Marvel defenders on netflix.

[William Gaatjes]

I had a binge watch weekend last weekend.
Really enjoyed it.
Madame Gao is the most fun to watch fighting.
:Thumbs up:

Amazing control of her chi.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah, I also enjoyed it. Was surprised that it was only 8 episodes, but they had a lot less character building to do vs. the first seasons of JJ, IF, DD and LC.

WANT MOAR.

 

[Elixer]

Spoiler

I thought it was pretty random on who got knocked out, when & why.
The whole Iron fist in the "final" battle before he broke the seal made no sense. First he says he knows what she is trying to do, then proceeds to do what she wants him to do.

Overall, I would give this a meh rating.

 

[BoomerD]

Only watched episode 1. Seemed pretty "meh" to me. But then again, I wasn't impressed with Iron Fist at all. Luke Cage and Daredevil were decent, but I just couldn't get into Iron Fist. The actor and the character just never seemed to gel.

 

[Kaido]

I was disappointed. I agree with Elixer on the meh rating. Felt like it should have been 16 episodes. Daredevil is really the only one that has nailed the formula (and hopefully Punisher continues in that path).

Spoiler

Danny's zen master vs. naive behavior thing bugs me. BUT BUT BUT I HAVE POOR IMPULSE CONTROL!
Elektra vs. Danny was kinda dumb...you could see the missed punch vs. the super wall thing coming a mile away, they didn't even sugar coat it. Second punch & he cracked the seal lol.
Sigourney Weaver never actually did anything evil, so that was lame.
So many missed opportunities leaving the really great characters out. No Ward? No sneaky return of Harold? No Kingpin watching the building crumble at the end? And seriously, no Punisher cameo?? And where were Davos & Joy this whole time? There were so many little things they could have thrown in as bait for the next seasons of Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Daredevil. Like why not have Karen working on some crazy unrelated story that would have unfolded in the next season of Daredevil?

I was kinda bummed that they nuked all of the Chaste, so we'll probably never really know what the whole story is unless they decide to do flashbacks.
You knew Murdock survived at the end...but I felt like they should have done a cooler reveal. Like maybe have Frank Castle pulling him out of the rubble, slapping his face to wake up him, and growling, "wake up, we have work to do".
I would have liked to have seen a quick glimpse of what was going on at Khun-Lun. From the ending of Iron Fist, it looked like some bad guys made it into the city before it disappeared.

Stick chopping his own hand off was freakin' amazing. That was a WAAAAAAUGH moment IRL
Jessica's banter was probably the best dialogue of the whole series.
Danny vs. Luke was great. That first slow motion punch to the face was awesome haha.
Yay for Claire finally getting a bit of happiness!
Hoooooooly crap the cop lady getting her arm sliced off. Definitely wasn't expecting that.
I actually really liked the dragon bones concept...it was a good explanation as to how they all lived for so long. I was wondering how they were going to explain what the deal with the hole was without being super dumb about it. Like in Arrow, the whole earthquake machine bit was just totally moronic.
Elektra taking out Sigourney was awesomesauce.

A lot of times I'll rate shows on rewatchability. Like I've already watched Daredevil twice, it's just great! This one was good for a watch, as a comic book show fan, but I don't see myself really ever watching it again. Same with Iron Fist. I might watch the Harold bits because those were awesome tho. Hot dog hands!

 

[Kaido]

Only watched episode 1. Seemed pretty "meh" to me. But then again, I wasn't impressed with Iron Fist at all. Luke Cage and Daredevil were decent, but I just couldn't get into Iron Fist. The actor and the character just never seemed to gel.

imo:

1. Daredevil was perfect as-is. Just great.
2. Jessica Jones should have been a 4-part mini-series. All of the good stuff happened in the last few episodes.
3. Luke Cage should have been a 2-hour movie. The back story in the prison of his creation, coming back to Harlem, fighting Cottonmouth (who was a really great character they killed off too early), and the final fight.
4. Iron Fist should have been ENTIRELY rewritten. Keeping Ward & Harold, of course. And maybe hiring an expert like Jackie Chan to choreograph the fight scenes.
5. Defenders should be rewritten & also extended out to 16 episodes. OR, shortened into a 4-part mini-series if all they really wanted to do was focus on the taking down the Hand.

I don't know if they should keep the Iron Fist guy or not. I'm not sure if it's the writing or also his acting. I suspect it's more the writing...he just alternates between making really lame decisions to being Mr. Zen Master of the Universe at times. The whole show just kind of came across as weak, as far as his character & the kung-fu stuff goes.

Spoiler

And those flaws in the story came across in the Defenders. Such as when he's like NO LET'S TAKE THE FIGHT TO THEM EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE TRYING TO CAPTURE ME AND WIN EVERY SINGLE TIME. Or the stupid fight scene where he punches open the seal under the skyscraper.

 

[Kaido]

Madame Gao is the most fun to watch fighting.

Yeah she was awesome, I wish she had more fight scenes!

One of the reasons I think it should have been 16 episodes was because of the Japanese guy...he had this really interesting part with methodically gutting the animal & then never really got a chance to shine in the show. Would have been cool to see some of his backstory & see him in action a little more, like maybe hunting down one of the heroes more extensively or something.

 

[zinfamous]

Yeah, I also enjoyed it. Was surprised that it was only 8 episodes, but they had a lot less character building to do vs. the first seasons of JJ, IF, DD and LC.

WANT MOAR.

oh 8 episodes? I may watch then. The previews looked pretty bad and my primary complaint of all the stand-alone series so far is that they are all way too long at 13 episodes each, and just too much fluff and nonsense to make those 13 episodes. ...8 sounds about right for these.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Beginning to middle season was great. Kinda faltered at the end but still enjoyable to me.

Also all that talk about Nobu's boss being so bad ass but he pretty much did nothing the entire time.

 

[lupi]

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/luke-cage-iron-fist-and-now-the-defenders.2487699/page-2

 

[OutHouse]

loved it.

 

[thebestMAX]

3 episodes left for me.

Madame Gao has always been one of my favorites for some reason. For those of you who dont know, she is also one of the prisoners on "Orange is the new black".

Stick was better in the past IMHO. Was he a disciple of Bakuto? Madame Gao said to him "At least I dont blind my disciples".

I thought Danny Rand was a little better in this one but still not great. How many times can he say "I am the Immortal Iron Fist". Oh yeah? Then how come there have been so many others before you?
Poorly scripted character in IF and now.

Love Kristen Ritter, JJ not so much but I guess she does contribute.

Sigourney Weaver? Really? Some of our congress critters are scarier.

Murakami channeling Tywin Lannister gutting the animal.

 

[Ancalagon44]

Spoiler

I hate hate hate hate Danny Rand. I have no problems with the actor who plays him but the character is just badly written. How can someone who trained with monks for most of his life be such a douche? Total, total douche who ruins every scene he is in. I couldn't even finish the first episode of his series but I did watch the Defenders. Pity I had to deal with watching him.

Daredevil as usual is the star of the show and the best Defender.

I am going to miss Stick. Stick is one of those characters you love to hate - he is immoral and nearly as bad as the Hand whom he hunts, but man is he good to watch.

As a villain, Alexandra kinda fell flat. I agree with what a poster said above how she never really did anything evil. She wasn't as well developed as say Kingpin, who was an amazing villain.

 

[UNCjigga]

I refuse to watch it until I see a spoiler that Iron Fist/Danny Rand dies in the first episode. Probably the most annoying screen adaptation of any character from the Marvel Universe.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Spoiler

Misty Knight is a Cyborg cop in the comics. Her arm getting cut off was the setup for it. BTW, Danny has serious healing powers in the comics; in these shows everyone is grinding and leveling like a RPG. I guess Danny is going to need the book of the Iron Fist to level up.

I also liked that they kept getting beat because they are not a team yet. At some point we should see better teamwork like the Avengers. Another thing I liked was that we did not have to spend so much time dealing with everyone's feels.

Taken as a whole though, it was indeed meh. That final battle was frustrating to watch. JJ and Luke should have been pulling people's limbs out of socket to render them hors de combat. DD should have been using his batons like a boss, something the Affleck movie got right. Iron Fist fought like he has performance issues. He kept going limp fisted. Hopefully they are going to level him to where he should be. He should be KOing with chi much better, healing himself and others, and able to "keep it up" the whole time.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I refuse to watch it until I see a spoiler that Iron Fist/Danny Rand dies in the first episode. Probably the most annoying screen adaptation of any character from the Marvel Universe.

Horrible casting and bad scripting. Needed to cast a guy that trains and looks like it. And he should have appeared fully powered and carrying himself more like a Jedi, instead of a whiny man child.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Spoiler

Misty Knight is a Cyborg cop in the comics. Her arm getting cut off was the setup for it. BTW, Danny has serious healing powers in the comics; in these shows everyone is grinding and leveling like a RPG. I guess Danny is going to need the book of the Iron Fist to level up.

I also liked that they kept getting beat because they are not a team yet. At some point we should see better teamwork like the Avengers. Another thing I liked was that we did not have to spend so much time dealing with everyone's feels.

Taken as a whole though, it was indeed meh. That final battle was frustrating to watch. JJ and Luke should have been pulling people's limbs out of socket to render them hors de combat. DD should have been using his batons like a boss, something the Affleck movie got right. Iron Fist fought like he has performance issues. He kept going limp fisted. Hopefully they are going to level him to where he should be. He should be KOing with chi much better, healing himself and others, and able to "keep it up" the whole time.

In the Iron Fist series, there was that historical tape of the ~1940s Iron Fist, both fists blazing, kicking some pretty serious ass. I suppose that's the eventual goal for Danny.

 

[fenrir]

Madame Gao has always been one of my favorites for some reason. For those of you who dont know, she is also one of the prisoners on "Orange is the new black".

Yeah....no. She is one episode and that was a flashback.

 

[thebestMAX]

Yeah....no. She is one episode and that was a flashback.

I thought she was in quite a few episodes where she never talked. Maybe not credited for those? A different look alike actress? Anyway sorry if I was wrong, I only verified she was in it, not the number of episodes.

 

[gorobei]

it's a B+ with some nice scenes that rise to an A, enjoyable enough to watch and probably rewatch but nothing that you are going to remember 9 months from now. the actors do a fine job, but some of the plot holes and villain issues are just face palm inducing.

most of the reviews i've seen agree that luke and danny in a heroes for hire would be great and some sort of DD and JJ team up would be amazing to watch.

the biggest problem is that it really doesnt live up to the hype the Hand has been given since DDs1.

 

[Paratus]

imo:

1. Daredevil was perfect as-is. Just great.

Clarence: Oh there they go. There they go, every time I start talkin superheroes , a white man got to pull Matt Murdock out their ass. That's their one, that's their one. Matt Murdock. Matt Murdock. Let me tell you something once and for all. Matt Murdock was good, but compared to T'Challa , Matt Murdock ain't shit.

Sweets: I suppose nobody in here ever heard of Carl Lucas?

Morris: He got a point. Carl Lucas was a bad motherfucker!

Clarence: I ain't saying Carl ain't bad. I'm just saying I stopped liking Carl Lucas once he changed his name to Luke Cage! What kinda shit is that?

Saul: Wait a second, wait a second! A man has got the right to change his name to whatever he wants to change it to. And if a man wants to be called Luke Cage, Goddamit, this is a free country, you should respect his wishes, and call the man Luke Cage!

Morris: His Momma named him Carl, I'm gonna call him Carl.

Clarence: Mmm-hmm! That's right!

 

[William Gaatjes]

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/luke-cage-iron-fist-and-now-the-defenders.2487699/page-2

Mmm. It took a year to get it on netflix here in the Netherlands.