I’ve been hyped up for Iron Fist ever since there were initial talks about the show. And while I didn’t think the show was a complete disgrace, I was left feeling underwhelmed and unsatisfied and I kept wanting to re-watch Ultimate Spider-Man.
Fair warning – there are spoilers ahead!
The Marvel and Netflix team up has been a pleasure to watch. So far, every series released from the two have been constructed well, have had outstanding actors, a good soundtrack and exemplary cinematography – “Iron Fist” had a lot to live up to. Of course, because everything so far has been great, we all expected this one to be the same. However, this is the one Marvel/Netflix I would not recommend to my best friend, even after raving about the past series so much.
The last of the Defenders, Danny Rand returns to New York 15 years after being presumed dead after he and his parents crashed in the Himalayas. Under the mantle of the ‘Iron Fist’, Rand is determined to take down his sworn enemy, The Hand.
As mentioned before, I was extremely excited for the release of Iron Fist. I never had a problem with casting, what with all the whitewashing claims (even though Danny Rand was always a white man), and I trusted Marvel. Look, I saw the backlash Doctor Strange received after Benedict Cumberbatch was cast as the titular character. It was the same situation where either a lot of fans thought that Stephen Strange was as Asian man in the comics because he spent a lot of time in the region, or they wanted Marvel to change the source material to represent more cultures on the big screen (which I completely understand). A lot of people wanted to boycott the film and make Marvel suffer, which clearly did not happen; and they wanted to do the same with Iron Fist.
What hindered the experience for me was the lack of personality from certain characters. The music quite frankly did not fit well with the series and it was so incredibly predictable that I could tell how the series was going to end.
First off, can we just acknowledge how cheap and fake most of the fight scenes were? Within the first episode itself, the first few minutes, I found myself baffled at how fake it looked and that was the first red flag. I understand that Danny is an expert in Martial Arts and taking down a bunch of bodyguards is a piece of cake for him, but it wasn’t believable at all and it left me feeling disappointed right from the beginning. Never mind that someone was finally going head-to-head with the leader of The Hand – all I could focus on were the cheap fight sequences and the fact that they both had curly hair. The only fight scenes I could tolerate and enjoy were those that involved Colleen Wing.
Here’s the thing. Like I said before, these Marvel/Netflix series are put up on a pedestal and everyone is constantly expecting the same great quality we get from the films and from series like Daredevil. So when you have a series that has been so poorly executed and misguided as Iron Fist was, people are going to be unhappy. From the lack of entertaining cinematography, to the average characters, it’s not going to leave a good impression on you.
When there were even talks about making the Iron Fist series, there was a lot of doubt because no one believed that they could pull off the mystical elements that surround the character. And because of that, they pretty much didn’t even try.
What would have made this series a lot better was if we received the full scale of Danny’s powers. So far, all we got was his iron fist. Yes, it is a cool power to have and we do see it in action plenty of times in the series. But Danny didn’t even know he had the power to heal! You’re telling me that Danny Rand spent 15 years in K’un L’un and all he knows how to do is channel his chi into his fist?
If we had to witness the true mystical elements of an otherwise complex comic book character on the small screen, I truly believe this would’ve have been more enjoyable. The excuse of “Oh, he doesn’t understand the full extent of this powers yet, he’s still learning” is invalid, because he has had 15 years of training. 15. Years. You can’t spend 15 years in the mystical city of K’un L’un and only know how to make your fist strong. Danny Rand in the comics is able to travel through dimensions, manipulate energy around him, has the power of hypnotism, he can generate an aura to protect himself, yet all we got was the iron fist and a one-off healing process.
Throughout the series, it was reiterated that while Danny has the iron fist, he was not bulletproof. It felt like they just threw this in to remind us that he’s still a human being. No one actively tried shooting him, except in the last episode and this felt like a waste to me. His life was never really in any danger, even when Bakuto stabbed him and that took away from the intensity that the series should have had.
I know things are different for series than they are for films, but if we had to get the same type of quality and excellent character development that we saw in Doctor Strange, it would have made enormous difference.
The musical aspect of the series might receive different reactions. While I didn’t think the choice of music used in the series was terrible, sometimes it just didn’t fit. The showrunners convince us that Danny’s go-to song is Heat of the Moment by Killah Priest, as he’s seen listening to the song constantly on his iPod while it was also the song playing at the time of the plane crash when he was younger. While some scenes didn’t work with the music, it was a thrill to watch Colleen beat up some tough looking dudes while Run The Jewels plays enthusiastically in the background.
Let’s talk about our characters for a few minutes.
We have our protagonist, Danny Rand (Finn Jones), who has returned to New York after 15 years of being presumed dead after his family’s plane had crashed in the Himalayas. Understandably, his childhood friends don’t believe it’s really him and eventually try to have him beaten up. While I didn’t initially have a problem with the casting of Finn Jones (mainly because I’ve never actually seen him in any other series/film), I thought his portrayal of Danny Rand was bland and uncharismatic. I don’t think he’s a bad actor, but for myself, he just lacked the emotion of a main character – something that we’ve seen with Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter and Mike Colter. The three beautifully brought their respective characters to light, gave them new life and were charming in their own ways. Sadly, I didn’t find that with Jones.
Rand tries his hardest to unleash the Iron Fist, stumbling back and forth on whether murder is the way to go. Ultimately, this makes him out to be a rather dull hero. We do see Rand meditating and centering his Chi a number of times, but it always seemed so forced to me. It didn’t feel authentic.
Now that I think about it, when Finn Jones was blaming Donald Trump for bad ratings, I should’ve seen this coming.
In the end, for a character that I have been waiting to see on-screen for so long, I was underwhelmed and found myself liking the supporting characters so much more.
Colleen Wing, being the first supporting character I fell in love with, was an absolute badass. Played by Jessica Henwick, Danny Rand’s eventual girlfriend ends up stealing the show for me. I found that with Colleen, there was more depth to the character, even though she wasn’t the one who had a tragic backstory that we were supposed to pay attention to. While Marvel does have a lack of female representation in their series/films, they’re slowly improving by giving us characters like Wing, Jessica Jones, Claire Temple and Misty Knight (who sadly does not appear in Iron Fist).
Running her own dojo, Wing is a sensei to a number of students who go there to escape their already messed up lives. The Chikara Dojo is a safe space for them – one where they can avoid their bullies and learn how to defend themselves. We see Wing show particular interest in one student, Darryl, bringing out her soft side and just making you adore her.
Yes, I know that she doesn’t show up until much later in the series. But you should know by now how much I love her (and at least I didn’t put her up before Danny Rand). Of course, we see the return of Claire Temple. We last saw the night nurse at the end of Luke Cage, where she notices a flyer for self defense classes taught by none other than Colleen Wing. Claire and Colleen form a friendship over these classes and soon we see the two women helping Rand out. Claire wants to protect herself. Even though she’s constantly coming across the enhanced, she doesn’t want to rely on them to save her if the need ever arises. I personally thought she brought a good amount of humour to the series (Danny: I am the Iron Fist / Claire: What the hell does that mean?), as well as her usual charm that Rosario Dawson never fails to bring. It’s time like these where I wish she’d have her own series.
Reprising her role from Jessica Jones, Carrie-Anne Moss returns as fan-favorite Jeri Hogarth, or J-Money. Hogarth proves to be a worthy ally to Danny and helps him against the Meachum’s in the beginning, while sticking with him through even the thickest of things.
Unsurprisingly, I loved Hogarth. I wish she was involved a little more, but every time she was on-screen, I was content. It was heartwarming to see how easily she accepted Danny Rand’s return especially after learning the bond she shared with his family. The nickname “J-Money” also provided for a good laugh and it seemed suitable for her character.
The Meachums.
So, we have Harold, Ward and Joy Meachum. Harold, close friend of Wendell Rand, has faked his death at the hand of… The Hand and his son Ward is the only one to know about it (with the exception of poor, mistreated Kyle). When Danny returns to New York City, Harold pretends to be overjoyed and wants to welcome Danny into his family. Of course, Ward and Danny don’t see through the obvious facade and Danny goes along with it.
Harold Meachum was an intense villain. Not as intense as Mariah Dillard, but he was getting there. Halfway through the series, we learn that Harold cannot die unless he essentially has his head chopped off. So after Ward’s failed attempt at killing him, Harold comes back to life for a second time and that’s where he starts to become a psycho. From fits of anger, to killing his assistant over an ice cream debacle, Harold finally reveals himself to be alive to his beloved daughter Joy and tries his hardest to not hurt her.
I personally thought that David Wenham (aka Faramir from The Two Towers and Return of the King) did a great job of being one of the series’ villains. He brought a lot of emotion and insanity to the show, making for an exceptional villain. Of course, not as spectacular as Kingpin or Kilgrave, but still had a strong deliverance. Sure, it was a little traumatizing to watch him beat his assistant to death with an ice cream scoop, but it added to the insanity of the character.
We see his son Ward (Tom Pelphrey) constantly displaying signs of daddy issues which eventually takes a toll on him and he tries to kill his own father. From the beginning of the series, we see a skeptical Ward who doesn’t believe that Danny is who he says he is. To an extent, he doesn’t want to share this now Meachum family business with the person whose name sits on the building. Of course, you can understand his skepticism especially if you own a large company that you know someone would want to tear down. But this gets the better of him, and he’s portrayed as a petty, kind of annoying character. He does redeem himself later in the series, but for myself, I thought the execution of his character was poor. The showrunners made him out to be a supposed villain very early on in the series, and while I did predict he’d turn a new leaf, I felt like he could’ve been a better supporting character than he was. Ward wanted to protect his sister. He hid the truth of their father being alive in order to avoid her death, and throughout the series, he proved that he truly did care about her.
In the end, he was simply portrayed as a selfish drug addict who hated his father – and while that’s true to some extent, I really do think they could’ve done more with this character.
Joy Meachum (Jessica Stroup) on the other hand, felt misguided to me. Initially, she did believe Danny for who he said he was and she wanted to help him much to the dismay of her brother. When she finds out Harold is alive, she’s understandably hurt but happy to see her father again. Throughout the series, we see how much she cares for Ward, even when he lashes out at her after a drug-induced episode and she wholeheartedly wants to help him. Sure, she was mistreated by both father and brother, and was also shot because of them, but she seemed like the most understanding out of the three. Which is why when she seemingly wants to turn against Danny in the end, I was completely confused. Of course, things turned upside down when Danny returned to New York. But it seemed odd to me that she was so easily convinced to betray her childhood friend and it was just unnecessary.
Talk about family drama, am I right?
And you have your main villain – Bakuto. Sensei to Colleen Wing and leader of (a section of) The Hand, Bakuto (Ramón Rodríguez) first appears to us as a good guy. He seemingly wants to help Colleen and Danny, but eventually reveals himself to be the one who wants to take Danny down. He had Colleen lie to Danny from the beginning and made her hide the fact that she was a part of The Hand. To Colleen and Bakuto, the part of The Hand that they were a part of was the good arm.
Bakuto was an interesting villain. I understand he’s supposed to be the big bad who’s been a part of all the terror that’s been going around in New York, but he was kind of unimpressionable to me. I thought Harold was a bigger villain than Bakuto was. Rodríguez’ acting felt unenthusiastic and timid, maybe that’s how the character was supposed to be, but it lacked the emotion and tenacity that we’ve seen with many previous villains and that’s what also brought the series down.
There were a few things that worked with the series (very few), but ultimately it was underwhelming and lacked the grit and depth of previous Marvel/Netflix series.
This could have easily been a spectacular series and it should have been. Here’s to hoping Danny Rand has more development in The Defenders.