• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Marvel's Iron Fist |OT| Hi-yahh - March 17th on Netflix

Krowley

Member
Just finished and... ugh...

I found this reasonably enjoyable for most of the season, despite some flaws, and I was ready to give it a 6 or 7 out of 10 when I went into episode eleven. But the last few episodes are just a fucking train wreck. SOOO messy. The plot just zig-zags all over the place. Characters that I liked for most of the episodes become unbearably annoying.

Danny spends the final quarter of the season scowling and whining like a man-baby, totally reversing all the qualities that made him fairly likable in the early part of the show.

It seems like the whole plot of the season was an elaborate attempt to avoid showing his powers as much as possible. And this becomes a big problem at the end because the action really ramps up and the episodes become much more eventful. Speeding up the pace actually works against the show because Danny comes off as possibly the wimpiest superhero ever. He's constantly almost getting his ass kicked by regular dudes. It's especially comical
at the end when daddy Meachum almost kicks his ass. Just disgraceful for a hero who is supposed to be the ultimate kung-fu master to get his ass kicked by some pencil pushing asshole.

So, this gets maybe a 5 out of 10 from me. I genuinely found the opening part of the season decent, and I think the show has real potential if it gets another season. Finn played the character well when the material allowed him to do so. But unfortunately the scripts really fucked him at the end of the season.

Overall, I think this was on about the same level as a bad season of Teen Wolf, or Smallville, or True Blood, only with a much more languid pace. And the way it fell apart at the end reminded me of some of the worst seasons of Dexter, which I suppose makes sense with Scott Buck running things.

It's still reasonably entertaining for the most part, even after it goes to shit. The show has its moments, and I suppose I'll tune in to see whatever comes next if they do another season. But damn... I sure wish they'd found a better way to wrap things up.

I'm sure everybody who worked on this had the best of intentions, but honestly, after what happened with Dexter, and now this, Scott Buck probably shouldn't be a showrunner anymore. The dude has obviously written some great episodes for several awesome shows, but he seems to have trouble keeping a story on the rails for a whole season.
 

fallengorn

Bitches love smiley faces
About the fight scenes in general...

For someone who's an Immortal Weapon he sucks. After 15 years of training he should be like Neo.

Daredevil was just starting out. Jessica Jones and Luke Cage had certain levels of reticence in using their powers. There's no real reason for IF to be at this level. It's pretty disappointing.
 

LordRaptor

Member
Binged the whole thing and enjoyed it.

So far, Iron Fist seems to lack a hard theme like the other series, still really like it.
...
The theme hasn't driven the show, it's just shown in Danny reasonably well in most of his scenes.

I found the theme to be about identity and expectations, and it worked quite well; beyond the obvious sommersby setup of questioning of if he is who he claims to be as Danny Rand back from the dead, theres also the questioning of what the Iron Fist is supposed to be, and whether he is it.
Is he Danny Rand, CEO of megacorp? Because CEOs aren't supposed to (minor early episode spoilers)
sell drugs at cost, or apologise to cancer cluster victims
Is he the Immortal Iron Fist, the living weapon? Because Iron Fists aren't supposed to leave the gates of K'un Lun unguarded, or think about what they are doing or have self-doubts, because they are weapons.

Most of the characters he encounters are not entirely what they claim to be, or do not behave according to his expectations of them, and this is definitely a recurring theme throughout - there's a line early on that goes something like "There are two doors, and neither are the wrong choice, they just tell you who you really are" which seems to encapsulate the theme presented.

My biggest gripes are:
(midway through spoiler)
Claire is unnecessary outside of night Nurse duties and tying the thing together to allow Defenders Assemble to happen - I mean, post DDS2, its really jarring that she isn't all "Oh, the Hand? Shit, let me ring DD and bring him in on this to help you out right now"
(end of series spoiler)
The final return to K'un Lun scene wasn't really needed, he'd obviously missed the window
Davos and Joy full heel turn at a cafe - really? That's how we're doing it?
Both seemed like a "Not sure if we're gonna get a series 2" shoehorn
 

Pachimari

Member
This whole bullshit about "Is he Danny is he not Danny" during the first few episodes nearly had me at fuck this shit peace out!!! It did not need to take that long to resolve.
I don't like this plot at all since I think they should have been convinced about it in the first episode even. I'm gonna watch Episode 2 in a moment.
 

Lashley

Why does he wear the mask!?
Over half way through episode one. Yeah, this is pretty shit.

Danny is a total clown too

Hire Scott Buck and you'll get a Scott Buck show
 
I'm not going to give a detailed opinion on the show.

I'll just say these are the things I liked:

Madame Gao, Zhou Cheng, the effect of the iron fist, and the actress who plays Joy.

These are the things I don't like:
Colleen's fights, the pacing, how infrequently Danny uses the Iron Fist, and how dumb some of the characters act(This I give some leeway to as I've yet to watch a comic book show or movie where there's not several scenes where the characters abandon their intellect to do something stupid).

Iron Fist/Danny Rand's fight scenes aren't really bad. They just kind of are okay which is disappointing considering the premise.
 

LordRaptor

Member
As a brit one thing I did find amusing was how many brits not even pretending to do anything other than a brit accent popped up in the show
random sexy heroin saleswoman with some minor kung fu skills - plausibly actually a british character
Davos the surprisingly british accented steel serpent
The Drunken Master in the middle of china because reasons?
 
I've watched the first three episodes and they went with some really bizarre storytelling decisions. In the first episode of DD, JJ, and LC, they established motivations for the heroes and were gripping enough to draw you into the story.

But after the first three episodes:
Why does the first episode involve Danny running around saying "I am who I am believe me!" for an hour with no progress and minimal action? Why do they spend the entire second episode in a mental institution? Why is the third episode suddenly a legal drama?

They basically focused on everything but the mystical kung fu superhero stuff. I'm fine with slow burns but the writers know why we're watching a Marvel show, right?
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
So is Scott Buck going to be immediately fired from the Inhumans project or nah?

Nah. It's too late to change course on that. Even if there was some emergency and they went with a new showrunner midproduction, it wouldn't change the show. It would still be Scott's vision unless they decided to delay, shut down, and redo some things.
 

Razmos

Member
So I started watching the first episode and 15 minutes in I already hate it.

Everything about this just seems weak as hell.

Also he's walking through New York with no shoes on, yet he has earphones presumably connected to an MP3 player or something. He managed to get music but not shoes? He just walks into the building looking like that and expects people to take him seriously? And with an annoying cocky attitude on top of that?

I had low expectations already but I was willing to give it a try, wasn't expecting to hate it this quickly.
And from everything I've read here it doesn't get much better lol.

Might just skip it. I watched Avengers without bothering to watch Iron Man or Captain America so I imagine I can watch Defenders without having to stomach this crap.
 

J_Viper

Member
Might just skip it. I watched Avengers without bothering to watch Iron Man or Captain America so I imagine I can watch Defenders without having to stomach this crap.

Wtf man, watch Iron Man.

It's not just a fantastic comic book movie, it's a fantastic film all around.
 

GeeTeeCee

Member
So is Scott Buck going to be immediately fired from the Inhumans project or nah?

Doubtful its already underway

I live in hope though

Nah. It's too late to change course on that. Even if there was some emergency and they went with a new showrunner midproduction, it wouldn't change the show. It would still be Scott's vision unless they decided to delay, shut down, and redo some things.

I can only assume Buck is great at getting these shows done within a lightning fast turnaround time or massively under budget for Disney/Marvel TV to be so enamoured with him.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
I am only 2 episodes in, it isn't great nor is it terrible. Danny acts like a kid that has been away from the modern world forever and just trusts people. I like Boromir but his kids are bland as fuck.
 
So I started watching the first episode and 15 minutes in I already hate it.

Everything about this just seems weak as hell.

Also he's walking through New York with no shoes on, yet he has earphones presumably connected to an MP3 player or something. He managed to get music but not shoes? He just walks into the building looking like that and expects people to take him seriously? And with an annoying cocky attitude on top of that?

I had low expectations already but I was willing to give it a try, wasn't expecting to hate it this quickly.
And from everything I've read here it doesn't get much better lol.

Might just skip it. I watched Avengers without bothering to watch Iron Man or Captain America so I imagine I can watch Defenders without having to stomach this crap.
He's been living in the mountains for the last 15 years, before that he was super rich, ifs not that far of a stretch.
 

LiamR

Member
Just finished. I can't believe how bad that was. It felt like the show had zero direction. It was so slow and almost nothing of consequence ever happened. It was also really disappointing how watered down his powers are. There are maybe about 3 instances in the whole show where he really shows uses his powers to any great effect. The rest of the time he's just a dude who's a bit good at kung fu. Lame.

My advice would be to just look up a summary on Wikipedia or something if you want to find out what happens ahead of Defenders as I did. It's just not worth it. It was so boring and zig zagged all over the place.

Final episode spoiler:

I was amazed that
Harold being responsible for the crash is played up as some massive plot twist. Don't most Iron Fist fans already know is the case? They play it as if it is some massive surprise. I assumed that was the case within the first few episodes.
 
I can admit it. This show was horrendous. My life has been wasted.

Yeah its really really bad.....

:(

I cant bring myself to HATE it per se..... Its not the actors.... Its the script, editing, direction, plot

Its all off and the actors are forced to just fend for themselves scene for scene. At least the other shows had two parts arcs and direction.

At episode 5 now and its just... so random.. It literally feels like they had no idea what to do with this character
 
Ok. Just finished this piece of shit.

Danny Rand was a horrible miscast. People was to see Iron Fist for fights. They really should have gottwb someone who conveyed that.
I didnt buy what he was selling.

The guy who plays Matt Murdock sells fights better.

Terrible show.
 
While I'm watching I just can't help but think of how more effective these scenes could be with a different shot, editing, better acting, and boy a better script. The rest of the shows have phenomenal writing, I took notes on that shit, but this right here... Ooh, child. I can see the impact they're going for, but it's just not executed effectively.
 
episode 2
i don't know if the doctor is just supposed to be an idiot, but if he's not then him not believing in this supernatural shit after having believing he is danny rand.

there has been enough shit in the MCU where people can't be doutful about that shit anymore
 
I might just have to read a TLDR for this series and move on

At least Defenders can hopefully be a course correction. man oh man is this bad.....
 

LordRaptor

Member
episode 2
i don't know if the doctor is just supposed to be an idiot, but if he's not then him not believing in this supernatural shit after having believing he is danny rand.

there has been enough shit in the MCU where people can't be doutful about that shit anymore

People said the same thing about JJ and "how come people wouldn't believe in some dude who can mind control people just by talking after the avengers just fought the chitauri?" and the answers still the same - just because you can buy into the existence of aliens doesn't mean you then also automatically buy into quasi-mystical mumbo jumbo too

e:
Like, "Hi, I'm a millionaire who invented a robotic super suit" doesn't automatically lend credence to "Hi, I'm Earths Sorceror Supreme"
 

spunodi

Member
Episode 1 is okay-ish, but certainly not immediately gripping as the other Netflix marvel shows so far.

One thing floored me however:
Are iPod's really 15 year's old? Really? GODDAMN.
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
episode 2
i don't know if the doctor is just supposed to be an idiot, but if he's not then him not believing in this supernatural shit after having believing he is danny rand.

there has been enough shit in the MCU where people can't be doutful about that shit anymore

Episode 2 Spoilers:
Well, the doctor actually addresses this in his dialogue. He mentions that since "The Incident" there has been a noticable uptick in people who think they have powers. So it sounds like the existence of the supernatural has given people with delusions even more of a push to indulge in their fantasies. So despite The Avengers existing, the vast majority of people who claim to be Gods or have powers do not. It's one of the few things in the show that I'd say makes sense. He gives Danny a chance to prove his claims. Partially to try to distance Danny from the delusion, but also maybe he's seeing if there is a small chance it could be the truth.
 

graffix13

Member
Goddamn this sucks hearing how bad this is. I haven't started watching yet but I still am.

I love Iron Fist and this show was the one I was looking forward to the most.
 

LordRaptor

Member
Goddamn this sucks hearing how bad this is. I haven't started watching yet but I still am.

I love Iron Fist and this show was the one I was looking forward to the most.

I like Iron Fist (comics) - and from before Fraction / Brubaker made him cool again - and enjoyed it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

seems like a lot of people have hate boners about the final series of Dexter and general irritability about the netflix MCU shows being generally over-rated though.
 
Top Bottom