Marvel's Iron Fist (Netflix)

Watched four episodes... not for me.

Can't place it... I didn't really go in with any expectations but I just can't get into it. Perhaps I'll try again in a few months.

I told my wife that Tom Pelphrey was in this and her interest in the show went up a bit (she use to watch Guiding Light). She likes the Netflix Marvel stuff well enough, its just not on the top of her watch list. We (re-watch for me) still need to get through 75% of DDs2 and Luke Cage first.

Great show!

It is kind of sad for our society that while the comic got lots of attention for bringing to light the then controversial topic of heroin use, it is not only still apt today but seems to be the cookie cutter part of the story .

I finished it this afternoon. I enjoyed it, but definitely felt like it was the weakest of the Marvel Netflix shows so far. It took me a couple episodes to get into it, but even then I felt like some of the story lines dragged on and on. I felt they could have told this story in about 8 episodes and really tightened up the writing.

As some have stated already, the choreography was pretty weak at many points; Daredevil did a much better job with that aspect. Also, Danny was getting his ass whooped far too many times for a guy who has done nothing but train in kung fu for 15 years, not to mention the fact that he's the Iron Fist. There were some moments I felt like I was watching one of the CW shows, which was unfortunate and unexpected. I was a bit frustrated it took so long to find out exactly why Danny left K'un-Lun, but even when they gave us the answer I was still couldn't tell you. Lastly, I found it slightly annoying that for the entire show Danny was confused about who he was supposed to be (which I understand was intentional because we are watching him grow as the Iron Fist and as Danny Rand), which made me confused about who exactly the Iron Fist is and actually kind of upset that he betrayed the people that he swore to protect. I get that he wants the Iron Fist to be "something more," but he did get the powers and then hightail it out of there, leaving his responsibility behind...And look how that turned out for him!

There were a lot of things I loved about it though. One of my favorite aspects was actually the family Meachum family drama, especially Ward and Joy's relationship and seeing how tortured Ward was and how it lead him down such a dark path. Colleen Wing was also great and I'm excited to see more of her. Claire's scenes were great too, especially when her and Colleen were on screen together. Additionally, it was nice to get more insight into the Hand, and I really liked that there are different ideologies and opinions of what the organization actually stands for, giving it more depth. Should be interesting to see how The Defenders handles the Hand.

Overall, I think the writing and choreography could have been better, but the characters kept me intrigued and interested. I agree with @Gimpdiggity in that it felt void of a unique identity, as opposed to the other shows. I have high hopes for season 2, as long as Marvel/Netflix can iron out the kinks of the first season, which shouldn't be too difficult. I do hope that Danny ends up wearing his costume too...it'd be kinda silly if Matt Murdock is the only costumed Defender...

I haven't been chomping at the bit waiting for this one to start.
Daredevil was awesome.
Jessica Jones took me forever to finish watching.. It was good, and probably worth another watch.
Luke Cage... had they not introduced his character in Jessica Jones I probably would have passed on it. Luke Cage was never a really a standout character. I'm glad i did and I think it had everything to do with the casting and direction of that series.
Iron Fist is just as much a non-name character to me, but since Luke Cage nailed it I'm willing to give this one a shot.

Liked pretty much all the characters and the ones I didn't ended up redeeming themselves. The major exception would be Wing's sensei. All the choices about how that character was written and acted were poor ones.

Story was pretty good for the most part. Nice basic story, and an effective if somewhat expected revelation near the end.

The martial arts were kind of soft, almost dance-like in some cases. And you could see the lack of practice.

Overall I liked it, but I hope they put more effort into season 2. Felt like they rushed this one out a little fast so they could get to the Defenders.

Loved it, great character development, casting is perfect so far. Daredevil is still by far my favorite of the four, Jessica Jones the least favorite, that one is unwatchable for me, shame because I have loved Krysten Ritter in almost everything she had done up to now.

I'm about 6 episodes in and I'm enjoying it. I really don't see why it got horrible reviews. It's not my favorite but I like it better than Luke Cage.

I found this just barely watchable. However, I also agree the critics were a bit too harsh, otherwise there was no way I could've binged through this in one weekend. The writing and acting were very weak by comparison to the other Marvel Netflix shows (Stroup and especially Pelphrey were god awful), the plot never gets interesting, the villains make Diamondback look like Loki (Wenham was the best actor in the cast but his character wasn't much of a threat), and it was painfully obvious that Jones and Henwick were struggling with the fight choreography (they owe their stunt doubles a flat screen TV or something). In all fairness, I went into this show thinking the only way I'd get through it was to remain caught up for The Defenders, and thankfully it didn't turn out to be THAT bad, but it is easily the worst of the Netflix Marvel lineup thus far.

What I also don't understand is why they couldn't dedicate one episode as a flashback to show Rand training and becoming the Iron Fist, just seemed like a no-brainer to help develop Rand's character and show rather than tell a big chunk of his origin. Unless they're saving such a flashback for Defenders perhaps? I seriously hope the Defenders showrunners can do more with Rand's character, and for goodness sake give the guy a mask so Jones doesn't need to do his own choreography!

I'm about halfway through now and I'm really enjoying, my wife and I found it to be a bit slow in the beginning, a little too much time spent on trying to establish that Danny is really Danny and not enough on who he is and the whole Iron Fist thing. I'm liking the little tie ins to the rest of the Netflix MCU with the appearance of Jeri and Claire, the mention of Page, and the hint at Jessica Jones. But I also agree with the others in that the fight choreography isn't that good, but thinking of it, the choreography was best in Daredevil and the others haven't been that good, of course neither Jessica Jones nor Luke Cage are supposed to highly trained fighters, they're mainly brawlers relying on their super strength, and in Luke Cage's case, his invulnerability. I wonder, did they go with another trainer and/or choreographer or do the two leads in IF just have no real talent for stage fighting?

Riceball said:

I wonder, did they go with another trainer and/or choreographer or do the two leads in IF just have no real talent for stage fighting?

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Different fight choreographers for DD and IF according to IMDB. I think it's a combination of both - IF choreograph team isn't as good and neither are the actors. The actor playing Davos is clearly more talented at stage fighting and it shows, so I can't blame the choreographer for everything.

I can let JJ and LC slide with not having great fight scenes because that's not the direction they intended. But IF is a kung fu show, and I don't know about you guys, but I don't watch wuxia films for the writing or acting, I watch it for some good buttkickin, and IF didn't really deliver in that department. Part of the reason why I'm still gonna keep watching Into The Badlands.

I just finished the first episode, and really, it has to be one of the most poorly written hours of a show I've ever seen. The show is just bland. What a wasted opportunity. The comic origin could have been done in a very interesting and compelling way. Instead they just said "Lets have the character walk around downtown barefoot and sleep in a park. A homeless guy will give him a sandwich! Man, that's great!" The character introductions are very weak. The performances are mediocre. It just feels very predictable. Frankly, I think they did this a whole lot better in Arrow.

Noeland said:

I just finished the first episode, and really, it has to be one of the most poorly written hours of a show I've ever seen. The show is just bland. What a wasted opportunity. The comic origin could have been done in a very interesting and compelling way. Instead they just said "Lets have the character walk around downtown barefoot and sleep in a park. A homeless guy will give him a sandwich! Man, that's great!" The character introductions are very weak. The performances are mediocre. It just feels very predictable. Frankly, I think they did this a whole lot better in Arrow.

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While the beginning is kind of weak and a bit slow it gets better. Once you get past the whole "I'm really Danny Rand" story arc and gets into the Hand the show gets much better.

I really enjoyed it. I will admit, there were a few weak spots in the choreography, lines, and filler.

However, there were many scenes that kept me in suspense. I actually loved how slow some of the Kung Fu fighting was. Most fights are too fast for your eyes to track, so you don't really know what's going on. I felt the slowed down fighting left the viewer (me) more time to soak in what was happening.

That being said, I hate how easily Danny is beaten, time and time again. I understand his Chi was off balance because he was trying to figure things out and kept getting betrayed every other episode. As powerful as the Iron Fist is, I was really hoping Marvel would have taken the story just a bit more seriously. If you know what I mean. I do countless charity events throughout the year. I'd like to dress up as Iron Fist without someone saying "Who's that guy?" I was hoping this would be the big "*BOOM!* It's Iron Fist!!"

I wish we got to see more of his training in Ku'n-Lun instead of him running around New York so much.

And the number 1 thing that drives me INSANE......The costume. I wasn't expecting him to wear the classic green and yellow suit right off the bat. But it wasn't even introduced at the end like Daredevil's was. There's the old, blurry, black and white footage we get to see and that Iron Fist is presumably wearing the classic suit, minus the weird neck thing (what is that for, anyway?)

Overall I feel Danny was powered down way too much. But seeing as how he ran off the moment he got the gift, I can see why he doesn't know how to control it. The logic behind the writing isn't bad. But it could use improvement.

I thought he would be told to go to New York so he could push back The Hand, find out everything is messed up, fight, barely win, then he goes back for the "second" Iron Fist because a new big bad has revealed themselves and he needed more power and control of his Chi. But he didn't actually know how to use the "first" Iron Fist the entire time.EXCEPT for the first couple episodes. He knew what he was doing. Then he... forgot? I don't know.

I will say though that Rotten Tomatoes needs to shut up let people decide for themselves though. I didn't read any reviews until AFTER I viewed it. A lot of people are going in blinded by someone else's opinion.

Remember guys. They gave Sharknado a 82% review. Only 33% of 5,500 people liked it.

Hhmm. I've still got 2 and 1/2 seasons of Shameless left. I was going to take a break from it to watch this, but after reading everything here, I don't think I am in any hurry to do it. I think I will just go ahead and finish up Shameless first, cause it is awesome!!

I'm seeing a lot of people complaining about this show ...that it's boring, slow, poorly written, that the hero is clueless - and he is!!...but for me, honestly??? Those are the critiques I'd lay down on Luke Cage's Netflix run. I couldn't get through the first season of Luke Cage and I loved the character in Jessica Jones. LC for me was boring and slow.

This Iron Fist is sort of like the old days of Saturday morning martial arts movies with all that cheese and somewhere between a B and C movie but they were always fun. Iron Fist is fun. It's not mind challenging or as well written as Jessica Jones....fight scenes aren't nearly as frequent or cool as with Daredevil but who cares? It's fun, and a little predictable...but fun none the less.
Although...
I can't say I'm overly excited about a future season 2. The above paragraph reflects my feelings up until and around episode 8 or 9. As of last night we finished the season and while I remain of the opinions above, the last 2 episodes were filled with a great big meh. Weak finale....to say the least.

The show's not bad...it's just not great and after Jessica Jones and Daredevil I guess we kind of have an expectation here. Even without any expectations, you kind of want it to be a good show, right?
I'd barely heard of the character Iron Fist...no idea who he was outside of having seen him on the cover of some comics decades ago so I can't say I'm emotionally invested either...I guess on this show he feels more like a sidekick than a principle hero.
I think that's it right there....he doesn't feel like the hero, more like a sidekick.

I'd rate this season somewhere between a 6 and cautious 7.

David

I'm eight episodes in, and so far really disappointed. I'll finish it just because I want to know what's going on w the Hand and any possible background story for the Defenders.

But the writing/acting is weak. Danny Rand seems like a clueless moron most of the time, despite occasionally quoting timeless Asian fortune-cookie wisdom. The show is also uncomfortably laced with outdated mightey whitey tropes that belong in the past. Should have been updated.

Here's hoping against hope that they recast/reboot iron fist (I mean, they recast war machine and rebooted deadpool, right? Lol.)

Btw, Iron Fist's showrunner Scott Buck is also going to be doing Inhumans, anyone else worried? :lol :facepalm

Here's a question I'm hoping someone here can answer, where in NY does Iron Fist take place and does anyone have a map of where all of the Netflix Marvel shows take place in relation to each other? I've tried searching for it online but I can't find anything showing where they all take place or where even Iron Fist is set, outside of being in NY.

I'm assuming that Iron Fist is taking place around Manhattan. They make reference to the property warehouses in the Bronx.