Marvel's Iron Fist

Harshaw said:

All signs point to rushed into production so they could make their deadline for Defenders. Finn Jones remarked he had less than 6 months to prepare for the role.

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Well that actually does explain the entire series. Unfortunate.

Origin stories are never all that great because the hero is generally being their most stupid self. There are definitely some things you can nitpick, like the Hand's super surveillance that shows the dojo. But then returning to the dojo? as if the surveillance rooms destruction disables access to some kind of security webcam?

It was good enough to watch just because its part of the greater Netflix Marvel narrative and its dark/gritty and expansive enough to ingest the attempt.

Void said:

I almost feel like they intended to have a running theme of the show be that he's essentially a 10-year-old boy mentally, which would explain how fucking retarded he is about EVERY SINGLE THING, but then someone came through and cut every reference to that storyline out. Because you can see a few times where they kind of mention it, and he definitely acts that way almost the entire series, but they don't use it enough and don't offer any other explanation for why he's fucking retarded. I know we were supposed to pick up on this a little, but it clearly isn't the main reason he's so dumb. I don't know what that reason is, but it isn't because he is mentally a child.

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I came to have that same impression. That he was pretty young when that plane crashed and he ending up spending his most formative years in a place that is separated off from the real world and is stuck in an older time, making him naive as hell about so much of our world. But that kinda falls apart once Davos show up and he's not suffering from the same limitations, though he's obviously unfamiliar with many things.

There were rumors going around at one point, after DD S2 when the Punisher made such a splash that they were going to make a movie about Iron Fist rather than a series and have The Punisher be the fourth individual series instead. Obviously that didn't end up being the case but that may have been a factor as to why IF ended up being a little rushed to make it out in time to not cause a delay in The Defenders, because they put off pulling the trigger on that decision.

And then there is the matter of the show's budget. My understanding is the Marvel shows were sold to Netflix as a package with the budget being set for them as a whole. This being the last of the series it might have had it's budget tightened by more money going into the earlier series than initially anticipated. That would also impact how much production time they could allocate to it and how much resources they could put into getting those fight scenes really dialed in and why his Iron Fist ability was used so sparingly.

Now that everyone has had their go at a first season I would say they'd be better off going ahead and pairing up Luke Cage and Iron Fist into their own series instead of giving them second seasons, but with the way they've presented the characters I can't really see Cage, or anyone else for that matter, wanting to hang out with Danny Rand other than maybe as a sponging off of the rich guy scenario. And they really need to shorten up the seasons across the board. Thankfully The Defenders is only 8 episodes.

Dandain said:

Origin stories are never all that great because the hero is generally being their most stupid self. There are definitely some things you can nitpick, like the Hand's super surveillance that shows the dojo. But then returning to the dojo? as if the surveillance rooms destruction disables access to some kind of security webcam?

It was good enough to watch just because its part of the greater Netflix Marvel narrative and its dark/gritty and expansive enough to ingest the attempt.

Spoiler

Harold's resurrection is only understood by Ward, that's one thing I think they got right. Danny walks in to see Ward when he's got the bag of bleach to clean the blood pool. Danny thinks he caused Harold's death by his actions so apologizes and leaves. Until Bakuto is over Harold the head chopping requirement doesn't come to light, in the scene they still talk in a bit of non-obvious language and the fact random members of the Hand have this power is kind of an in group discussion between only Bakuto, Harold, and Ward and a shot bleeding Joy. Danny is not there for that revelation, and Joy is probably not rationally processing shit. Only Ward knows, but he doesn't want to admit he knifed the shit out of Harold.

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there are definitely bits and pieces of good in this.

Humanizing the Hand and recruitment, in the later half was good. Which was a bit of the problem in the earlier episodes. This is coming off Daredevil, etc. And this encompassing threat of teh Hand. so, right from the beginning the Hand as this cult which has infiltrated every aspect of society is setup. in DD, and even in this. Then you have Danny coming in as "the enemy of the hand". but, there is this weird juxtaposition... Danny is supposed to be step up from Daredevil. yet... hes very clearly a step down. has no idea what he is doing, has no control over his chi(which makes no sense.) This could maybe work if the Hand were all but nonexistant. but they aren't. They are clearly shown to be a major threat right from the start. so, all this time with Danny being incompetent is stupid.

I am conflicted about this show. It seems to be trying for a more humorous take on superheros and so it gets credit for that. But it can really come back and bite the series in the future. Danny is a fucking retard but he likable. Wing is much better in this, doing what is basically the same role as Elektra tried to do in DD2. I rate this show as worse then first two thirds of Luke Cage but better overall because of the horrible way they ended Luke Cage.

I cant think of any other franchise with so much variation. Theres widespread consensus e.g. on MCU movies about what are the top 2-3 movies in the MCU. But with these shows, its all over the friggin place. We have people rating DD as watchable and JJ as unwatchable, and the opposite.

On Ep 4 so far, this beats the hell out of DD1 so far, and is about on par with LC. I guess I'll have to try DD2 if its really better than DD1.

I think its good you're seeing random ratings by everyone, it shouldn't be a surprise if everything is rated about 75% that we should get lists that are garbled messes of preference. It may be that the worst series or season is objectively worse than the best, but other than that we've just got a bunch of above average superhero shows that are dark in gritty in a way that's unlike the movies so far that are living in the same space. Its got a lot of potential as a group. Nothing we've seen yet should make anyone feel like garbage about the entire endeavor.

The overall plot I dont think is awful but the Dialogue, pace and camera work is atrocious. Not sure if Finn is just a terrible actor or if the writing is just shit.

DD S2 easily the best, then Luke Cage, DDs1 and then JJ and Iron Fist are tied. Jessica Jones was only watchable because of Dr Who.

First 4 episodes of Luke Cake were great and them kamikazed that shit into the dirt

Homsar said:

The overall plot I dont think is awful but the Dialogue, pace and camera work is atrocious. Not sure if Finn is just a terrible actor or if the writing is just shit.

DD S2 easily the best, then Luke Cage, DDs1 and then JJ and Iron Fist are tied. Jessica Jones was only watchable because of Dr Who.

First 4 episodes of Luke Cake were great and them kamikazed that shit into the dirt

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I agree except for Iron Fist, which I rate as dead last.

Who else wanted to bang the spider lady?

Thought it was ok and I would watch more of it. Fight scenes were meh but I didn't have high expectations since i'm used to watching stuff like IP Man, there was nothing that was going to satisfy me in that department. Especially with a non masked super hero, unless they could have found some young actor that was great at kung fu.

I knew nothing about this comic book character and the biggest weakness to me is the way the character was written. What the fuck is he exactly a master of? Did he not get any of the fucking wisdom after studying for 15 years? I didn't hate the actor, I hated the way it was portrayed. They almost made it seem like he lost his memories or something in some scenes and then suddenly starts telling stories of how things were there.

The thing I could not stand and this happens in a lot of stories so it is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. This is a world with super heroes, thor is real, your city was invaded by aliens etc etc etc. When someone shows up after 15 years and you finally believe him, him telling you that he was in one of the seven cities of heaven or whatever it was shouldn't be that big of a fucking shock where you automatically think he's nuts.

Would watch a second season but needs less episodes and better fight scenes.

Just finished this.. After a mildly entertaining first couple of episodes it really bogged down.. I found it harder and harder to watch the longer it went on. I found Danny Rand to be extremely annoying and tended to most enjoy the scenes where he wasn't there.

Highlight for me was the drunken master.. Sad that the actor who played him (Lewis Tan) was in the running to play Iron Fist and I reckon the series would have been a lot better if he had got the part. Not only can he actually fight but he has a hell of a lot more charismatic. Finn Jones character here is so dull and uninspired - lacking in personality.

Show did have its merits.. Ward and Harold were both excellent, Madame Gao is always interesting, and Colleen Wing was hot.

All in all I hope he takes a back seat in the Defenders and they focus on Jessica Jones and Luke Cage who are much more compelling characters, and Daredevil who can fight (and act).

Well Defenders has a different team of showrunners, the same ones who did DD S2.

Unfortunately the reason a different team is running that one is because the IF showrunner is also doing The Inhumans.

I went a couple of days between episodes 12 and 13. Before watching the finale I was kinda on the fence between this and Luke Cage as to which was the worst of the Netflix series. Iron Fist is now officially the worst for me and it's not even close because goddamn the finale sucked. Danny Rand is just a horribly written character and if the Punisher put a bullet in his brain pan to claim his place on The Defenders I'd be perfectly fine with it because as it currently stands he's going to be a distraction from 3 others characters that I generally like.

I don't see how people can say they hate Danny Rand and his stupidity while simultaneously saying they like Jessica Jones (the character). It's been a while, but I remember her making so many stupid decisions in her series that it was frustrating to watch.

Personally, I thought Danny Rand was very likable, if a bit naive. I'm looking forward to seeing a more experienced version of him in Defenders.