Review: Marvel’s “Hawkeye” misses the mark

One would hope this would make Steinfeld’s character compelling with the series setting her up to become the next Hawkeye, but that’s not the case. Instead, Kate Bishop is the same as nearly any other protagonist in the MCU, with most of her dialogue consisting of snarky quips. If put to paper, it would be impossible to distinguish Kate’s dialogue from that of Iron Man, Doctor Strange, or any number of other MCU characters who all speak the exact same way. Marvel’s increased release schedule — nine projects in 2021 alone — only serves to highlight how similarly all the characters are written. To her credit, Steinfeld does her best with what she’s given, as do Renner and several big supporting actors like Vera Farmiga, but the reality is that the script feels too much like a first draft to give them a fair chance at anything memorable. 

Rhys Thomas is the director of the first two episodes of the series. Thomas is perhaps best known for his work directing the series “Documentary Now,” a series he co-created with Bill Hader, Seth Myers and Fred Armisen that parodies several major documentary films. At any given moment, “Hawkeye” itself also feels like a pastiche of better stories. The Christmas setting and buddy dynamic in which one character feels too old for the situation they find themselves in feels ripped straight from a Shane Black movie like “Lethal Weapon” or “The Long Kiss Goodnight.” The series also has hints of “Die Hard” in the way Clint continually gets injured and has to patch himself up, albeit a more family friendly version since this is a Disney project at the end of the day. Curiously, Shane Black had previously directed the often-overlooked “Iron Man 3” for Marvel back in 2013. The studio would have been better off bringing him back into the fold rather than hiring a lesser imitator to do a worse version of his schtick.

At the time of this writing, the “Hawkeye” series is halfway through its six episode run. The first half of the series has been largely uninspired, with a poorly-paced plot that feels less like a slow burn and more like treading water to expand a two hour story into a six hour event series. Anyone hoping Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton would finally get his moment in the sun after being introduced into the cinematic universe over a decade ago will be disappointed to find he continues to be the human equivalent of beige in a story so clearly meant to be his swan song. Maybe the show, like its titular character, will prove to be a force to be reckoned with despite its easy-to-overlook start, but that has not been the case so far. MCU fans will likely enjoy watching more of the same thing they’ve enjoyed since 2008 — even if they don’t, the serialized nature of that universe will compel them to watch anyways — but anyone looking for a family friendly Christmas caper would be better off watching Kevin James in “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.”

Final Verdict: C-

“Hawkeye” is currently streaming on Disney Plus.