IRON FIST

The final Defender has arrived…

Before the release of Luke Cage, Marvel/Netflix’s track record of making shows together was pretty bloody high. Both Daredevil and Jessica Jones were huge hits among fans, and showed that Marvel could be dark and gritty. Then, as mentioned, Luke Cage came out. I did not like Luke Cage. In fact, looking back, I find it a struggle to find any aspect of it that I find redeemable. But, in the big picture, not too much of a problem. Marvel was assembling the Defenders, and we had three out of the four.

And now we have Iron Fist, the final Defender. Personally, I was looking forward to Iron Fist. I really didn’t know much about the character, and I was interested with what would happen. I knew his powers and backstory were mystical, so I was excited to see how that would blend with the other shows’ grittiness and, I use this term loosely, realism. Then the reviews came out. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 19%. That’s not good, whichever way you look at it. Let’s just say my looking forward to the series took a bit of a hit. Perhaps it was because my expectations were lowered, or perhaps it was because the show is actually quite good, like Daredevil or Jessica Jones, but, unlike those who influence the rating system on Rotten Tomatoes, I quite liked Iron Fist. Most of it, anyway.

After surviving a plane crash in the Himalayas which saw both of his parents killed, Danny Rand was taken to a Monastery in K’un Lun, one of the seven capital cities of heaven. There, he trained to become the Iron Fist, an immortal warrior and sworn enemy of The Hand. When Danny returns to his old life in New York City after years of being presumed dead, those who are allies are few and far between, and evil forces start moving against him from all directions.

I’ll be the first to admit that the plot isn’t as interesting as I was hoping. A lot is going on in Iron Fist. There are a lot of characters to learn and there are a lot of links to the other shows, particularly Daredevil. Had the episode count been brought down to about 10, the series would work just fine. But as it’s stretched to 13, there are long intervals were not much goes on, and that does become noticeable over the course of the series. There are interesting parts to the plot, mostly the bits concerning Danny and the life he’s led in K’un Lun, and I can’t help but feel that the series would benefit if more of this was shown.

One definite highlight of the series is the combat. While there aren’t any brutal, single-take scenes like in Daredevil, the combat in Iron Fist is primarily Kung Fu, which when brought to the screen, and done well, gives the show a sense of style and depth.

It made scenes that could’ve easily just been one punch after another far more interesting, and it’s definitely an aspect of the show to look forward to.

One of the strongest aspects of the other Marvel/Netflix shows has been their primary hero. They are the centre-piece of the world around them and yet, no matter how crazy that world gets, always somehow anchor the audience down. They all have that one aspect that makes them believable. Now, I don’t know whether it’s because of the character, the writing, or the actor playing him, but I didn’t get that with Iron Fist.

I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult to relate with someone who was born into a huge amount of wealth, had both parents killed in a plane crash and lived the past fifteen years in heaven learning to become a mystical warrior. There were times where I found it difficult to embrace the show simply because Danny was one of the weakest parts of it. In fact, in a fight that happens in the penultimate episode, I actually found myself rooting for the person Danny was fighting, simply because his morals and his code was more like that of a true hero. Danny’s not a terrible character, and Finn Jones does a good enough job of playing him, but there was definitely something missing.

Plus it wasn’t helped by the fact that they always seemed to find convenient new ways to have Danny loose his powers.

You’d think they’d want to show something like this off more…

There are parts of Iron Fist I liked, I promise. As a set up for the character for The Defenders, the show worked fine. It introduced us to this characters world, and showed off just enough of his abilities to keep me interested, but even I know there are some we’ve yet to see. Danny as a character however, was barely what I was hoping for. While Finn Jones did a decent enough job, there were moments where everything became cheesy. His chemistry with some of the other actors, actually, the chemistry between most of the cast was average at best. The plot on the whole was ok, but the mixture of the two main plot points; Danny’s return to the world and the more…Iron Fist-y side of his life often felt unbalanced, and not in the right way. I would’ve been fine with it showing far less of the real-world aspect in favour of more screen time showing us his life as the Iron Fist. Plus…No hero suit.