Iron Fist

[StarGuard]

This was excellent. I still put Luke Cage at the top of the list, but in its own way it stands even with Jessica Jones and Daredevil. Each have their shortcomings, but if you go into them with an open mind and let them entertain you on their own terms while paying homage to the source, you should enjoy each of them .... for different reasons.

Special effect for the Iron Fist .... as good as I could have hoped for in any medium

[BriarThrone]

I realize I'm in a distinct minority, but Iron Fist was my very favorite of the Netflix Marvel series. It started a lot slower than Luke Cage did, sure, but I felt like the earlier series' mid-season twist robbed it of a lot of its vitality, while Iron Fist kept a fairly complex storyline moving along at a steady (and slow, sure) pace to a satisfying end.

I wrote a detailed pros-and-cons style review-ish thing over in the MCNU thread. The only thing I realized that I'd forgotten was my absolute delight at finding out that they didn't tone down the mystic elements, as had been speculated. The dragon, the city whose plane of existence only intersects ours once in a while... it was all there, largely unchanged.

[Ares]

So, I feel like I've let enough time past to let this series sink in and give my thoughts on it, especially given how I kept going on and on about the controversy surrounding the series.

I have to say I really liked it, though I think Daredevil is overall the best of the MCU Netflix series, I would say I enjoyed Iron Fist more than both Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. And make no mistake, I like all of of the Netflix MCU series and am SO excited for Defenders, but I feel Jessica Jones and Luke Cage have worse pacing problems than both Daredevil and Iron Fist, with Jessica Jones being fairly boring at times while Luke Cage has a problem with the villains.

Overall, I feel Iron Fist did a pretty good job of telling his story. The show runners did a good job of making the boardroom stuff interesting enough to keep my attention, I found the actors all did a decent to solid job with their roles, the fight scenes were usually pretty solid, they embraced a lot of the mystical elements of Iron Fist, and it ends on something to set up for later work.

I can also see why they went the route they did on several choices. They wanted to treat people going into Iron Fist as if they've never heard of the guy, so they want to play up the mystery around Danny, what's going on with him, flesh out all of the secondary characters, etc. I can also understand why they've sort of put Danny at his "original" power levels where using the Iron Fist more than once an hour was draining for him, rather than the Immortal Iron Fist level where he can spam chi techniques left and right. By making Danny's training incomplete, he's "merely" a devastating fighter rather than an invincible one, and the scene of the 50's Iron Fist kicking ass with both fists blazing shows Danny how far he has to go in his training.

I find that all of the Netflix series have pacing issues outside of Daredevil Season 1, and Iron Fist is no different. However, unlike Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, Iron Fist is a little slow in the beginning before really cutting loose in the second half. My guess is the show runners wanted to start off semi-grounded and slowly build up towards the more outlandish elements.

Beyond that, most of my complaints with Iron Fist are superficial. I don't like the beard or lack of costume for Danny, I felt the fight choreography could have borrowed from a series like "Enter the Badlands", I felt there should have been a bit more martial arts and more outlandish opponents, ninja, guys in cool costumes, etc. I'm hoping Season 2 will embrace more of it's outlandish elements.

Overall tho, I think Iron Fist was a fine addition to the Netflix series and has me excited for the Defenders.

[Voltron64]

One man's change for the series.

https://fix-flick.com/2017/04/12/iron-fist-reimagined/