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Marvel's The Defenders |OT| Featuring The Worst Iron Fist - August 18th on Netflix

H

HeartlessNobody213

Member
It was pretty average. I didn't dislike any episode but I didn't really love any either.

It's disappointing since because this is only 8 episodes, I figured they would put more into the production value and really go all in.

Sigourney wasn't all that special and didn't add much. I preferred
Murakami
a lot more.

Elektra was flat out annoying for the most part. I didn't mind her in DD season 2 but she overstayed her welcome here.

Overall, not bad but nothing amazing. It doesn't have the lows of the other shows but it also doesn't have the highs of them either.
 
B

barit

Member
LotusHD said:
I thought Defenders isn't even synched up with AoS current day
Click to expand...

I don't know but
the newspaper had definitely hinted at the events of AoS S4. When Daisy returns to Shield the first thing that the new director (aka The Patriot) does is clearing her name in the public. I can't remember what exactly Daisy did in NY (I think she stopped a bomb blowing up placed by the Watchdogs) but I can clearly remember how she and The Patriot steps in the front of cameras and telling everyone "Yes, Tremor is a true hero".

So this is that. I think the MCU always uses the year when the movie/TV show is aired. For example Iron Man 1 plays in 2008 followed by The Avengers in 2012. Then you have Homecoming and
the 5 year gap for Vulture to get his shit together
. So yes I think AoS S4, Defenders and Homecoming playing all in the same year (2017).
 
N

Nelo Ice

Banned
Finished 4 episodes and I'm enjoying all the Defenders but Iron Fist. I just do not care about him and all he does is whine and complain about the Hand. Also damn I can't wait for another Jessica Jones. Her and Daredevil's interactions are great. Also I loved how Luke shut down Danny when they were forced to talk. Also Iron Fist is the only Netflix Marvel Show I've completely skipped watching.
 
Glass Rebel

Glass Rebel

Member
barit said:
I don't know but
the newspaper had definitely hinted at the events of AoS S4. When Daisy returns to Shield the first thing that the new director (aka The Patriot) does is clearing her name in the public. I can't remember what exactly Daisy did in NY (I think she stopped a bomb blowing up placed by the Watchdogs) but I can clearly remember how she and The Patriot steps in the front of cameras and telling everyone "Yes, Tremor is a true hero".
Click to expand...

Uhm, Tremors is only the nickname Mack uses for her. It's Daisy or Quake. It's not referencing AoS at all. People are really reaching with that.
 
L

louiedog

Member
I was hoping with fewer episodes and more characters I'd be able to get into this one easier than the others. I'm pretty disappointed after the first episode and my expectations weren't high, but I'll at least give one more a shot.
 
B

Beren the Empty-Handed

Member
Just finished episode 5. Man I really hope this show is the last we see of the Hand. They're just not very interesting or exciting. Kingpin, Punisher, Killgrave, and Cottonmouth were fun to watch. Even Harold and Diamondback had their moments. But the Hand is just too generic and uncentralized to care about.
 
P

PsychBat!

Banned
So that was pretty good. No bad episodes, few great.

  1. Bare bones plot (Big bads get the attention of every street level hero)
  2. Main characters held up everything and yes even Finn Jones/IF got progressively better (it's not a significant improvement, but it's noticeable)
  3. Sigourney Weaver is wasted
  4. Jessica Henwick is the worst actress here
  5. Larger than life characters interacting
  6. Good dialogue and better delivery (I missed this so much, 98% of the Iron Fist show dialogue was poop)
  7. Set up was calculated and somewhat natural, not forced and rushed
  8. While side characters did not take away too much screen time from main 4, I felt there needed to be more interaction between themselves.
I'll need to see this again (which I will soon) to talk about it more in length.
 
B

Baroquemantic

Member
Aaaaand I'm finished.

Really good season! Not up to Daredevil and Jessica Jones level, but still very enjoyable and on par with Luke Cage. Also miles better than Iron Fist, as expected.

Most of the cast is great, but Danny is definitely the weak link. He is, however, better here than in IF, and his interactions with the other characters are quite alright. Matt and Jessica are the standouts, but Luke held it down as well. Others, like Misty, Stick, and Claire were also great.

The villains, while not turrible, are pretty disappointing.
Alexandra had some potential, but ultimately didn't amount to much.
The Hand, in general, were quite underwhelming. They felt like more of a threat in the other series'.
Elektra was a nice surprise, though.

Looking forward to Punisher and the new seasons of the rest of the shows.
 
P

Pachimari

Member
barit said:
So this is that. I think the MCU always uses the year when the movie/TV show is aired. For example Iron Man 1 plays in 2008 followed by The Avengers in 2012. Then you have Homecoming and
the 5 year gap for Vulture to get his shit together
. So yes I think AoS S4, Defenders and Homecoming playing all in the same year (2017).
Click to expand...
This is incorrect. The Defenders happens before Age of Ultron and that was in like 2014 or something. This is long before Peter Parker even got bit by a spider.
 
Sanctuary

Sanctuary

Member
I really cannot stand Danny, and I don't know if he's simply written that way or it's all the actor, but Sowande wasn't wrong in that
he's the dumbest Iron Fist yet.
It can't be just because he was isolated from the rest of modern society at age ten, because no one else from Kun-Lun acts that way (that is shown at least). Every time he opens his mouth, the scene exponentially gets worse. The only good thing is that at least the fight choreography isn't has terrible for him as it was in his own show. His "tough guy" and attempts at trying to display anger or rage have all been terrible, like it's his first time attempting that kind of scene ever.

Also, Colleen seriously needs to stop using the katana is a fashion accessory. Same problem in Iron Fist; she carries it around everywhere and almost never uses it for anything. Then, the single time she does, oh no "gravitas!"...

cj_iwakura said:
JJ is stealing the show and she's not even trying.
Click to expand...

That's because The Defenders is composed of four "superheros" where two of each are almost redundant. Jessica and Luke are two strong characters, with Luke having the nice perk of practically being invulnerable, while she's just...strong. The only reason to even bother with her is because she steals scenes due to her lines and attitude. Luke is just overall boring. Danny is a twerp that's just Daredevil minus the Sonar and a fist that glows and can cause Chi explosions once every few episodes (wow!).

The best thing about the show is Jessica, Matt and Alexandra. These shows basically peaked with the original; Daredevil. Jessica Jones was good, but not Daredevil good. Luke Cage was "OK" with some over the top and hamfisted acting, and Iron Fist was simply awful. The Defenders is probably just slightly better than Luke Cage, but not by much.
 
R

ryseing

Member
shinra-bansho said:
Sigourney noooo.
She is not a good actor.
Likewise
the Bakuto guy.
They are jarring in the scenes they're in.
Like Rosario Dawson is a lunatic in real life but she can act like she isn't in the show.
Click to expand...

I had that exact thought about Henwick
when she was crying in ep. 5
. I kept thinking throughout the scene that Rosario has a look on her face like she needs to give this girl acting classes. Same thing with Sigourney
/the Bakuto dude.

Incredibly jarring when you have A+ talent doing important scenework with replacement level actors.

Guess that's what happens when your budget is needed elsewhere.
 
L

LotusHD

Banned
cj_iwakura said:
JJ is stealing the show and she's not even trying.
Click to expand...

Yup, though Matt had some good scenes.

Sanctuary said:
The best thing about the show is Jessica, Matt and Alexandria. These shows basically peaked with the original; Daredevil. Jessica Jones was good, but not Daredevil good. Luke Cage was "OK" with some over the top and hamfisted acting, and Iron Fist was simply awful. The Defenders is probably just slightly better than Luke Cage, but not by much.
Click to expand...

Lol no, she was awful, terribly underutilized. For all the hype the reviews gave us, not to mention the actress behind the role, she didn't amount to much. Like bluntly, she's arguably the most disappointing antagonist yet out of all the Netflix shows, simply because well... I thought they'd pull out all the stops for their villain seeing as how this crossover was planned for years. They should have just made Gao the leader or something.

plainr_ said:
Charlie Cox/Daredevil deserves his own movie.
Click to expand...

He's the only one that could pull it off I suppose.
 
B

broncobuster

Banned
Something that sticks out in their shared scenes is the gulf in acting talent from Charlie Cox and Krysten Ritter to the other two. And strangely even Sigourney Weaver seems super bored in her role.

But thankfully the show does pick up towards the middle.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
JJ is too damn good at playing a ditz. Halfway through, so far it's solid, but I'm so sick of The Hand. I hope this is it for them.
 
J

JCHandsom

Member
broncobuster said:
Something that sticks out in their shared scenes is the gulf in acting talent from Charlie Cox and Krysten Ritter to the other two. And strangely even Sigourney Weaver seems super bored in her role.

But thankfully the show does pick up towards the middle.
Click to expand...

I found it funny that Sigourney Weaver has most of her scenes in mostly empty rooms with only 2-5 people max (outside of the one boardroom scene).
 
Sanctuary

Sanctuary

Member
LotusHD said:
Yup, though Matt had some good scenes.



Lol no, she was awful, terribly underutilized. For all the hype the reviews gave us, not to mention the actress behind the role, she didn't amount to much. Like bluntly, she's arguably the most disappointing antagonist yet out of all the Netflix shows, simply because well... I thought they'd pull out all the stops for their villain seeing as how this crossover was planned for years. They should have just made Gao the leader or something.



He's the only one that could pull it off I suppose.
Click to expand...

You misunderstand. I'm primarily talking about the cast, and yep, her actual character is pretty weak, but compared to the rest of the cast, those three are the best by far. The rest go from serviceable to downright bad. I suppose I could have simply named the actors instead of the characters they are playing.
/shrug

There's actually nothing wrong with her acting in this at all. She was just underutilized like you said.

Baroquemantic said:
I think Danny's issues stem mainly from the writing.
Click to expand...

This show highlights why exactly that's not the case. Finn Jones was bad in his own show, and when directly contrasted against the other characters on this show in any scene he's in, no amount of good writing would change his acting that much.
 
D

DJwest

Member
Loved the show. Jessica and Luke were easily my favorites. Matt and Danny (yes, Danny) were also really good. No complaints from me, an enjoyable show with a predictable ending. I'm just happy to have seen them working together, I liked their chemistry. Can't wait for Jessica Jones and Luke Cage season 2.
 
S

SporeCrawler

Member
I personally dont get the intense hate of Iron Fist. It wasnt the strongest show but it wasnt a complete trainwreck either. I agree that Iron Fist is the least likeable out of the four and the action scenes in Iron Fist were bad in comparison to DD (but superior in comparison to JJ and LC).

However it had a really good villain (Harold) and unlike LC and JJ you never got the impression that Iron Fist was invincible. Quite the opposite actually. He was so weak, unlike his mystical super power talk and that what made the season interesting. It made the story interesting in some instances and you really had to shake your head sometimes. Overall i thought they did succeed because the show succeeded in building up an interesting "corporate war" arc which was in general much more interesting than the "Kunlun vs. The Hand" part. Also the whole Ward Story Arc was really good imho.

Personally for me the Netflix Marvel series standard is insanely high its almost Game of Thrones level for me (in particular DD S1, JJ S1, first half of LC S1 and first half of DD S2) minus the insane production values of course. Iron Fist fell short of that standard but it doesnt mean its a complete trainwreck.
 
L

LotusHD

Banned
Sanctuary said:
You completely misunderstand. I'm primarily talking about the cast, and yep, her actual character is pretty weak, but compared to the rest of the cast, those three are the best by far. The rest go from serviceable to downright bad. I suppose I could have simply named the actors instead of the characters they are playing.
/shrug

There's actually nothing wrong with her acting in this at all. She was just underutilized like you said.
Click to expand...

Well yes, mentioning their actual names would've helped if you were only talking about their acting ability lol. Because again, her character in the show was just awful.

SporeCrawler said:
I personally dont get the intense hate of Iron Fist. It wasnt the strongest show but it wasnt a complete trainwreck either. I agree that Iron Fist is the least likeable out of the four and the action scenes in Iron Fist were bad in comparison to DD (but superior in comparison to JJ and LC).
Click to expand...

I dunno what words I'd use to describe it (though trainwreck is fine I guess), just all I know is if it wasn't tied to Defenders (and barely at that), there'd be no point in feeling obligated to watch such an awful show imo

However it had a really good villain (Harold) and unlike LC and JJ you never got the impression that Iron Fist was invincible. Quite the opposite actually. He was so weak, unlike his mystical super power talk and that what made the season interesting. It made the story interesting in some instances and you really had to shake your head sometimes. Overall i thought they did succeed because the show succeeded in building up an interesting "corporate war" arc which was in general much more interesting than the "Kunlun vs. The Hand" part.
Click to expand...

Err, Harold was not a good villain. He was a little entertaining due to his quirks, but a villain that remains isolated for nearly the entire season is not what I'd consider good, not to mention some of his actions were outright cartoonish. JJ was not invincible either. Technically neither was Luke considering the Judas bullets, but meh.
 
S

#sorrynotsorry

Member
Glass Rebel said:
They're gonna make a Daredevil movie and recast Matt.
Click to expand...

Maybe. But perhaps more likely is using Netflix's Fisk and DD in Spider-Man. That way you can bridge those fan bases and, frankly, I'm not sure the characters could be done better.

Plus D.C. is a disaster. Marvel surely doesn't want to repeat that.
 
Glass Rebel

Glass Rebel

Member
#sorrynotsorry said:
Maybe. But perhaps more likely is using Netflix's Fisk and DD in Spider-Man. That way you can bridge those fan bases and, frankly, I'm not sure the characters could be done better.

Plus D.C. is a disaster. Marvel surely doesn't want to repeat that.
Click to expand...

There has been no indication that Feige is even interested in crossing over. All he has given in interviews were canned answers that have amounted to jack and shit. Marvel Studios and Marvel TV have casted the same actress in two different roles and two different actresses for the same character. The dream is dead.
 
H

Hyun Sai

Member
Oh, yeah, Jessica Heinwick may be hot, but she is no better actress than Finn Jones.


Another problem of the show is, as one poster mentioned, their powers are really not unique enough, so it becomes boring in the long run. We're lucky Daredevil got his sonar at least.

I can't believe they made Danny (after all, the worst and dumbest Ironfist) being beat by Harold Meachum when he couldn't use the fist in the final fight. I was in eye rolling mode, like WTF ??? How does that make any sense after all that training ?
 
I

IKizzLE

Member
FF Seraphim said:
Yep and it is annoying the hell out of me. Its like the writers have no idea what to do with her.
Click to expand...

She should be the strongest spear while Luke is the strongest shield. But more often than not, they have Luke doing all the power stuff and Jessica just standing....

I doubt they ever give her flight either.
 
D

Deleted member 10571

Unconfirmed Member
Aw right, it's only 8 episodes ;_;


I liked it :) Also looking forward to see more of Jessica Jones, she's great.
 
S

shinra-bansho

Member
SporeCrawler said:
I personally dont get the intense hate of Iron Fist. It wasnt the strongest show but it wasnt a complete trainwreck either. I agree that Iron Fist is the least likeable out of the four and the action scenes in Iron Fist were bad in comparison to DD (but superior in comparison to JJ and LC).

However it had a really good villain (Harold) and unlike LC and JJ you never got the impression that Iron Fist was invincible. Quite the opposite actually. He was so weak, unlike his mystical super power talk and that what made the season interesting. It made the story interesting in some instances and you really had to shake your head sometimes. Overall i thought they did succeed because the show succeeded in building up an interesting "corporate war" arc which was in general much more interesting than the "Kunlun vs. The Hand" part. Also the whole Ward Story Arc was really good imho.

Personally for me the Netflix Marvel series standard is insanely high its almost Game of Thrones level for me (in particular DD S1, JJ S1, first half of LC S1 and first half of DD S2) minus the insane production values of course. Iron Fist fell short of that standard but it doesnt mean its a complete trainwreck.
Click to expand...
Lol.
No. It was shit. Not even a hot mess. Just mess. Not sure if this is Poe's law and this was all sarcasm.

It did not provide good corporate intrigue, the writers didn't have any basic understanding of how corporations and Boards actually work. And Harold Meachum was not a good villain. IF didn't look invincible because he wasn't even passable as a competent fighter.

And the stink of that show is carried over to Defenders.
 
J

JigglesBunny

Banned
Been slammed since yesterday and only caught up a bit now. Finishing off after Episode 3 and so far my impressions are a bit mixed.

Worth noting that I loved both seasons of Daredevil (he is my third favorite hero of all time to be fair) and Jessica Jones but I wasn't a big fan of Luke Cage and while I technically sat through Iron Fist, I spent every episode following the pilot asleep or on my phone because I thought it was unwatchable.

As you could imagine, lacking the vital plot information from that season has left me a bit in the dark but I feel like despite knowing the majority of the plot up to this point through the different shows, the plot is nigh incomprehensible most of the time. So far...

- Elektra has been revived by the Hand and is a brainwashed pawn being used an assassin/weapon known as "Black Sky."
- Danny feels guilt over his failure to protect Kunlun.
- Danny is tracking down the Hand to stop them and fulfill his destiny.
- Sigourney Weaver is some ancient woman leading the Hand with the end goal of achieving immortality and taking control of the city so that she doesn't have to experience death again(?)
- Stick is back, captured by Sigourney, cuts his own hand off to escape and runs off to find Danny.
- Matt is finding it hard to resist donning the costume and seeking out vigilante justice.
- Matt is trying to maintain his relationship with Foggy and rebuild his romantic relationship with Karen.
- Jessica is taking the case about the missing husband with apparent connections to the Hand but C4 is discovered in his apartment before his death at the hand of Elektra.
- Jessica is being overseen against her will by Hogarth for... some reason.
- Luke is out of his one scene long prison stint and looking to become a true hero to Harlem while also wanting to avoid the title of hero.
- Luke is working to uncover the identity of a man nicknamed "White Hat" who is using naive teenagers in Harlem as criminal pawns.
- Luke is trying to protect the last remaining child of a woman in Harlem who has lost the rest of her children to crime related incidents and he immediately fails.

All of this in three episodes. Far too much shit going on with no rhyme or reason. I will always take more DD and Jessica Jones because they're flat out two of my favorite shows in history, plus I love the Defenders as a team in the comics, the show adaption is just a bit too messy and uneven so far. But hey, at least Danny isn't quite as insufferable and he actually had a decent fight sequence at the end of Ep. 3.
 
H

HotHamBoy

Member
After reading your guys' impressions I think I'm going to pass. I already found Daredevil to be a mediocre show and that's the best of the bunch.

Disappointed that this concept wasn't executed better.
 
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