THE PROBLEM WITH IRON FIST

With The Defenders trailer out, (check it out here), we're just months away from the team-up we've been waiting for, but before we get there, let's talk about the last lead up to it, Iron Fist. The only sore in the Defenders line-up. What went wrong and was it really that bad? Here's my review on it:

Marvel’s latest Netflix series, Iron Fist has gotten some flack from critics and fans and it’s somewhat understandable. Aside from the fact that lots of fans were clamouring for an Asian character (despite the character always being White) to portray the hero, the storyline has some problems that really has nothing to do with race, but rather a lack of intrigue.

The first 10-15 minutes of Iron Fist is an amazing setup to a good Iron Fist movie we’ll never get to see. There’s also a great setup for the villain in Harold Meachum, which would’ve worked better for a one and half hour movie, but this is a Netflix series of 13 episodes, so things have to get dragged… for too long!

There’s obviously something more Batman-esque and less Iron Man-ish about Danny Rand’s background, he’s the one Defender that has the potential to merge the MCU with the Marvel Netflix world, I mean they already exist in the same universe, but don’t cross directly. Rand’s position as the son of a wealthy businessman and owner of a presumably Fortune 500 company puts him in the same world as Tony Stark, while he’s martial arts training puts him on the street level of the other Defenders. He could also serve as a great link to a character like Dr. Strange, except Marvel aren’t too keen on crossing their movie universe with their TV one so soon (Agents of Shield being the clear exception).

So while Iron Fist isn’t the most appealing of The Defenders, he certainly is an untapped bridge in this area. Right now for viewers he stands as the last bridge to The Defenders series, which has to carry him along with some of the negative criticism his show is receiving. The show in a way reminds me of the first season of Netflix’s Marco Polo. Both are extremely slow in pacing, however, whereas in Marco Polo, the White “protagonist” is barely a protagonist and more of a tool to introduce us to the more interesting (and Asian) supporting cast, Iron Fist seems eager to shove Danny Rand down our throats, even though Colleen Wing and the Meachum siblings are far more interesting characters with far more interesting story arcs and while villains can and sometimes tend to outshine their hero counterparts, Harold Meachum seems grades above Danny Rand to even have to serve as one of his adversaries. Harold Meachum wouldn’t even be a villain in the MCU, because like all the others in the last 3 Marvel/Netflix series (Kingpin, Killgrave & Cottonmouth), would easily outshine the heroes there (Loki got lucky). It would be nice though to see Tony Stark square off with Harold Meachum in an intellectual barb, hence again proving how Iron Fist’s world fits in with the MCU.

The show really doesn’t pick up till its fifth episode and that’s a long time, considering it might have lost a few fans by then. It is in this episode that Iron Fist starts to become that bridge to The Defenders, but the real action starts in the RZA directed sixth episode, this is where the balance between Danny Rand’ corporate world and fist-fighting as the Iron Fist strikes a screen balance. You’d wish the RZA and his Wu-Tang cohorts had pretty much been in charge of this thing, what with their love of Kung-Fu and comics.

Sad to say, but the rest of the series’ fight choreography doesn’t match the one in the RZA-directed episode and that’s a bit of a let-down. There are a few interesting fight sequences, but most of them for me involve Colleen Wings and not Danny Rand. Iron Fist is the first Marvel/Netflix series to let us down with the hallway fight sequence that has been done so well in the first seasons of Daredevil and Luke Cage. Making it even worse, Iron Fist has not one, but a few hallway fight sequences. The final fight sequence does up things a little bit, but regardless is still a lackluster episode.

But let’s put aside what Marvel has managed to do with the series, Iron Fist in itself as a character and comic-book series has a problem with its origin story. It could’ve been altered to fit Marvel’s Netflix run of series. Iron Fist is WAY out there compared to the other three, hence why translating it to the small screen seems to have been a problem. I’m not saying the producers couldn’t have found a better way round this, they just clearly didn’t!

 
As a closing note, if you’ve watched the series closely, I believe I may have figured out who the villain to The Defenders series is… and SHE is related to Iron Fist, but MUM’s the word!