IRON FIST REVIEW *SPOILERS*
IRON FIST REVIEW
Intro:
Ironfist has been getting a lot of hate lately and I don’t think much of it is deserved but I must admit this show is suffering from the Suicide Squad Effect. Suicide squad was not a bad film but wasn’t great either, and I believe that Ironfist is currently walking this line, at least to me. The show had its moments but overall I found myself getting a little bored with the pacing as this show does not immediately grip you like its predecessors. Ironfist starts off slow, picks up some steam, but then will leave you feeling unsatisfied at the end, kind of like your ex. This is my review of IronFist.
Overview:
IronFist starts off at an amazingly slow pace with Danny returning to his company being inherited by his childhood friends, Joy and Ward, after spending fifteen years in Lu-Ken training with warrior monks. The childhood friends end up having Danny committed because they refused the possibility of him surviving the plane crash that ended his parents’ life and supposedly his own. Before being put away in a nuthouse, Danny runs into Colleen, who is honestly, next to Claire and Jerri, the only thing that holds together this show in my personal opinion. Colleen becomes a source of anguish later in the show but we will hold that off for later because much to Danny and the viewers’ surprise, Harold, the supposed dead father of Joy and Ward, is still alive and visits Danny in the hospital. Not long after this Danny is able to prove to Joy and his doctor he is who he says he is and is freed from the mental institution.
He is reinstated as a member of the company, much to the boards’ dismay, as he constantly creates road blocks for them lining their fat pockets. While all of this is going on the viewer finds out that Harold is indebted to the Hand due to some kind of magic that brings him back from death. This will prove to be a tricky and bizarre issue for all characters involved because Madame Gao, the head of this particular version of the Hand, plans to milk him for everything he’s worth. Madame Gao is busy using the funding from the Rand Corporation to push a new brand of Heroine that the human body cannot get used while simultaneously Claire pops up to tie Daredevil, Luke Cage, and this show together into the same universe. They do this rather seamlessly as she is there to train likely after feeling helpless during the Luke Cage story arch.
As the story progresses Colleen and Danny begin to develop feeling for one another and almost on cue her sensei and leader of the “good” Hand, Bakuto, makes an appearance. After sending ninjas to snatch up Claire, the trio ends up imprisoning Madame Gao for a short time. During the time she is imprisoned, she tries to snake her way into the heads of Colleen and Claire, while also admitting to setting up the deaths of Danny’s parents. In the madness of surviving Gao’s lackeys attacks, Colleen is poisoned but Bakuto shows up in time to teach Danny how to use the Iron Fist to heal.
Claire gets separated from Danny, Colleen, and Madame Gao since Bakuto takes this time to take the incapacitated Colleen and Danny to the “good” Hand’s home front. When the two wake up, Danny speaks with Bakuto but quickly becomes suspicious of his motives and begins to snoop around. He soon finds Madame Gao and finds out that he is currently in the Hand’s home base. He goes absolutely ballistic after finding out Colleen is part of the group that killed his family. Soon after this realization, his friend from Kun-Lun, Davos, appears to help him escape. The two team up to take down Bakuto and Colleen joins up with them after Bakuto attempts to kill her. Fast forward after a battle between Colleen and Bakuto and a “siblings” fight between Davos and Danny, more issues start to unfold but these problems are mostly in the actual legal system. After the majority of these things get settled Colleen and Danny head back Kun-Lun and when they arrive there are dead soldiers everywhere and the actual place is not there.
Strengths:
One of the shows strengths lie with Claire. As always I happy to see her doing her part in this Netflix, Marvel team up by connecting the shows. She always plays an important role in making sure these superheroes survive so it’s nice to see her come back. It never really feels forced and even Jerri making her appearance known was a great little tilt to other characters in Jessica Jones.
The other is Colleen! She is literally one of the most interesting things about this series. Colleen pretty much carried the series in my opinion because she had such a twist in her story. I won’t say much here but know that the girl has a lot of decisions to make and is an absolute bad ass.
The next thing is the foreshadowing of the team up between Joy and Davos. These are also some characters that helped redeem the show for me. It looks like an interesting concept seeing how these two are consider to be some Danny’s closest friends, the back stabbing should be epic to see play out on the screen.
Weaknesses:
For a guy who was taught over the course of fifteen years to control his emotions, Danny sure has some serious emotional baggage. That should be expected due to the tragic death of his parents, but his lashing out at almost everyone who tries to help him throughout this show is just down right annoying.
The show is overall pretty slow and boring.
The martial arts fight sequences are shot extremely slow and robotic. Many of the actors actually seem uncomfortable as well!
There's so much more I could say about the issues in this show but I really dont feel like typing ALL OF THEM
It means I don't feel like typing all that stuff Claire.
Overall:
Reluctantly I give this show, a depressing 5.5-6/10. It was just….not great. As I said it suffers from the Suicide Squad Effect. The show isn’t horrible but it definitely isn’t great and pales in comparison to its counter parts Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones. All of these shows kick you in the jaw jolting your adrenaline in the first episode and keeps you feigning for more on the edge of seat, watching the whole show in a night. Iron Fist just doesn’t have that air about it. It’s not bad, it’s a MEH more than anything.
Beyond that I literally had to google the ending of Iron Fist because after watching the finale, I could not tell you not even a fraction of what was going on. This isn’t because I was confused, but mostly because I was bored and not retaining the information. I think that’s the biggest problem with the show. It takes so long to pick up and literally delivers very little for your patience. Iron Fist comes off as a better supporting character or a character that can be taken in small doses on a group like the Defenders, but just isn’t interesting enough to carry a whole show on his back which is disappointing seeing how his background (outside of his bland personality and reactions) is very interesting.
It is mostly interesting to me because I am a martial artist, but even the shooting of the fight scenes were slow and very robotic. It was just hard to watch. Overall, this show is a sad 5.5-6/10. I still have faith that Marvel and Netflix will deliver better with the upcoming seasons of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daredevil, and even the new shows on the horizon: Punisher and the Defenders.
