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Marvel’s ‘Iron Fist’ Is Ok, but Never Great

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Mar 22, 2017.

  1. Melody Bot Mar 22, 2017
    Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    After watching the first six episodes a lot of critics were out on Netflix’s new series Iron Fist. The reviews haven’t been kind. While it’s hard to judge a whole show on just shy of half of its episodes, it’s important for a show to grab the audience from the start. Iron Fist doesn’t quite do that. While I made it through the whole thing, the start of the show was slow. The latter half is definitely better, but many people could find themselves giving up on the show before that happens.

    Normally, I don’t really like ranking things, but if I had to rank Marvel’s Netflix shows, this would come in last. The one through point for all of these shows is Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), who is a joy to watch on the screen. In this, she gives some nods to the fellow street heroes, Daredevil and Luke Cage. Our link to Jessica Jones is Jeri Hogarth (Carrie Ann Moss). What Iron Fist does do well is give us some little easter eggs to enjoy. That said, Claire and Jeri are both strong women who can take over a scene the moment they enter it. It’s a good sign when the writers pay attention to the women characters in such a way. It’s used to their advantage, but doesn’t quite hide the flaws in Danny Rand (Finn Jones).

    There’s probably a laundry list of things that one could nitpick in this show, but that’s not quite my style. It wasn’t a great show, but in the end, it turned out to be an okay one. Is it worth roughly 13 hours of your time? That really depends on how much you care about Iron Fist as a character and if you are patient enough to sit through some tough episodes. The beginning consists of more board meetings than necessary and more time spent on trying to figure out if Danny is who he says he is. Or it seems that way, which is the problem.

    The special effects and the fight scenes are not too consistent, either. They’re rocky in the beginning and seem to smooth out as the episodes continue. However, I don’t think we’ll ever get another scene like the hallway fight scene in season one of Daredevil. Marvel just might have set expectation too high with that first season. Now, I’m not saying they should have made that season of Daredevil not as great a it was, but it just meant they needed to step up their game with the following shows and they didn’t do that with this one.

    With The Defenders coming up, it will be interesting to see if they fix some of the major downfalls of Danny Rand. For someone who was away for 15 years, it’s expected that he’ll need to re-adjust to being around people who aren’t training to be warriors, but it never feels like he gets there in this season. He feels the need to fix everything himself, not realizing he’s not the only one capable of either fighting or handling a situation. That finally brings us to Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) and her relationship with Danny.

    Colleen first meets Danny at a park when he’s homeless (and shoeless). He keeps coming around until she lets him stay at her dojo and things quickly go downhill from there and trouble is abundant. Colleen herself is another strong female character in the show, who also has some faults. However, her faults are detrimental to the story. Her fault is being human and believing that what she was taught was true and there’s no way it couldn’t be. She thinks Danny is the one who has been brainwashed, but in reality she was the one who was tricked the entire time. Her character is enjoyable and she seems to have some growth throughout the season.

    The Meachum family and Madame Gao are the other characters who play significant roles in the show. Gao remains as part of The Hand, which is the main storyline this season. Danny is dead set on destroying The Hand and she’s back to her drug pushing ways. Harold Meachum started Rand with Danny’s father and plays an interesting role that leads to a twist later in the season. Joy and Ward Meachum are the ones running Rand. Ward feels robotic and cold for a good majority of the season, whereas Joy is full of much more emotion than he is. It makes for an interesting sibling dynamic at times, but largely makes Ward unenjoyable as a character.

    One last thing to mention is K’un-Lun. It’s where Danny came back to New York from and during the season, some information is given about the place, but most of it revolves around Danny and his training. If you are interested in an Iron Fist story that might grab you more than this, I suggest reading Immortal Iron Fist by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction.

    Overall, this is by far not the best season of Netflix television that Marvel has released. It has plenty of flaws, but if you stick with it, you might find that some of them matter slightly less. The show does a much better job with the female characters and that is something that I think most would agree is a plus. It didn’t need more action to be a better story, it just needed to not drag as much as it did to start. Consistency is definitely key when it comes to these shows.

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  2. Steve_JustAGuy Mar 22, 2017
    Steve_JustAGuy

    Trusted

    The only Marvel show that has been "worth" 13 hours of my time has been Daredevil. JJ/Luke Cage and now Iron Fist (although, I'm not completely through with it yet) have all been way too long.

    I agree that Ward is unenjoyable, but I thought that was the point of his character haha.
     
    Turkeylegz likes this.
  3. TJ Wells Mar 22, 2017
    TJ Wells

    Trusted Prestigious

    There is absolutely no reason any of these shows need to be more than eight episodes a season.
     
    Adrian Villagomez, Awksome, nl5011 and 3 others like this.
  4. theredline Mar 22, 2017
    theredline

    Trusted Supporter

    I've actually liked it a lot. I like Danny's character...a little goofy, a little awkward...it's been fun for me!
     
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  6. Dirty Sanchez Mar 22, 2017
    Dirty Sanchez

    Prestigious Prestigious

    Scott Buck, the talentless hack who was the showrunner of Dexter in seasons 6 through 8 is the showrunner of this.

    This is enough to put me off the show forever.
     
    Jason Tate likes this.
  7. KyleK Mar 22, 2017
    KyleK

    Let's get these people moving faster!

    You appear to have a strong distaste for "talentless hacks"...
     
    Dirty Sanchez likes this.
  8. KyleK Mar 22, 2017
    KyleK

    Let's get these people moving faster!

    I strongly agree with the review. I really enjoyed the female characters, who evolved over the course of the season but demonstrates different types of strength. I appreciate that Danny's character feels rather different than the other Marvel series' stars - with a very naive, fish-out-of-water personality that is far removed from the other characters that feel so embedded in their boroughs.
    Like everyone's said though, a few episodes too long, some awkward pacing, inconsistent fight effects and choreography, and in my opinion, an unnecessary amount of backstory and flashbacks early in the season that didn't do enough to add to the story. Overall though, it hasn't hindered my anticipation for Defenders - because as I'm watching these shows I keep hoping for another one of the superheros to cross paths with them in an alley or dojo.
     
  9. bodkins Mar 22, 2017
    bodkins

    Trusted

    Interesting take. My fiancee and I knew zero about Iron Fist, but we've been hooked from the beginning (watching episode 8 tonight).

    I personally liked how they worked his origin with the flashbacks. To me it felt like they worked it in to not only inform backstory, but his psyche as well.

    Edit: Glad to hear the second half will be even better, a coworker told me the same!
     
  10. AshlandATeam Mar 22, 2017
    AshlandATeam

    Trusted

    Yeah, I've disagreed with every review of this I've seen - I think it's awesome. I don't think Marvel/Netflix has missed yet, and this is no different. Super good.
     
    NewSurrender and bodkins like this.
  11. Jason Tate Mar 22, 2017
    Jason Tate

    liner notes is back Staff Member

    Couldn't finish it. Atrociously bad acting and fight scenes. Bailed.
     
  12. NewSurrender Mar 23, 2017
    NewSurrender

    Regular Prestigious

    I disagree. Iron fist is excellent and underrated. Just as good as Daredevil, JJ and Luke Cage. I'm up to episode 12 and I'm loving it
     
    therookielot and AshlandATeam like this.
  13. SEANoftheDEAD Mar 23, 2017
    SEANoftheDEAD

    Trusted

    I couldn't agree more. Movies about more interesting comic book characters that most of us enjoy a whole lot more run usually 2 hours or so.

    A whole trilogy (Wolverine/Logan) for example, had a total runtime of what...maybe 7 hours? Yet a character such as Iron Fist gets 13?
     
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  15. SoundInTheSignals Mar 23, 2017
    SoundInTheSignals

    @Bake_Wear / soundinthesignals.com

    I thought overall it was pretty good. They could have made a couple better decisions especially with some of the pacing and a couple of the characters motivations, but I didn't think it hurt the viewing experience all that much.
     
  16. TJ Wells Mar 23, 2017
    TJ Wells

    Trusted Prestigious

    It's also why I dropped of The Flash/Arrow/etc. I really enjoyed them at times but I don't have the time to keep up with 22x4 episodes a season.
     
  17. Ryan Mar 23, 2017
    Ryan

    Might be Spider-Man...

    I still have to check this out. I loved DD and Luke Cage and still haven't seen Jessica Jones, but I'm checking this out
     
  18. Tim Fitzpatrick Mar 23, 2017
    Tim Fitzpatrick

    Newbie

    If you criticize the acting and pacing I think you're more burnt out than anything. Feels very similar to everything they've done before. The acting has never been great. Most notably in Jessica Jones due to David Tennant just acting circles around everyone he shares a scene with. The action in all these series peeked with the one shot hallway fight of season 1 of Dare Devil. I have had fun and enjoyed every show they've done but am under no impression that any have been worthy of critical acclaim. If you're a fan of what they've done you'll enjoy this. If you were expecting something more you'll be disappointed.
     
    AshlandATeam likes this.
  19. therookielot Mar 23, 2017
    therookielot

    Punk, Absolute Prestigious

    The more I hear mediocre reviews about this, the more I realize I can enjoy shit without listening to someone else's opinion. Sounds obvious, I know, but one of the things I hate about reading reviews of something before I listen/watch/read, is whenever there's a negative review, I subconsciously look for flaws in the art. I'm tired of that.

    I'm about 8 deep, I think I probably relate to Danny Rand more than any other Marvel character. Maybe I'm looking too far into it, but I'm sensing commentary about mental health. Maybe cause I'm bipolar, and I've been reading about/practicing tantric practices of transmuting energy, which reminds me of what Danny does when he summons the iron fist.

    Also, another synchronistic thing about this show is oddly enough I've been studying the Himalayas a lot recently, particularly Mount Kailash. Anyway, yeah I love this show. People can say what they want, but I think it's the best Marvel series yet.
     
    NewSurrender, AshlandATeam and theredline like this.