Netflix: Marvel's Iron Fist. Must watch.

[Kaido]

I'm hereby ditching spoiler tags as it makes no sense to have a discussion thread with spoilers when all of the episodes are out. I think the new rule should be that if it's a bingeable show (i.e. you have access to all of the episodes), don't read up if you don't want it spoiled. Moving on:

1. I liked Claire's extra screen time in this series. She was pretty much the only sane voice of reason the entire time. Also fun that they gave her some fighting chops.

2. I felt the most for Ward. He might have been a jerk as a kid, but man, he got painted into a corner over & over & over again. Very well-written...loved the part where he was trying to explain himself to Joy in the hospital after she took a bullet & now she wouldn't believe him. Everybody hates Chris!

3. Harold was a really fun character, probably my favorite. Poor Kyle. All he wanted was some vanilla!

4. So Gao has a super punch too (re: when Danny rescued the Russian guy's daughter), but just chooses not to use it & be held hostage instead?

5. The ending with Joy & Davos wasn't believable. "I'm listening" to the idea of killing Danny makes no sense. They kept building her up to find out the truth about her lying father, then suddenly she's willing to entertain murder? Nah. And Davos wants Danny dead now? Maybe...I guess.

6. I did not find most of the action scenes to be well-shot. It didn't have that movie-esqe feel that the rest of the show did; it felt like they were, well, fighting to be recorded on film. They need to work on the fight scenes for the next episode, and take a cue from Daredevil while they're at it.

7. They wrote so much into Colleen that I think the show was really about her. She did better fighting. She changed more. Grew more as a character. Danny got so angsty that even Spiderman would cringe.

8. I thought a lot of the wise words of wisdom that Danny spouted off, and a lot of the yoga-ninja pilates-whatever stretching moves, were kind of a stretch. It's cooler when Jet Li does stuff like that. I don't know if they didn't frame it right or if the character wasn't a good fit or what.

9. lol @ the part on the park bench where Joy mentioned JJ being a good PI, when she's not drunk.

10. lol @ resurrected Harold sticking his hand into the hot dog cart.

11. lol @ Stan Lee on the NYPD poster.

12. It feels like a lot of the parts of the story were quickly written or kind of glossed over. Like when Bakuto decided to kill Colleen...so her students, who she instilled with good values, were suddenly okay with murdering her? Yeah okay.

13. I'll give the ending leading up to the snow pass a solid "okay". Loved the DD season 2 ending..."I am the Daredevil" BOOYAH! Luke Cage's was lame..."always forward, sometimes backwards". Rule #1 of writing a novel is to end the chapter in the middle of the chapter, so that the reader has a cliffhanger to make them want to keep reading. Jessica Jones had an anti-climatic ending. Luke Cage's was just meh. DD season #2 was awesome. Iron Fist's was passable...I do kinda wanna know what happened, but we're not invested in his backstory like we are Colleen's. Like, what happened to her honor student, who got his leg broke in the fight? Did Bakuto stab Danny with that tool in order to use that kid as a guinea pig to become a synthetic Iron First? Or they could have done something like Danny getting to the pass just in time to fend off the Hand, and in his fighting, he gets the double Iron Fist like in that video fro China that Bakuto showed him - but then his home disappears with the rest of the bad guys in there, oh no! Or just something to really leave you hanging, you know? C'mon, it's not that hard! "Not Penny's boat!"

I'm sure I'll think of some other stuff. TL; DR- it was much better than the trailer made it out to be. Not as good as Daredevil, but better than Luke Cage & Jessica Jones. Could have been written better in a lot of places. Lead character could have been written a LOT better.

 

[Kaido]

I've now watched a few videos with Lewis Tan and I rewatched the scene where Danny Rand fights the drunken Lewis Tan guard.

Clearly Lewis Tan is a better fighter and in better physical shape. However, I'm not convinced Lewis Tan is a good actor. He has a B-movie vibe about him. Maybe it's the material, but other than his fighting (and judging by his commercials, his looks too), he doesn't stand out.

Granted, it's a limited sampling of his acting that I've seen, but I'm not convinced Lewis Tan would have made a better Iron Fist. In contrast, we already know Finn Jones can be an excellent actor. Some may say Finn Jones has been miscast for Iron Fist, and I may agree to a certain extent, but I at least he is a very good actor from what we've seen of him in Game Of Thrones.

Yeah, the whole "drunken master" thing was a little too Sharknado for me. They should have played it off as comparable to Danny's feature, where the more he gets hit, the sharper his focus becomes (which they kind of quit exploiting for Danny after one or two fights...).

I don't think I've seen Finn Jones in anything else. He seemed to have some good acting moments here & there; I don't know how much of it was bad writing for him as an actor & for his character vs. his acting. Like Aikouka said earlier, a lot of stuff was too on the nose.

 

[Eug]

Yeah, the whole "drunken master" thing was a little too Sharknado for me. They should have played it off as comparable to Danny's feature, where the more he gets hit, the sharper his focus becomes (which they kind of quit exploiting for Danny after one or two fights...).

I don't think I've seen Finn Jones in anything else. He seemed to have some good acting moments here & there; I don't know how much of it was bad writing for him as an actor & for his character vs. his acting. Like Aikouka said earlier, a lot of stuff was too on the nose.

He's excellent in Game Of Thrones. However, in GOT, he plays a wuss not a badass.

 

[RLGL]

Waste of time , why bother

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

So.... been watching this and IMO it's been a train wreck.

- The martial arts is so sub-par compared to traditional Chinese / Hong Kong kung-fu movies.

- Danny is supposed to be a calm and collected monk, having been trained for over a decade to master his emotions, mind, and body? Really? He literally loses his shit in every episode and requires the intervention of everyday people to calm him down. And I don't mean he just gets angry. He completely flips out.

- The fact that he has a black/white view of the world AND he's a monk who loses his shit ALL THE FUCKING TIME make his character even worse. He doesn't even consider Colleen's side of the story about the Hand when they're on the rooftop - instead having another useless emotional argument that gets both of them no where.

- I get that he's brainwashed and young-ish (25 years old), but he's also supposed to be a monk warrior with 15 years of training under his belt. Isn't someone like that supposed to be calm, collected, mature, wise, and reflective? Instead of being an emotional man-baby? Or a complete try-hard poser?

- I feel more for Ward. And Colleen. And Joy. And Claire. Maybe even Harold.

 

[Kaido]

- The martial arts is so sub-par compared to traditional Chinese / Hong Kong kung-fu movies.

So, we just watched the 3 Ninjas last night (silly kid's action-comedy from '92). The fight scenes were exponentially better than Iron Fist lol. Not bad for a 25-year-old kid's movie

 

[DaveSimmons]

- Danny is supposed to be a calm and collected monk, having been trained for over a decade to master his emotions, mind, and body? Really? He literally loses his shit in every episode and requires the intervention of everyday people to calm him down. And I don't mean he just gets angry. He completely flips out.

It was way overdone, but they did cover the reason: he was taught to bottle up his emotions, not to master them. That apparently worked in a heavily regimented life as a door guard monk, but not so well away from that life.

- I feel more for Ward. And Colleen. And Joy. And Claire. Maybe even Harold.

Harold was an abusive sociopath even before his first death. Joy was a good character until the writers threw away that character for the stupid twist ending. Ward had the best-written arc of them all, from jerk kid to tortured evil adult to finally a somewhat better person.

I enjoyed it, though DD was better in every way.

 

[thebestMAX]

Revised listings:
DD - Best of the lot by far.
LC - Good characters but a little thin.
JJ - OK but left me wanting more of something. Too slow also as was LC in spots.
IF - Well deserved last place. Didnt like Finn Jones in GOT, dont like him as the lead here.

 

[sdifox]

Saw one episode, will not watch more.

 

[rstrohkirch]

I tried really really hard to make it through this but I couldn't. I stopped at episode 6 or 7 and then skimmed the last episode. A better lead actor and better dialog would have helped immensely.

 

[NuclearNed]

I've now finished Iron Fist, and my initial assessment is still more or less the same... DD1>DD2>>>IF>>LC>>>>>JJ

I enjoyed Iron Fist, but DD (both seasons) still sets the bar as far as I'm concerned. In my rankings, there is a pretty significant gap between DD2 & IF. I think IF's fight scenes were passable... the problem is that the fight scenes in DD were so extraordinary, especially for television, that IF's just don't really compare. Heck, DD's fight scenes were better than those in a lot of movies.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I've now finished Iron Fist, and my initial assessment is still more or less the same... DD1>DD2>>>IF>>LC>>>>>JJ

I enjoyed Iron Fist, but DD (both seasons) still sets the bar as far as I'm concerned. In my rankings, there is a pretty significant gap between DD2 & IF. I think IF's fight scenes were passable... the problem is that the fight scenes in DD were so extraordinary, especially for television, that IF's just don't really compare. Heck, DD's fight scenes were better than those in a lot of movies.

What bothered me about them is Danny seemed like he was still learning kung fu, when he was supposed to be the most powerful mystic warrior monk of his generation after 15 years of training. I had to keep telling myself that this was like DD, a prequel to what he'd become in the comics I read as a kid.

From fuzzy memories of the comics I was expecting something closer to Neo playing with the upgraded agents at the start of the second Matrix movie.

 

[Pohemi]

Agreed. Rule #1 is that you need a likable main character. So far I feel more for Ward being under the gun of the company, his dad, and the Hand to not tell his sister than for Danny lol.

So.... been watching this and IMO it's been a train wreck.

- The martial arts is so sub-par compared to traditional Chinese / Hong Kong kung-fu movies.

- Danny is supposed to be a calm and collected monk, having been trained for over a decade to master his emotions, mind, and body? Really? He literally loses his shit in every episode and requires the intervention of everyday people to calm him down. And I don't mean he just gets angry. He completely flips out.

- The fact that he has a black/white view of the world AND he's a monk who loses his shit ALL THE FUCKING TIME make his character even worse. He doesn't even consider Colleen's side of the story about the Hand when they're on the rooftop - instead having another useless emotional argument that gets both of them no where.

- I get that he's brainwashed and young-ish (25 years old), but he's also supposed to be a monk warrior with 15 years of training under his belt. Isn't someone like that supposed to be calm, collected, mature, wise, and reflective? Instead of being an emotional man-baby? Or a complete try-hard poser?

- I feel more for Ward. And Colleen. And Joy. And Claire. Maybe even Harold.

• Finn Jones and the questionable writing and choreography ruined it for me.

 

[gorobei]

What bothered me about them is Danny seemed like he was still learning kung fu, when he was supposed to be the most powerful mystic warrior monk of his generation after 15 years of training. I had to keep telling myself that this was like DD, a prequel to what he'd become in the comics I read as a kid.

From fuzzy memories of the comics I was expecting something closer to Neo playing with the upgraded agents at the start of the second Matrix movie.

that's what it should have been, out of all the netflix marvels he should have been closest to the completed final hero version(absent a costume). it should have been a martial arts movie with some neat mystical Hand stuff thrown in for mystery and dread. instead they wanted to make it an origin without any actual flashbacks to him as a child learning kungfu or facing the dragon since it would be easier and cheaper not to film the kunlun stuff while in NY. they barely explain away that he left before completing fist training which seems silly.

the actors were fine, even finn jones was adequate when given an actual script. Short and simple the writing was a mess, very likely rushed given how late a start they got on prepreduction if you believe the rumors. whoever was the show runner didnt seem to understand the character.

DD s1,2 JJs1 LCs1 all have issues with meandering middles where they insert filler episodes with mini arcs that derail the main plot momentum, mainly as result of needing13 ep in what would be better done in 10 ep. but given the nearly schizophrenic flopping around of character dialogue in ironfist it seems pretty clear that there was one group writing the beginning and finale with another group doing the inbetween hand stuff.

is anyone else bothered by the somewhat incestuous nature of the romantic hookups? given who the leads for all 4 series end up with in the comics, by the time they get to the Defenders 80% of the cast will have slept or almost slept with each other or the supporting characters.