Marvel's Iron Fist (Netflix)

[Illyria]

Maybe they can kill him off in the Defenders and start a second series with a new one. Wouldn't fix everything, but of they also improved the writing and choreography issues there might be potential there.

[JohnC]

The Japanese-American guy who did the drunk fighting stuff was in the running for the lead. 

[JPickford]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

The Japanese-American guy who did the drunk fighting stuff was in the running for the lead. 

 

I really liked that scene.  Although I felt I was missing something.  His weird English accent was puzzling.

[Protocol Penguin]

OK, I'm at episode 3, and...

 

 

So, Hipster Guy was sectioned. And in the previous episode, he uses his glowing fist power to escape from the mental hospital. Now he's sitting down with his lawyer and the big business family and their legal own representation, to discuss getting his rightful share of the big business. But why aren't the police bursting into the building and arresting him?! He should be a wanted man for breaking out of a mental hospital!

[Alask]

I don't know, it's all nonsense. I think I got to episode 4 before giving up. He's seemingly the stupidest man alive and if I wanted to watch an idiot with super powers I'd watch The Flash. At least that's fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Clyde]

16 hours ago, JohnC said:

The Japanese-American guy who did the drunk fighting stuff was in the running for the lead. 

 

It's funny because watching that scene, I was thinking that he might have been good as Danny Rand/Iron Fist.

[womblingfree]

The Sandsnake and bloke off Sherlock fighty bits were better, and there are a couple of not bad set pieces (in the entire series). The rest is the kind of stuff you'd see on a Dick'n'Dom kung fu special.

 

Speaking of Cbeebies, the occasional visceral violence is really unsettling in what for the most part would otherwise be perfectly suitable teatime viewing.

 

On episode 13 now and enjoyed the run quite a bit overall. Looking forward to Defenders. 

[kensei]

Up to episode four. It's filled with nonsense but all the other ones have been filled with nonsense. But the lead is likeable and the plot has a bit of mystery. Nowhere near DD or Jessica Jones but better than Luke Cage. That fell off a cliff in the middle though, so hopefully that doesn't happen here.

 

The actual fight scenes lack the physicality of Dardevil but are otherwise ok. The Knight of Flowers doing bad Tai Chi however is painful, given the character. The show would have benefited with someone who has trained at martial arts for years, regardless of race.

[footle]

I think I preferred Iron Fist to Luke Cage - it slowly improves through the season, rather than Luke Cage's utter collapse in the second half of the season. Neither are anywhere near as good as DD or JJ season 1 though.

[Chindie]

Iron Fist is a better watch than Luke Cage for me. As a fan of the character it let's me down and disappoints massively in how good it could and should have been, but it gradually improves over the series and I don't think I ever felt myself slogging through it. It feels like they couldn't come up with a story that allowed them to set up the Defenders and give Danny a credible threat and develop the new character and avoid as much of the 'oogey-boogey magic dragon kung fu silly costume' stuff as they could and spend no money. So we get an OK half a story and a dragged out other half of the story and hints at other things and ignore the unique stuff for Rand almost entirely. And they clearly fucked up with everything to do with the fights, theres a couple of decent ones but the others are clearly rushed and mostly badly done. Which isn't really good enough for a show about the greatest martial artist you can imagine fighting ninjas. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

 

Cage is slow but OK for 6 episodes then falls apart, doing the most half arsed solution to the inherent problems of Cage as a character ('We can't hurt him! I know what to fix that....') and throws in a really, really bad villain. I actively found it dull.

[Mr Cochese]

I read the first ever issue of Luke Cage after watching the series. Diamondback/Willis Stryker is in it, and actually gives Luke a run for his money using trick throwing knives that have gas capsules in them and stuff. You'd think at least the baddies in the series could have thought a bit more laterally around the whole unbreakable skin thing - I mean, if a man dressed up in a primary coloured snake themed costume could.

[Benny]

2 hours ago, Chindie said:

And they clearly fucked up with everything to do with the fights, theres a couple of decent ones but the others are clearly rushed and mostly badly done. Which isn't really good enough for a show about the greatest martial artist you can imagine fighting ninjas.

 

Exactly. I'm not saying I expect the series to have fights like this, but it should have fights like this:

 

 

 

 

[Sprite Machine]

This is the first of the Marvel Netflix shows where I've really noticed the low budget. So many instances of:

"Hey, remember that time in K'un-Lun..."

*cut to Danny sitting on fake snow in front of a shoddy greenscreen background*

[DirkCrisis]

On 3/30/2017 at 12:05, JPickford said:

 

I really liked that scene.  Although I felt I was missing something.  His weird English accent was puzzling.

I just saw this one last night. He's like a real life Brad Wong. Really well done I thought and the highlight of a particularly dull episode where a string of boring things happen.

[Mr Cochese]

On 10/04/2017 at 13:49, Benny said:

 

Exactly. I'm not saying I expect the series to have fights like this, but it should have fights like this:

 

 

 

 

Wing Chun is totally the best martial art against people who attack you one at a time.

[kensei]

Well, this was all over the shop. There were good scenes and some good storylines, but those scenes often felt like they were from different shows. Characters just did stuff and did 180s for no apparent reason. As one review out it, it's like the writers didn't read each others scripts.

 

It also suffered from constantly depowerimg Danny to try a different name normal goons a threat. At one point they completely depowerimg him for basically no apparent reason. The finale fight... seriously, this is meant to be the ultimate Marshall artist. If your main character can just walk through the little guys, then just make sure you focus on fights that count, rather than constantly finding reasons to make him weaker. The best episode, by a mile was the one directed by RZA that combined action and character the way it should have been.

 

Also: Danny was a shit Iron Fist. The show at least has a character call him on it. The problem was that he's totally right. 

 

Still I wasn't bored, like Luke Cage. Hoping they can sort this out for the Defenders and season 2, as there is something properly good in there somewhere.

[Padaxes]

I did feel like this was a slog, but I finally got to the end. I never managed that with Luke Cage.

 

I wouldn't call it good though. Not by a long shot. Some of the episodes weren't as annoying as others though.

[kensei]

I think they made a balls up when they had Danny run away from Kun Lun. He is the Iron Fist; he completed his training. Giving him flaccid fist and poor discipline at random flies against what we expect of him.

 

Better if he had been sent from Kun Lun, completely focused like his mate, then had New York and old friends and love challenge him. It'd made for a more compelling story with higher stakes. The Hand could be weaved in more organically.

 

Then again maybe just consistent characterisation would have worked.

[Comrade]

Just finished watching this - I put it off for a while because the reviews were so bad, but I was surprised to find that this is actually pretty good? Maybe it was the lower expectations, but it was a fun romp, and certainly more entertaining than the slog that was Luke Cage.

[KriessG]

I'm three episodes in and enjoying it so far. It's not rushing in and it's setting up the characters nicely I think. 

[Hexx]

Thought I should catch up on this ready for Defenders

 

Starting episode 4 and it's just so lacklustre. Danny runs around mansplaining everything to everyone but with no real purpose or direction (we don't know why he's back and he's not done anything heroic etc) - just condescending to people.

 

Joy, Ward, Cooleen and even Harold have more interesting arcs than him so far:

 

 

[James Lyon]

It did take me some time to go through. As much as I enjoyed it in the end, I don't think I'd be quite as committed to watch it if it wasn't Marvel and part of an anthology.

 

That said, I'd agree that the Meachums provide most of the entertainment. I was particularly endeared to Harold with his mercurial nature and his rather odd tone of speaking.

Spoiler

Another tick for the villains being the best part of these series, I reckon.

 

On 10/04/2017 at 15:37, Sprite Machine said:

This is the first of the Marvel Netflix shows where I've really noticed the low budget. So many instances of:

"Hey, remember that time in K'un-Lun..."

*cut to Danny sitting on fake snow in front of a shoddy greenscreen background*

 

Remember that time they went to China? I didn't realise until halfway through since it looked like they were still in New York.

[Gambit]

Good news for season 2. They've ditched the showrunner and brought someone new in.

[Lorfarius]

6 minutes ago, Gambit said:

Good news for season 2. They've ditched the showrunner and brought someone new in.

 

They need to ditch the star.

[Gambit]

Just now, Lorfarius said:

 

They need to ditch the star.

 

I'm going to wait for The Defenders before I pass judgement. From the trailers it does look like he's got good chemistry with the rest of the cast.

 

He just needs to do some martial arts training to make him seem less awful.

[ZeroXAlpha]

The show is garbage. If anyone was to watch it for the defenders just watch the first and last episode and you wouldn't miss anything.

 

Finn Jones as Danny Rand should never have been selected. He just doesn't have the charisma or acting skills. He got away with it in Game of thrones due to the amount of time his role was needed.

[Andy_Why]

Agreed completely about Finn Jones! I really think a good actor could have done a much better job of making that material work. I still think it would have suffered from the generally crap scripts, but he was the main issue for me.

[kensei]

No actor would have had a hope against the madness of the scripts. You could have got a better martial artist, and that may have improved the action sequences. But even there I'm not sure how much impact direction had.

[Tezcatlipoca]

I finally watched this last week, after realising how soon The Defenders was due out.

 

It's no Jessica Jones or Daredevil season 1, but I actually quite enjoyed it (although it helped that I had such low expecations).

[Andy_Why]

I think the stuff with the Meachum's really saves it. And Colleen Wing. By far the worst thing about it is the Iron Fist. Which is a dire state of affair's for a show called 'Iron Fist'