Hello everyone. I know it's been quiet
around here lately. Part of that is having a lot of extra work hours
tossed my way, a situation that doesn't look to be slowing down
anytime soon. Other than that I've also been suffering from a bit of
writing doldrums. I've attempted to start up multiple articles this
past week with little success at making them worthy of posting.
Mostly I'm looking for some new subjects to write about and wouldn't
you know something landed in my lap over the weekend. I'm talking
about Iron Fist, a series I
was looking forward to with great enthusiasm only to be crushed by
the reality that this show is bad, really, really bad.
Having
been a Marvel fan since buying my first issue of Spider-Man before I
could even read has made the past 9 years something special. I mean
it's great to see these characters properly translated to the screen
on a regular basis By and Large I've enjoyed damn near every part of
the Marvel Cinematic Universe save for the lameness of Iron Man 2 and
the second half of Luke Cage. More than that, I was stoked for Iron
Fist to get his shot at the spotlight in a line of Netflix series
that has so far provided great series for Daredevil and Jessica Jones
(less so with Luke Cage) that fully embraced outlandish plot points
like demon ninjas and mind-controlling freaks. Just imagine what
could happen with the splendor of super kung-fu. So what the hell
happened? There's going to be a hefty amount of spoilers ahead.
Let's
start with the title character. Both my brother and nephew disliked
the performance of Finn Jones. I wasn't so set to blame him however
since what's written for him her is such a none-character he honestly
didn't have much to work with. Throughout the series I wasn't sure
what they were trying to do with him. He spent 15 years in a mystical
city, fighting his way to the top in order to earn the power and rank
of Iron Fist, yet he's played out like a emotionally broken child
with no understanding of his powers. Beyond that, his life in K'un
Lun is barely touched on and handled inconsistently. One moment he's
talking about it like it was just the most awesome place on Earth,
then's he's freaking out over the abuse he suffered there. The guy
jumps from being a gentle kung-fu nerd, to boiling pot of rage, to
scared child, sometimes within the same scene. Because of this he can
barely utilize his own superpower, begging the question of how he
earned it in the first place. There's a video of a previous Iron Fist
kicking massive amounts of ass, something that this version of Danny
Rand never accomplishes. Our hero doesn't even take down any of the
main villains in this season, his supporting cast takes care of that.
Speaking
of support characters, let's start with Colleen Wing. While I found
both the actress and character annoying on multiple occasions she
still fares better in this series than the title hero. The girl
actually has a proper journey as she finds so much of her life to be
a lie, finally turning against the group that made her what she is.
It turns out in this series that she's actually a member of the
hand...though she's not a demon ninja because this is a different
(but still evil) branch of the hand. Despite Colleen's dojo serving
as a recruitment center for this group that has the money to put
people through medical school, she somehow has no money to stay open
which results in her cage fighting for two episodes with zero bearing
on the rest of the story. Also, she's somehow allowed to freely roam
the streets of New York City with a katana.
The
Mechum family is another matter entirely. The actors for Joy, Ward,
and Harold all do a mostly fine job, but most of the time it feels
like they're in a completely different show. While Danny is traveling
to Hong Kong to destroy a drug factory or battling crazed assassins,
they deal with board room meetings and drug addiction. Joy in
particular could have been removed from the show and it wouldn't have
made much difference.
Harold
Meachum ends up being the real villain of the peace and his arc is
drug out and pointless. He was evil before, then he died of cancer
and brought back by Hand medicine to be more evil. Once Ward stabs
him to death he returns even more evil and that's it. There's a
subplot about Ward's guilt at killing his father that goes nowhere.
Much
of the series occurs in such a haphazard manner. Sub-plots like the
cage fights, or Danny's stay in a mental hospital merely happen with
no effect on further events. Furthermore the show tries to operate
inside of a vacuum. Yes the Hand, including scary old Madam Gao are
here but never the demon ninjas or possessed children previously seen
in Daredevil. Now it's a secret academy somehow hidden within New
York City where fit teenagers work out all day.
As if
all the issues with story line, characters, acting, weren't enough,
there's lazy direction and piss poor production values. Danny's fight
against a spider themed assassin looks like something straught outta
the second Mortal Kombat movie. And they are so few locations it
makes the show feel claustrophobic. Here's a scene in the office,
then Colleen's Dojo, then Harold's apartment, then the office, the
dojo, office again. You get the idea, it's a very cheap feeling
series.
Possibly
the biggest issue of all is tone. Not once did this ever feel like an
Iron Fist tale. Instead of a naive yet fun kung-fu master battling
hordes of colorful martial artists and ninja, we're treated to this
emotionally cold, sluggishly paced upper crust family drama. It's a
tone that might have worked if this were a character like Moon Knight
but not here. There's never even a pay off to all this shit as the
final conflict is Danny hiding on a rooftop, trying not to get shot
by a zombie business man.
Iron
Fist is so lame I nearly didn't finish. I had to stop episode 12
about twenty minutes in to take care of some things and barely had
the strength to turn it back on. I was so tired of watching these
characters moping about in their pajamas, unable to process basic
emotions. During the first half of the show I kept giving it a pass
in the hope it was going somewhere but it just kept getting worse. I
wasn't just disappointed, I was full on exhausted over how awful this
was. It's not just bad but the worst thing Marvel Studios has ever
made.
I've
mentioned before how I seek to be a more positive voice on the
internet so it's tough to write something so negative, but this show
really isn't getting the tongue lashing it deserves. As viewers we
can only hope that the Defenders team-up does some major damage
control for this character, and that the entire Iron Fist writing
staff finds themselves without jobs. At the very least I have proof
of not loving all Marvel productions for when I review DC movies.
Marvel shit the bed here, plain and simple.
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