Watching a Marvel show on Netflix, and thinking about it objectively was a strange exercise for me. Having lived for Daredevil, and the timely adaptation that was Jessica Jones set my expectations of them fairly high. While Luke Cage did not initially grab me by the collar, whatever it lacked in originality, it more than made up for it with a cast of colorful characters, visual decisiveness, and clarity as it related to a sense of place and time.
To make a comparison between the two: It wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone watching who has been to Harlem anytime in the past 15 years, that the Harlem so central to Luke Cake hasn’t existed for a long time. The truth is, it hardly matters. Luke Cage knew what kind of show it wanted to be in fusing 70’s blaxploitation with more contemporary themes, and eventually, it worked because of that very fact.
All this to say, that for as much as it proudly wants to wear the cliches of its era, and play them against yet another urban backdrop, Iron Fist achieves no such transcendent feat. In fact, it doesn’t even come close. But let’s back this up for a second, because despite its (many) flaws, Iron Fist does have some solid, watchable moments here and there.
For instance, let’s address the matter of Danny Rand’s identity and legacy as the scion of a multibillion dollar empire.
Danny Rand’s return to society after 15 years of being presumed dead is treated by everyone in this story with the appropriate measure of skepticism, a move which I actually found quite refreshing. It grounded the show in a way that made all of the other more outlandish elements more believable, if nothing else.
As you may have heard, few weeks ago, when the show was partially made available to publications, Finn Jones, the actor who plays Danny Rand, responded to early criticism of the show by being all like:
I’m playing a white American billionaire superhero, at a time when the white American billionaire archetype is public enemy number one, especially in the US. We filmed the show way before Trump’s election, and I think it’s very interesting to see how that perception, now that Trump’s in power, how it makes it very difficult to root for someone coming from white privilege, when that archetype is public enemy number one.
Yeah, so…first of all, this rationale only works if you’ve never heard of this guy called Bruce Wayne, or skipped that plucky little show called Arrow. Second, even if Danny Rand’s privileged status was going to become a problem, it certainly wouldn’t be the worst problem this show has. But we’ll get to THAT in a second.
Still in the positive column is the appearance of Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing. Girlfriend is not only on point with her portrayal, but she flat out steals the show on several occasions. Like, what in the heck would you call this, if not absolute badassery?
[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pBR_sUCy9M”]
Speaking of the fight scenes, the Colleen Wing ones were sadly not the standard, but they become noticeably better choreographed in the later episodes. In particular, episode 8 (entitled The Blessing of Many Fractures) features an awesome “Drunken Kung Fu Master” interpretation of Zhou Cheng, a villain from the original comic. Zhou Cheng was played by Lewis Tan, and wow look out for him. In fact, I just learned recently that Tan was initially considered to play Danny Rand, instead of Finn Jones. Why the producers didn’t go with him in the end, is a true enigma, because he was damn cool, and would have fit the part perfectly.
This brings me to the most talked about part of Iron Fist. I wasn’t even going to bring this up, because it’s been droned on and on about by so many people, that it just seems like a cliche at this point. The problem is, and there’s really no way around it: Iron Fist would have been a whole lot more interesting if Danny Rand had been rewritten as an Asian-American character on a journey to reclaim his roots, and accordingly, had he been portrayed by an actor who could properly embody that story.
Having watched the series in its entirety, I would venture that had this particular issue been addressed, I would have been more inclined to overlook some of the show’s other flaws.
For instance, had Iron Fist been an actual person trying to get my attention, he could have been like: “Yo, we’re just going to try and lift the way Jessica Jones used color filters to aid the story, except…not focus on that story part. We don’t like that part.”
I would have said: “Aight.”
Then, Iron Fist could’ve said “Damn, we sure love that gritty cinematography going on in Daredevil. And those fight scenes, wow. We’ll try and replicate all that, but heads up, we’re probably not going to nail it. Like, not at all.”
Responding again, I would have said, “Yeah, I see you.”
Iron Fist could have even at that point been like, “Yeah, we’re even going to have RZA direct episode 6, because if you thought The Man with the Iron Fists was unfortunate, then–“
…I would not have stuck around for that entire sentence, and neither should you. But you see where I’m going in this.
If Iron Fist had just provided me with a main character I could be at least intrigued by, I might have been open to overlooking the poor decision that was casting Finn Jones as an action star, for instance. The scenes where Colleen Wing is supposedly struggling to match Danny Rand’s “superior” martial arts skills are pretty painful, and will make you reach for that fast forward button. In fact, he’s often the most unremarkable person on screen, leading me to wonder if Marvel intentionally had me watching Iron Fist reimagined in the spirit of Green Hornet.
In-between his lackluster fight scenes, Danny Rand as written also makes no sense as a character. I get that he has been gone for 15 years, but was he trained in an alternative monastery, where you get to learn martial arts while maintaining the temperament of a five-year-old? Now, I am no Kung Fu monk, but I really don’t think that’s how it works.
While in the earlier episodes Danny Rand struggles to reclaim the legacy left to him by his family, by the time time episode 7 or 8 roll around, it becomes clear that Danny Rand straight up gives no Fs about anything other than— well, I’m not 100% sure. It sure as hell isn’t the company his family founded, or even being the best Iron Fist he can be– not really. That’s a huge problem that late, for a season that spans 13 episodes.
In the end, Iron Fist serves its purpose, existing as the final link to form the chain that will bring us The Defenders later this year. Some of its most interesting moments (other than the ones featuring Jessica Henwick) are the ones that invite you to wonder how the events unfolding before you will fit into the larger story. And while Marvel has proven they can make that work, (Remember Thor: The Dark World? Me neither.) it’s hard not to see Iron Fist as anything but a missed opportunity.
Here’s hoping that whatever The Defenders has in store for us, it can transcend the sum of its parts.
