Harry Situation Reviews: Iron Fist

The last Defender has arrived! 

Netflix and Marvel has just introduced their newest superhero in the long roster of heroes in the MCU, Danny Rand aka Iron Fist. This is the last series to be released that leads to Marvel and Netflix's big crossover event, The Defenders.

The series is about a young billionaire named Danny Rand (played by Finn Jones) returning home to, where else, New York. Jeez, can't supervillains pick on another city other than New York? Any who, Danny Rand has returned as a Buddhist monk and has returned to reclaim his family's fortune and company after being presumed dead for 15 years. But when a new threat emerges, Danny must choose between his family's legacy or become the hero he was destined to be.

Iron Fist is actually kinda a cool superhero, granted I don't know too much about the character in general. Regardless I was invested in seeing this. How does it hold up? Here's a quote by Krusty the Clown, "What the hell was that?"

Holy shit, this show was not good but not as bad as critics made it out to be. First off let's get my biggest issue out of the way: Iron Fist himself. So far in all the Netflix/Marvel shows they have good actors for good superheroes. Charlie Cox was great as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Krysten Ritter was great as Jessica Jones (even though I never liked the character), Mike Colter as great as Luke Cage, and Jon Bernthal was fucking amazing as the Punisher. Finn Jones was terrible as Iron Fist! Obviously the guy is British and he's trying way too hard to sound American that it comes off as a knock-off Leo DiCaprio. And he comes off as a dick sometimes. 

That's probably the script writers fault for that because most of the episodes are plagued with bad writing. Seriously, it's like they wrote him to go off into situations half-cocked and kicking the shit out of anyone he meets. At least Daredevil strategies how he wants to do things before he starts. Iron Fist just goes in, no plan, throws punches, and solves nothing. In addition, there are one too many ridiculous moments in the show. One of the most ridiculous was where one of the villains (played by David Wenham) bludgeons one of his cronies with an ice cream scooper. An ice cream scooper! That's a new one!

The pacing in each episode is honestly the worst thing about the series. Iiiiiiiiiitttttttt'ssssssssssssssss ssssssssoooooooooooooo ffuuuuuuuccckkkinnnngggg ssslllooooooooowww!!!! That second episode where Iron Fist is in a mental hospital too for-fucking-ever! Slow paced and so much padding are bad combinations.

But come on! The action's gotta be good, right? Eh, it's okay. Unfortunately the series never brings nothing new to the table when it comes to action. Well except for one cool fight sequence inside an elevator. That was actually pretty cool!

Is there anything good about it? The supporting characters are entertaining. I love how Tom Pelphrey as Ward Meachum (one of the villains' son) can be so over the top; And Jessica Henwick was Iron Fist's girlfriend and David Wenham both delivered the best performances over the rest of the cast. Additionally, there are plenty of nods to the MCU and the comics. And I do like how they made the opening title sequence. It looked really cool where they had the character as a silhouette doing various martial arts forms, and while he's doing so you can see different mandarin symbols appear. 

I really didn't want to be too harsh on this show but I have to call it as it is. Iron Fist was very disappointing to what Marvel/Netflix had established. We already have 3 great shows from both companies, why didn't Iron Fist work? I get the feeling since nobody really knows much about the character it's hard to make an adaptation. I'll give them an extra point for trying, but man was this a let down. I'd say check it out just before The Defenders shows up later this year. Maybe you'll enjoy it more than I did. Hell if that's the case, write a more positive review about it than I did. Until then this is my final opinion and I'm going to give it my final grade.

                               Positives:                                   Negatives:

                              -Supporting characters              -Iron Fist himself

                              -That cool elevator fight            -Pacing

                              -Nice references                        -Bad writing

                              -Title sequence                         -Underwhelming action

                              -At least they tried                    -First Marvel letdown 

Final Grade: C-

Damn, I wanted to like this series. I was really hyped for it. Oh well, it's gotta do better than the new Power Rangers movie, am I right? Well there's my thoughts on Iron Fist. Have you seen it? What are your thoughts? Let's make this next one interesting, what MCU property were you disappointed in? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check back again as I get closer and closer to my 100th review!

Best Quote:

Lei Kung: "Because of who you are, there will always be forces gathering against you"