Support NeoGAF

[TheGreatDirector]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/rev...source=twitter

After the successes of 'Daredevil,' 'Jessica Jones' and 'Luke Cage,' Marvel and Netflix have their first big misstep

http://www.polygon.com/tv/2017/3/8/14712744/iron-fist-review

Iron Fist is not the strongest of its siblings, but team dynamics being what they are, it'll no doubt benefit from the association. There will be plenty of folks out there who watch the show to keep up with the overall plot of the Marvel Netflix shows, and to see how Iron Fist presumably sets up for The Defenders later this year. Unfortunately, I can't say at the moment that there are other reasons to binge.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/03/08/marvels-iron-fist-episode-1-snow-gives-way-review

Marvel's Iron Fist starts off sluggishly, seeming far more like a soap opera than a superhero series, complete with bland, pretty, rich people sneering and scheming over family fortunes.

http://variety.com/2017/tv/reviews/marvels-iron-fist-netflix-review-finn-jones-1202004027/

”Marvel's Iron Fist" is deadly — in all the wrong ways.

Quite a few dramas in the streaming arena have pacing problems, and even Netflix's better Marvel programs have displayed an affinity for contrived, time-killing subplots. But ”Iron Fist" is the most frustrating and ferociously boring example of Netflix Drift in some time.

 

[serenewarfare]

Seems to re-affirm the fears from the preview clips we were given.

Well, they can't all be hits.

 

[Dalek]

Well shit.

 

[- J - D -]

F**kin brutal.

Matt Murdock is driven by his Catholic guilt, Jessica Jones by traumatic assault and consent issues, Luke Cage by America's multi-century history of imperiled black masculinity. Iron Fist arrives in a deep hole amid concerns about its curly-haired, blonde protagonist appropriating Asian culture, but the bigger problem ends up being that he's barely even appropriating. There's no specificity to Danny's experience other than the most generic of identity crises -- like the world needed another billionaire vigilante — and Jones is far too placid a leading man to give any sense of Danny's internal torment. He's not placid in a Zen way, just tepid like room temperature. Rather than being a man who found enlightenment through tragedy and disassociation from his upbringing, Danny comes across like a spoiled frat boy who took a Comparative Religion class and spends a few months picking up coeds by telling them he's totally into meditation and tai chi now.

 

[Alienous]

Iron Fist: The Dark World

 

[ZeoVGM]

I guess you can only keep up such an insane winning streak for so long. Really worried about Inhumans now.

 

[Saya]

Not surprised. It has looked like shit since day one. Plus the show runner is Scott Buck.

 

[Pachimari]

Yeah, these quotes doesn't bode well too:

IGN:

So much of it feels familiar from many other recent superhero tales — Batman Begins, Doctor Strange, even a bit of Iron Man and Arrow — and the story the series has thus far offered in its first six episodes does little to shake up that well-worn formula.

The latter of these first six episodes eventually brings in more comic book-y and fun elements, but Iron Fist is thus far the weakest of the Marvel-Netflix series.

Marvel's Iron Fist starts off sluggishly, seeming far more like a soap opera than a superhero series, complete with bland, pretty, rich people sneering and scheming over family fortunes.

---

Variety

“If you want to see the truth, then hold no opinions,” Rand intones at one point. Well, it’s part of this gig to issue assessments, and the truth is, “Iron Fist” is as disposable as aluminum foil.

---

The Hollywood Reporter

Through six episodes, in addition to failing to introduce a main character I care about at all, Iron Fist hasn't given me any season-long arc/objective that I could describe for you, much less one I'm curious to see resolved — and that's before it hits that wall between episodes 7 and 12 that none of the Marvel shows has been immune to.

 

[TheOddOne]

I guess you can only keep up such an insane winning streak for so long. Really worried about Inhumans now.

Same showrunner, Scott Buck, too.

 

[F0rneus]

Scott Buck everybody! The brilliant showrunner behind Dexter seasons 6 through 8! Also is running Inhumans!

 

[serenewarfare]

I guess you can only keep up such an insane winning streak for so long. Really worried about Inhumans now.

I think this is more of a misstep than a start of a downward trend. AoS has only continued to get better IMO.

Same showrunner, Scott Buck, too.

Well maybe not. lol

 

[duckroll]

After Diamondback in Luke Cage, I'm not sure how anyone can take this "Universe" seriously anymore. Lmao.

 

[Saya]

Same showrunner, Scott Buck, too.

he's doing Inhumans too? Goddamn he must have some dirt on some marvel execs lol

 

[Rymuth]

Holy shit ~~ whyyyy

Scott Buck everybody! The brilliant showrunner behind Dexter seasons 6 through 8! Also is running Inhumans!

How did I not know of this??

 

[caliph95]

And any hope is gone. Well it was gone when they announced they are taking all the interesting Kung fu magic stuff and making grounded. In other words making it more generic. So because of that the show has nothing to go on except being Arrow-lite.

 

[serenewarfare]

Scott Buck everybody! The brilliant showrunner behind Dexter seasons 6 through 8! Also is running Inhumans!

I will say, as someone who thinks season 8 of Dexter is one of the worst things I've ever seen in any medium, I thought season 7 was actually alright.

So at least he's been in charge of one good thing.

 

[ZeoVGM]

Same showrunner, Scott Buck, too.

That's why I said I was worried.

 

[Qvoth]

this sounds really bad :/

 

[F0rneus]

I will say, as someone who thinks season 8 of Dexter is one of the worst things I've ever seen in any medium, I thought season 7 was actually alright.

So at least he's been in charge of one good thing.

Isaak Sirko was a great character. Everything else around him IMO? Oooffff.

 

[VeeP]

Wow. This sounds terrible. Seriously worse than Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Luke Cage had a good first half, but that second half was just mediocre. And Jessica Jones... don't get me started. If Iron Fist is worse that both of those, geez. How Netflix? HOW!

 

[Dysun]

Not sure how Scott Buck landed this gig in the first place, and then doubled down with Inhumans.

Anyone whose seen the last three seasons of Dexter can tell you what that trainwreck was like

 

[TheOddOne]

Well maybe not. lol

he's doing Inhumans too? Goddamn he must have some dirt on some marvel execs lol

- Deadline: ‘Iron Fist’ EP Scott Buck Set To Showrun ‘Marvel’s Inhumans’ For ABC.

Marvel is keeping it in the family, tapping Netflix’s Iron Fist executive producer/showrunner Scott Buck as writer/executive producer/showrunner of Marvel’s The Inhumans, set to premiere on ABC in fall 2017.

The Defenders seem to be in better hands.

Douglas Petrie (“Marvel’s Daredevil,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) and Marco Ramirez (“Marvel’s Daredevil,” “Orange is the New Black”) are set to return as showrunners to the Marvel Universe for the Netflix Original Series “Marvel’s The Defenders”!

Another alum from “Marvel’s Daredevil,” Oscar-nominee Drew Goddard (“The Martian,” “Lost,” “Alias”), will also join the team as an Executive Producer.

 

[ZeoVGM]

After Diamondback in Luke Cage, I'm not sure how anyone can take this "Universe" seriously anymore. Lmao.

I had no problem with Diamondback. Super over the top and entertaining. Once I was able to get past the change in tone, I still loved the show.

And really, one character in a large universe of TV shows and movies certainly isn't enough to make me say, "Fuck this!"

Nah, I think MCU is great the vast majority of the time. Can't all be winners though.

 

[Permanently A]

Seems to re-affirm the fears from the preview clips we were given.

Well, they can't all be hits.

Yep, this is the culmination of the issues that have been rearing their head through all the Marvel Netflix shows to varying extents.

Here's hoping that the contract renewal whenever it may be gives us 10 episode seasons.

 

[ZeoVGM]

Wow. This sounds terrible. Seriously worse than Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Luke Cage had a good first half, but that second half was just mediocre. And Jessica Jones... don't get me started. If Iron Fist is worse that both of those, geez. How Netflix? HOW!

I mean, Jessica Jones was widely acclaimed. One of the bad reviews in the OP mentions Jones as "a revelation."

 

[Einchy]

Who thought getting the Dexter guy was a good idea?

 

[serenewarfare]

Isaak Sirko was a great character. Everything else around him IMO? Oooffff.

I thought the Dexter/Deb stuff in S7 was actually not bad, but it completely went off the rails in S8. Like they were at a solid 8 in the relationship weirdness scale, which I felt was understandable to at least some degree given the backstory, but in S8 they went to a whole other level that was just awful.

 

[Discotheque]

I already thought the other shows were not particularly good aside from large portions of daredevil's first two seasons. that this is getting panned right out of the gate...god damn. a skip.

this quote in particular makes it sound like a chore:

Quite a few dramas in the streaming arena have pacing problems, and even Netflix's better Marvel programs have displayed an affinity for contrived, time-killing subplots. But ”Iron Fist" is the most frustrating and ferociously boring example of Netflix Drift in some time.

 

[GAMEPROFF]

Ouch.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

I've been bracing for this. If a martial arts series can't even scrape together one interesting looking fight scene for a trailer, you start to worry.

Inhumans might be in an even more dire situation. That's more ambitious, same terrible showrunner, and the production is moving very fast.

 

[serenewarfare]

So is this the first post-Iron Man Marvel critical flop? I mean, even The Dark World's critical consensus was a resounding "okay".

 

[Oddduck]

http://uproxx.com/sepinwall/iron-fist-review-netflix-marvel/

From Alan Sepinwall:

The problem is that Iron Fist is virtually all talk — most of it painfully dull — and the fighting is both brief and unconvincing.

It's easily the worst of the Netflix Marvel shows — where the others tend to start off well and then run into massive pacing problems around episode 8 or 9, Iron Fist begins as if it's already at that sag point — and an unfortunate illustration of the perils of miscasting.

 

[ZeoVGM]

Here's hoping that the contract renewal whenever it may be gives us 10 episode seasons.

I really hate this idea some people throw around that any issues they have with the Netflix shows are that it's 13 episodes instead of 10. It's a lazy fix.

Agents of SHIELD is 22 episodes and has knocked out of the damn park with fantastic pacing all season, with only a few episodes left. Season 2 was similar. There is no reason for a 13 episode show to have pacing issues.

 

[GravityInsanity]

Wait a minute. Am I reading right?

 

[Zelenogorsk]

I refuse to believe anything in Iron Fist will be as bad as the Elektra/Hand stuff in Daredevil S2. If that is indeed the case then god help us all.

 

[Funky Papa]

The way I see it, shit must be really wry for critics to finally start blasting a Marvel/Netflix product, specially after all the lauding of horribly flawed (if not downright rotten) series like JJ, Daredevil and Luke Cage.

I refuse to believe anything in Iron Fist will be as bad as the Elektra/Hand stuff in Daredevil S2. If that is indeed the case then god help us all.

Laugh all you want, but the Hand was already heads and shoulders above 80% of JJ's plot (and specially anything that had to do with her neighbours) and the utter garbage of Luke Cage's second arc. Lame as it was, Elektra wasn't nearly as bad as some people make her out to be.

 

[Broken Joystick]

Man, if the first six episodes are average at best...
Imagine what the latter half of the season is like.

 

[SporeCrawler]

Ill see it because its marvel netflix and they have been strong so far(with DD S1 and JJ S1 being the top and DDS2 and LC S1 closely following) but its a shame that ironfist with loras tyrell doesnt work

 

[GAMEPROFF]

I may be the only person who really loved the The Hand Plot.

 

[Nyanmaruz]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

 

[ZeoVGM]

This is really disappointing even though I didn't allow myself to get hyped for it at all due to the show runner. Despite some flaws, the previous four Netflix Marvel seasons are so damn good and I can watch them again and again.

But yeah, this project seemed like it had issues since the beginning.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Not surprised. It has looked like shit since day one. Plus the show runner is Scott Buck.

Scott "Let's humanize serial killers" Buck.

 

[CocaMantis]

It can't be any worse than Jessica Jones, right? Right? Fellas? *sobs*

 

[Discotheque]

The way I see it, shit must be really wry for critics to finally start blasting a Marvel/Netflix product, specially after all the lauding of horribly flawed (if not downright rotten) series like JJ, Daredevil and Luke Cage.


Laugh all you want, but the Hand was already heads and shoulders above 80% of JJ's plot (and specially anything that had to do with her neighbours) and the utter garbage of Luke Cage's second arc. Lame as it was, Elektra wasn't nearly as bad as some people make her out to be.

spot on post. couldn't even power through luke cage. regretted doing that for jessica jones. the hand plot in Daredevil season 2 was like a god send compared to those series. it helps that if the writing is as shit as these shows tend to be at least daredevil gives me some cool action.

 

[ramparter]

The first mistep was Luke Cage, it's clear what they are doing.

 

[Funky Papa]

Man, if the first six episodes are average at best...
Imagine what the latter half of the season is like.

The sad thing is that it problably isn't even a good hatewatch. Dexter and Under the Dome were risible and had people coming after each episode to mock them, but bad Marvel shows are usually too slow and outright boring to even do that.

 

[serenewarfare]

I could probably look past most of this show's issues if it actually did justice to the action. Which all indications are it absolutely does not. Which is ridiculous. Choreography and action should be priority #1 when making an Iron Fist series. I love Arrow, but it's ridiculous that they can put a Netflix show with an exponentially bigger budget to shame in that department.

 

[Zelenogorsk]

Laugh all you want, but the Hand was already heads and shoulders above 80% of JJ's plot (and specially anything that had to do with her neighbours) and the utter garbage of Luke Cage's second arc.

I actually only ever got to episode 3 of Luke Cage but this thread is making me want to finish it just to see what all the fuss is about.

 

[gforguava]

I refuse to believe anything in Iron Fist will be as bad as the Elektra/Hand stuff in Daredevil S2. If that is indeed the case then god help us all.

This is what I find interesting about all of this, everyone has such wildly varying opinions about these shows. Like these articles frequently mention Luke Cage in positive way when I thought it was largely terrible. And Elektra/the Hand from Daredevil Season 2, generally regarded as being on the weaker end(if not weakest all told) was my favorite thing any of the Netflix shows have done.

So maybe I'll like Iron Fist. Or I'm in the bargaining stage.

 

[sinkfla87]

Welp, anybody who was a little put off by the show being run by Scott Buck have now had their worst fears confirmed. I don't get it, Marvel usually does a good job with who they get to work on and be in their shows, why the fuck would they get the guy who ruined Dexter?!!!