TV Review: Iron Fist
Updated: May 28, 2019
Let’s get something straight, I don’t think Ironfist was a bad show at all. A lot of critics attacked the show because they claimed it was “white-washing” and etc. I don’t think that was the issue of the show whatsoever. This isn’t the first time that race and/or gender was changed on a character(Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin), maybe it should be about the lack of chemistry that this show had.
I wrote the articles for Daredevil Season 2(A.J took season 1), Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. I figured I would have A.J take the lead on this one in reviewing the show in its entirety. However, I will call out some things that really bothered me. And there was a lot.
Who needs the Meachums?
What now feels like a family that got rejects from the Jerry Springer show, wasted 13 hours of programming with its wishy washy logic and family values drove me nuts. Every episode it seemed like every character whether if it was Joy, Ward or even Harold couldn’t make up what side they wanted to be on. Spoilers. Harold becoming the lackluster villain that he was, irregardless that he was an immortal that could only due if his head cut off. Like, would that cause a quickening? Would it made the Ironfist worth mentioning?
Claire Temple
Rosario Dawson is one busy girl. I do know that Claire is involved with the defenders story and jumps in out a lot but my god, is there a show she isn’t on? She is slowly becoming the female version of Stan Lee that has a medical background. Constantly jumping into every show to patch up or fool around with the main character. Her character truly gets around.
Whoa, I lied about knowing Kung Fu.
Do you really? I read in a recent article that Finn Jones(Danny Rand aka IronFist) was called out for the poor fight chorography in the show. I am forced to agree. I have seen better martial arts in bad Japanese 80’s action films than IronFist. Finn responded that he was given very little time to train for this show and a lot of the fight scenes were rehearsed minutes before they were actually shot. So, safe to say he did a lot of his own stunts. I still call BS. In the comic book realm, or any movie for that matter, you need to take aggressive approach to these roles. You are more critically attacked in comic book movies. Look at the DC universe. Standing example. Sorry Finn, don’t buy your lame excuse.
Colleen Wing should have been the IronFist
Maybe Finn should have spent time training with Jessica Henwick. He might have learned a thing or 2 about martial arts. Jessica is hailed as the savior of the show and people have already demanded she gets her own spin off. I am forced to agree. She played a string female role that defected from the Hand when she realized who they actually were and after her feeling for Danny grew.
Appears the Hand has a hand in everything *snicker*
The hand came into play technically in season 1 of Daredevil and then rose to become a main adversary in S2 of Daredevil. So with a world full of arch enemies and villains, why are they gracing Iron Fist in the first season? I will admit, I may have not read any of the comics, but somehow all the other shows had their own specific villain. So why does Iron Fist get the shaft? Well, if you count Harold Meachum’s scheming with his hyper emotional son Ward, they could have villains I suppose. Luke Cage even had a somewhat believable villain named Diamondback. And he wasn’t even good but was still better than the hand.
The actual “IronFist” was quite bland
The best part of any comic book show or movie is seeing the power for the first time. What happened Ironfist? I understand that it was an origins story, but shouldn’t he have developed his chi by at least the 5th or 6th episode? Why did we have to wait until the 13th episode to see the full power of what the Iron Fist could produce? To me, that was a huge miss. It’s one thing to not see the iconic costume, but it’s another to not see the powers to a greater extent but replaced with subpar fight scenes.
All in all, the show ranks as the lowest out of all the Netflix Marvel’s show. I hope when they get to Defenders(which wrapped up shooting the 3rd week of March) that Finn could have learned Kung Fu by then. But I will bet the Hand will be the main adversary. Wait for it.