Marvel's Iron Fist

Then he'll just film all of Season 2 and prevent it from being officially released for 88 years...

I'll co-sign on the RZA.

Heh.

I'm just glad this isn't a dumpster fire.

edited 18th Mar '17 7:57:52 PM by Beatman1

Yeah my take was the Davos and Joy are working by themselves out of anger, they're not connected to the Hand at all. Though I agree that Joy seems to have changed very suddenly at the end, if it holds it will be very sad, as they managed to sustain all the Meachums as feeling like the same person thought, while this turn would feel out fo character for her.

I presume that he has a history of delaying release?

I mean I can see RZA perhaps doing better. Just give the show to someone with a clear vision. Please. And try to incorporate more of the dramatic colors of the other shows, and a defined soundtrack. I don't really mind the rap music, and I actually really liked the funky music used at the end of episode 10 with the scene between Colleen and Danny. But it shows up too irregularly, and therefore sticks out. Also they should have explored Danny's fondness for rap sooner. I get why it's there, but feels a little tacked on.

Sorry if I sound hypercritical of the show. It's just because I actually like it and I'm frustrated by it's problems. I know it could be better.

Yeah the Meachums were really interesting in how messed up they are, but it's very understandable why they are like that. They are a very compelling part of the show, even if the exist somewhat awkwardly along with all the Iron Fist bis. It would suck to see it be unraveled by Joy being out of character.

edited 18th Mar '17 8:04:38 PM by iamthecircle

See, I liked the rap music-not just I like rap music, but also because it makes sense. Rap music is in a sort of second Golden Age now, and that's been going on for a while. At this point, any character, white, black, whatever, liking rap just seems like a very normal thing to me.

Plus, the first song in the first episode, So Fresh, So Clean, came out in 2000-in other words, its something Danny would have known about even before he left New York. I thought that that was a very nice touch.

One thing I liked about the action, especially compared to Daredevil and Luke Cage is there's this sense that, a lot of the time, Danny is holding back and using minimal force-which not only speaks to his character, but also his martial arts skill, since it takes a lot of work to consciously hold back what is, at that point, something almost instinctual.

[up ] I'll also add that I really liked the way he disarms people with weapons, especially if they have guns. He quickly takes or smacks them out of people's hands and takes out the clip/magazine. It reminded me of the Daredevil and Punisher fights where Matt would kick away whatever gun Frank was trying to use or get to.

I haven't watched this show yet but I gotta ask, who would think its a good idea to turn the Bride of Nine Spiders into a simple Hand agent?

She doesn't exactly get a ton of characterization in the comics, though.

Can someone tell me how to set spoiler tags again? The Markup help still doesn't open for me.....

Let's wait and see. There is still the option to use her again later and make her more than that.

Concerning the directors...I think the one who did the best job with the fight scenes is actually Stephen Surjik, who took care of the last episode. This is the only one which doesn't constantly undercut the careful staging and allows a camera shot to breath. Unless this episode had a different editor, I give him the credit for that.

edited 19th Mar '17 3:07:54 AM by Swanpride

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edited 19th Mar '17 9:08:48 AM by Eagal

So I don't think the show is as bad as people say but they definitely needed to make it more action oriented. I'm up to episode 6 and Danny has only used the Iron Fist about three times. Heck, we had to wait two whole episodes before we even saw it once. That sort of thing ruins the pacing of the series.

The show is paced like a 12 hour movie, meaning it waits with the better fight scenes until the second half.

Thanks! Concerning Joy:

What I meant with the last scene being ambiguous is that she just said "I am listening". Now, if she had actually believed her father that Danny is guilty, I could have bought her looking for revenge, but that was not the impression I got, so her being suddenly set on destroying Danny is a strange twist. But the way the show goes, I can actually see the writers misleading us. After all, Joy spend the whole season in the dark. I wouldn't put it past her to listening to Davos in order to collect information, she might even start to spy on the hand. Remember, she said that revealing the activities in Rand made her feel alive and useful. All this in mind, I am withholding my judgement concerning the last scene until I see where the writers eventually go with it. But if it is really just a revenge trip than yes, that is way too sudden for her character.

edited 19th Mar '17 9:35:25 AM by Swanpride

So do you guys think we'll get a second season?

If not, he could team with Luke and form Heroes for Hire. That's how the two took off in popularity in the comics.

Yeah, hopefully. I just feel sort of bad for Finn Jones. He seemed like he played the role really well with what he was given, but he's being pretty harshly judged. And I really do like Danny, and want to see more of him.

The ratings at Netflix aren't bad and if enough people watched it, I see no reason why they shouldn't give us some sort of sequel. Thus said, I think Luke Cage could really use Danny in his show. That might sound strange, because Luke Cage got more praise, but a lot of this praise was for the more stylish elements of the show. Luke needs someone to interact with, desperately.

Yeah, I really do think they may be best together. I got the feeling most of the show that Danny really needed help. He had Colleen and Claire there, but with the way they were hinting at Luke, I got the feeling he needs Luke. And honestly, I would like to see Luke's being financially supported by Danny like he did with Colleen to somewhat humorous effect. Now that I think about it having someone like Danny in the lives of all the Defenders really will help them out as they all struggle financially. I like that Danny is very wealthy, but the show hasn't forgotten about how other people like Colleen have to struggle.

I guess it comes down to how well the pair is received in the Defenders. If their chemistry and dynamic is the lightening in the bottle it needs to be that will definitely push producers to maybe mush their shows together. They had to have the possibility in mind when they were picking out Defenders. From what we've heard from Finn Jones and Mike Colter in interviews apparently their scenes together are some of their personal favorites. I'm actually having a lot of fun imagining the whole team's interactions come The Defenders. I totally buy what Krysten Ritter was talking about before about Jessica feeling an orphan kinship with Danny, and possibly having a Big Brother Instinct. Jessica did have a little brother too, she didn't lose just her parents.

86% fan approval at RT. This is the biggest case of dissonance between audience and critics that I've ever seen.

And I agree with the former. It's slow but it is not a bad show by any means.

edited 19th Mar '17 10:37:12 AM by Beatman1

It's a mess! I won't deny that, but it's really entertaining. I think it's got some good elements there, but needs a new show runner, or something. And I'm sure if Finn Jones had more than 3 months to prep for the role he could bulk up a little, and maybe there could be more action. I still think he's pretty good though, I like how graceful he is, and a lot of martial arts experts have less than intimidating physiques.

That is the thing though: Narratively it is not a mess at all, it is actually doing better than all the other Netflix shows. But the technical aspects aren't not quite there.

Like, compare how Luke Cage handled the introduction of his half brother compared to how Iron Fist dealt with Davos. There is no doubt which show did it better. But if one asks me which one does better in terms of music, I would point to Luke Cage in a heartbeat.

edited 19th Mar '17 10:47:08 AM by Swanpride

You know what really bugs me about this show? If you watch the intro it's clear someone knows what awesome martial arts fights are supposed to look like. For some reason Danny is a lot less impressive in the actual episodes.

Because they made a strategic error in casting. Finn is a good actor. He's not a good stunt man. This show really needed someone who was both. A lot. .. And I am actually kind of puzzled why they didn't make that happen - they clearly were not constrained by getting a known name, and the pool of young and hungry actors they were picking out of is really quite deep and wide. Heck, the only real constraint they had was "Must pass for early 20's". The casting agency comes back and goes "Uhm. We got Gina Carano to read the script".. that would probably have worked!

I think this is a combination of problems with editing, directing, and the actor not being properly prepped. Finn Jones had three months between casting and filming, and par for the course with these shows he was learning the fight scenes like 20 minutes before hand. It's really hard to really sell martial arts expertise within that brief period of time. So I guess I understand the argument that they should have cast an actor to play Danny with pre-existing martial arts skills, but at the same time that seems unfair compared to all the other leads that were cast on acting chops, not action skills. And you can tell he's trying, there are moments where Danny's fight style shines, he makes me think of an airbender from Avatar The Last Airbender sometimes, but it's mostly butchered with editing. It should be filmed like dancing in a musical or something, with full shots of the actor's bodies, and less intrusive edits. The best shots in the fight scenes were often ones that were from top-down aerial sort of perspective so you can see the whole movement.

@Swanpride: I do think Davos is better introduced and has a greated emotional resonance than Diamondback, but I still felt like we could have used flashbacks of their time together. And my brain for whatever reason likes to joke about him acting like a jealous ex boyfriend.

edited 19th Mar '17 12:13:50 PM by iamthecircle

Was Jones cast on acting chops? He's not terrible but he's also not anything spectacular. He isn't a big name either so it's not like they were looking for star power.

Game of Thrones cred.

This is definitely going to come together the next time we see Danny. 3 episodes in and I see the seeds for something awesome and stuff we need to wade through.