I think what would have really helped this show is if they did something like Arrow — had regular flashbacks to Danny's time in K'un L'un, not only flesh out his character, but also K'un L'un and that whole mythology and even see kid Davos.
Yeah, they really needed a better color palette. Green and gold would have worked so well for the entire show (especially since that's Danny's costume colors).
edited 21st Mar '17 1:02:34 PM by alliterator
wouldn't have worked. Arrow got away with it because the Island is practical empty, especially in the first season. Kunlun needed to be a living, breathing place, that would have gone way over budget. Since the budget wasn't there, they should have sit down and thought about alternatives.
The blue and grey was fitting for the corporate scenes, but I think more green on Danny would have underlined his outsider status more. But not pure green...more a mix of colour to show that he feels split between Kunlun and New York.
edited 21st Mar '17 1:08:04 PM by Swanpride
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Nice observations! You have a good eye. I think you are totally right about green lighting should be used for K'un L'un, especially since a good green has been used to indicate otherwordliness before.
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It actually makes me upset when I think about it. They really shortchanged Danny, by trying to keep that mostly a mystery. He's a little less developed, because we don't even know why he left, or start asking the question till in the later half of the season. And him leaving seems to be a pretty crucial part of his character. Whenever they would be talking about things, I kept thinking how nice it would be to see it. Like Davos and Danny racing donkey carts or something. Have scenes of the happy fun stuff in K'un L'un, and also show how rigid it can be with the strict emotional discipline, and physical abuse. Like showing a young Danny who's never done hard work in his privileged life climbing the mountain for his water for the first time.
edited 21st Mar '17 1:09:24 PM by iamthecircle
See, to me, Splinter is Elmo.
But that's cause I was always more into the movies than the various animated series.
On an actual Iron Fist note, I was rewatching Episode 4 and I actually love the hallway fight scene-its radically different from Daredevil's Season 1 hallway fight and I think that was the point. Its stylized, brightly lit, not as brutal, and most importantly, fun.
I mean, you can't have an elevator door close-screen wipe scene where Joy visibly hurts her hand by punching a guy and not have some fun.
All good points...I still hate the way it is cut. It is so hard to see what is actually going on. And the use of the split screen makes no sense to me for a scene which happens in a freaking elevator! I think one time they used it, it is not even used to show what Joy and Danny do at the same time, but to show something Danny does from different angles...I might be wrong though.
I always love to see the Axe Gang, so the fight was fun for me too.
edited 22nd Mar '17 1:12:21 AM by KnownUnknown
I was actually wondering if it was supposed to be a reference to Kung Fu Hustle.
The show would have been much improved if Danny found the Axe Gang doing this
once he went into their hideout.
They're Chinese. Yakuza is Japanese, Triads are Chinese. They're the Triads, as observed by the fact Danny speaks to them in their natural language (Danny doesn't seem to speak Japanese, only Mandarin).
As it so appears, the concept of Axe-wielding Chinese gangsters
is an old cliché of Chinese cinema but Kung Fu Hustle seems to be the most well-known example outside of China.
If I had to guess though, they got the Axe Gang from Drunken Master II
, given Zhou Cheng (the Drunken Master in the show) is clearly a reference to that movie and the Axe Gang is in that.
Though if you want to get technical the Axe Gang of Kung Fu Hustle and Drunken Master II also use hatchets rather than axes.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."Just finished it, it wasn't that bad. Out of the MCU Netflix shows it's definitely the weakest tho. Just a couple of things that bothered me.
They should have hired someone with actual martial arts experience. Finn Jones didn't really represent the insane amount of skill Danny is supposed to have. Daredevil seems to be more proficient than him.
They should have developed the whole giant hole plot from Daredevil further. Actually give us some small indications of how dangerous the Hand is. While watching I found myself asking how these guys are gonna be any kind of physical threat to Luke and Jessica.
Also is Madame Gao actually a member of the Hand or is she just partnering with them?
Boom...Luke will be an issue for them at first, but considering the crazy mystical shit the hand have at their disposal, once they get over the initial craziness of his unbreakable skin, I'm betting they'll find some way to deal with him. He'll be the hardest to deal with, but they'll figure out something.
Jessica is strong, but completely lacks the level of invulnerability Luke has, and the level of skill that Matt and Danny have. If she can tag them, she can take them out easily, but she has to tag them, and someone as unskilled as she is will be in a lot of trouble.
As for the Axe gang, I remember them from Drunken Master II / The Legend of Drunken Master, and I saw that before I saw Kung Fun Hustle. I think that the Axe Gang was some kind of staple gang back during the era both movies take place in, and Iron Fist drew on that general concept rather than directly homaging either movie.
edited 22nd Mar '17 10:38:10 AM by HandsomeRob
One Strip! One Strip!I'm very glad Defenders will be shorter than the other series-despite having more characters by nature, I still think 13 hour long episodes is too much for what the shows have been doing so far-the momentum tends to wear thin after a while, for me.
Also apparently Sigourney Weaver is the villain, but its too soon for me to deal if she's a comics character or not.
I heard somewhere the episodes of The Defenders will be longer though. I hope that isn't bullshit, but it sounds like they are doing the Go T thing where they have fewer, but longer episodes to help with budget costs. That's the impression I've gotten at least.
Jessica, despite her super strength, really is probably the weakest combatant of the four. Her show had the least amount of action, and The Hand has raw numbers. I imagine Jessica would struggle if she was attacked by a large group. She's just as squishy as Danny or Matt, and probably doesn't have the defensive moves. Also I bet Danny will get better action sequences in The Defenders. At least that's what I have my fingers crossed for. A scene with him and Matt fighting off ninjas has to be cool right?
A better editing would help too....Come on, there is no way that they didn't use a stuntman in the scenes where Danny wore the festival mask (I still don't know what celebration that was....might be useful to know to pin down the timeline), or whenever he had the hoody up, or in the scenes where the fighters were more shadows than anything else. And they still chopped the whole thing up. Not just in the action scenes.
There is this great scene early on when Gao punishes the underling who lost against Danny. Both figures just dark shadows in front of an opening, the rain is falling in the background. It is one of the most beautiful shots they ever did on any Netflix shows...and then they suddenly change the camera angle, just so that the audience can see the blood, and jump back again for a split second, instead of showing the whole punishment from one perspective. Someone working on a show had a really good eye when it comes to camera angles and blocking, but whenever such a shot pops up, the audience is unable to enjoy it because the camera immediately cuts away, during the fight scenes, but also in some other moments.
Eh, prep time works both ways. And well, if Jessica knows the problem is "lots of ninjas", there are pretty hard counters she could use. She could, for example, probably move just fine while wearing 300 kilos of armor plating. Did you bring the anti-tank missiles? No? you loose. (I.. just kind of want to see hung over Jessica beating scrap-metal into a suit of armor with her fists)
edited 22nd Mar '17 2:16:43 PM by Izeinsummer

Yeah, I think way too much about stuff like this.
The problem is mostly that the show is a little bit inconsistent...as if some ideas weren't fully realized when they started shooting, so they are present in certain episodes, but not in all of them. Like I said, the blend overs are only done in the first episodes and then they suddenly stop for no real reason. The elevator fight suddenly uses a split screen and then it isn't used again until episode 12 and that is only once and really looks out of place (honestly, they should have either done it properly or not at all). They do a great job turning Gao into a shadow figure (not that the reveal was in any way a surprise, but at least it looked cool), but the same technique isn't used anywhere else, even though I would have loved to see a fight scene made only out of shadows.
edited 21st Mar '17 1:04:43 PM by Swanpride