage: The Complete First Season powers onto Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The show's opening theme music doesn't want for increased width, depth, clarity, or aggressiveness after a slow build in intensity. The show often lives out on the streets, and urban atmospherics soar. Chatty pedestrians, background beats, honking horns, and other elements spring to life with authentic vitality, placement, and intensity relative to the on-screen action. Music inside the night club is beautifully rich. It's not absolutely clear, but it replicates its sound within the environment very well, and combined with light supportive din, the place really comes alive. Action scenes deliver all the intensity, spacing, and detail one could want, but the track is at its best dealing in environmental details. Dialogue is, of course, the main narrative propellant, and it's well prioritized even in clubs or on busy city streets. It's also lifelike in delivery and firmly planted in the front-center position.

Luke Cage: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Luke Cage: The Complete First Season contains one extra on disc four. Offstage at Harlem's Paradise (1080p, 22:43) features Mike Colter, Alfre Woodard, Theo Rossi, and Simone Missick on the Harlem's Paradise set discussing their experiences in making season one.

Luke Cage: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Marvel has done it again. The movies are excellent, but these TV shows are a cut above. Dark, gritty, absorbing, powerful, they offer real portraits of rugged individuals tested by the real world and supported, not defined, by their unique powers. Mike Colter is amazing as the title character, and he is surrounded by a roster of wonderfully drawn heroes and villains who always straddle that fine line between right and wrong. It's absorbing television with, along with Daredevil and Jessica Jones, unlimited potential. Luke Cage: The Complete First Season lacks much in the way of supplements, but video and audio are fine. Highly recommended.