I'm four episodes in. Were critics watching a different show? It's not as great as Daredevil, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit at the moment.
I'm thinking you are, cause the critics pretty much nailed it in their reviews. Still a watchable show, but it's a hot mess of one.
Finally finished Iron Fist. I think it was better than the first season of Daredevil, and everything CW has ever done, but that's probably it. Harold and Ward were the most interesting characters.
I just watched episodes 9 and 10, and yet again the fights suck. How is it that a show about martial arts doesn't seem to have the characters fight with martial arts? It's just street brawling stuff that we got with Jones, DD, and Cage. Where is the fluid, fast past, beautiful motions that is supposed to encompany this sort of fight style? Also, where is the super natural aspect? A guy that can come back from the dead does not count. I want to see alternate dimensions, dragons, demons, etc. Where is all of that? The show isn't bad or anything, it's just not doing anything to make itself stand out from everything else. It's just going through the motions. Lastly, I finally figured out why Danny isn't exactly wowing me. He is just the same boring and uninteresting character he has always been in the comics. He was lame in the 90s comics that featured him. He is lame in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. And he is flat out lame here. I guess I should be happy that they are keeping with the source material, but since he hasn't put on a god damned costume yet, I can't.
I'm seeing that people are kinda 50/50 with Iron Fist thus far. I just finished it last night, and....I must say...this has been the best show since Daredevil. Jessica Jones and Luke Cage were okay, they just lacked an atmosphere that Daredevil was dripping with. Iron Fist, in my opinion still kinda lacks in that department also, but damn....such a much a more deep show than the Jones/Cage. The character development in this show was so spot on, there were literally no boring characters in this show at all. Daredevil is still the creme de la creme, but this show is definitely close to it. Now it's allllllllllll about that Punisher series, which I have no doubt is going to absolutely murder....pun intended.
I don't think the show sucks but it is easily the worst of the 4 Netflix series. Netflix has been so solid on doing great fights in Daredevil and Luke Cage so I had high hopes for the kung fo show to have the best action set points. Sadly it's the worst at action. The show feels like it was made for ABC and not Netflix. Danny as a character gets worse as the show goes on. He just gets annoyingly childish and mopey to the point where you wonder how he became the Iron Fist. As of Iron Fist he barely uses the power in the series. I find most of the other characters to be forgetful and if they are they were on the other shows first. Daredevil is amazing I really enjoyed both seasons. The action set points are some of the best and I also enjoyed most of the characters. Jessica Jones might be slow but I enjoyed the characters from that show. The purple man is awesome and it was a great intro to Luke Cage. Luke Cage is my 2nd favorite. I too think the show lost its pacing after cotton mouth's death. But it never dragged down to a hault like Iron Fist. Iron Fist lacks quality compared to the rest. It feels like the budget was cut and the writing was done quick to prepare for the defenders.
God, past episode 10, are we suppose to like the old Iron Fist and Davos more than Danny? Where Danny should be confident and calm, with a mixture of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee in personality, all we're getting as the show progresses is a impulsive (not in the good way kind), whiny, child. I keep thinking he's suppose to say "I wasn't chosen to be the Iron Fist, I took it" because I haven't seen much in personality and knowledge that has given him backing that he shows the earnings of being an Iron Fist. As even Davos says he's a bad Iron Fist, which will add even more to his own development for increasing his rivalry towards Danny, in the future hopefully. I get character development but taking a character and making him less then half what he is for what they try to pass him off at, is kinda tame. Just wish the Iron Fist from the footage is what we had now.
I finished the whole series. I enjoyed it, but I think it was my least favorite of the Netflix Marvel so far. I don't know if it is more the fault of the actor or the writing, but I found it really hard to like Danny Rand. I thought all the other actors were great, and the character arcs were all interesting. I'd watch a whole series of just Rosario Dawson. Like others have said, if they make another season, they really need to step up the fighting choreography. It's not too surprising that the best fight scenes were in that one episode that RZA directed. Hopefully they let him do more, or get some help from the people that work on Daredevil.
Well I finished the last 3 episodes just now. Episode 11 was okay, 12 was pretty awesome though and featured easily the best fights in the whole series. The two fights in Central Park were amazing. Unfortunately, the final villain turned out to be pretty damn lame and petty and the end battle was just as lame. Also, the cliffhanger ending was kind of meh. Overall, this show was a mixed bag. Looking at it on its own, it was a decent series. The story would have been a lot tighter had it been 8-10 episodes as it felt like they were starting to straggle with what they wanted to do. Colleen and Claire were hands down the best characters in the show and they are really what made it. Every piece of snark that came out of Claire's mouth was just perfect. Danny was a bland protagonist and he seemed to get more selfish as the show went on, which is a shame because he started out as this fish out of water character only to become the spoiled rich boy that wants everything to go his way. And then when he gets his way, he still isn't happened. God damn entitled rich millennial! The Meachums were hit or miss too. At first they were interesting, but then it seemed like the writers had no idea what to do with them and the father was utterly worthless. He is what really dragged the show down quite a bit. He couldn't even give us a good god damn fight scene. Now compared to the other Marvel shows, this is easily the weakest of them all. I know I had issues with Jessica Jones, but at least she had the Purple Man to keep me engaged. Also, as I have said before, for being a show about martial arts, the fighting was absolutely no different than any of the other series (sans the 12th episode and one of Colleen's previous fights). Sadly though, this show lacked the atmosphere of DareDevil and the incredible camera work of Luke Cage. Also, the music was hit or miss. I love the Tron-sounding opening, but the best of the music barely ever seem to have presence to it. Lastly, compared to all of the current comic book shows, this is also one of the weakest with perhaps only Agents of Shield and Legends of Tomorrow being lower than it. Although, I can't comment on Legion since I have no interest in wasting my time on an X-Men related show that doesn't even have any X-Men in it. In the end, I'm going to give Iron Fist a 7/10.
Legion is actually pretty good, reminds me a lot of Twin Peaks at times. Doesn't have X-men but it does have an X-men baddie Spoiler Shadow king So the X-men may show up later. They also heavily hint at David's father and who he might be. The next X-men series from Fox will apparently have actual X-men in it.
Dude we've all told you Legends gets great in season 2- stop being stubborn about it and give it a go
I'll get around to finishing season 2 after the season is over, but unless they start wearing costumes, I doubt it's that much better.
Finished the series the other day, I really binged it more then I was planning, 7 on the first day, the rest the next. I wanted it to sink in before I commented. Not as good as Daredevil or the first half of Luke Cage, but better then the second half of Luke Cage and all of Jessica Jones IMHO. At first I was annoyed that Danny was so de-powered and later so de-centered; I get that they want to have him grow over time and that whole angle even if I don't like it personally, which I think they did to add tension, but like the other series, the weight of the supporting cast really helped out. Perhaps by the time of the Defenders, he'll be closer to the calm comic book character that I'm more familiar with. Madam Gao continues to be my favorite character in the Netflix Marvelverse, I almost don't want them to spill her identity, I think I prefer not knowing. It's hard to really point at the series as I did have my own expectations, especially after the pilot I was expecting a combination of fish out of water (growing up in K'un Lun and then coming back to messy New York) and his having difficulty being Danny but fine being Iron Fist (in a reverse of the norm there), so when the show didn't go that direction and instead turned Danny into an inconsistent whiny brat, I was disappointed, but I got what they were doing and after a few episodes enjoyed it by the back half when the shades of gray were in full swing and eliminated all concepts of Good and Bad, which was a central theme to the series. I really liked that to, playing on expectations and then making you see the character in multiple different lights. With the first two episodes, it seems like Ward Spoiler is the bad guy, then you feel like he's an Edsel Ford archetype, then maybe he's just a "Bank" bad guy; that business man who cares about money and the company rather then people, then someone scared of his immortal and crazy dad and what he'll do to his sister, and so forth, that constant changing really enriched the series and that it wasn't just isolated to him. It also helps that while I'm familiar with Iron Fist, I'm not familiar with his enemies, so not knowing for sure who was who also fresh. Though I did see the Hand coming well beforehand, slight pun intended. It may be the hallmark of the series now, but I did enjoy all the connections as well to the prior series. I also wonder if this series had a smaller budget, there were several times it felt like it and it would explain some of the limited use of the Iron Fist. As a final note, I guess Faramir did take after his dad.
I watched the first two episodes, 9 & 10, and the last 30 minutes of final episode. It was boring. Cage was a slow burn but directed well which kept me interested. I was hoping the IF fight scenes would be on the level of DD or better. Yeah DD has superhuman senses but I thought IF would do some sweet Kung Fu. Maybe I missed it b/c I skipped a lot. The story and character are horrible. Too much flip flopping between wise monk and emo kid.
A few of the episodes are directed by competent action directors that worked on Daredevil and Game of Thrones. I think the problem is definitely the choreography or at least the choreography not mixing with the filming style. The camera work seems fine to me. I just checked out all the main stunt coordinator's credits on IMDB, and I didn't find a lot of martial arts heavy stunt work or even that many action movies in general.
