The Se7en Deadly Sins Of Iron Fist

First, let me start with the good of Marvel’s Iron Fist. The Colleen Wing character steals the show. The actress has more screen presence and better martial arts scenes than anyone on the show. But other than that, I felt that this is one of the worst superhero entries that I have ever seen – on par with likes of Batman and Robin and Batman v Superman. Disney/Marvel has proven that, they too, are not immune to producing a dud.

And without further ado, here are Iron Fist’s seven deadly sins.

1. Finn Jones is horrendous in the titular role (Danny Rand/Iron Fist). He is the most boring and least compelling “billionaire-turned-superhero” that I have ever seen on screen. By comparison, Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) on the CW is much more believable, and has much more screen presence than Jones in as Iron Fist. And that is a show that I am not crazy about. Aside from the Asian actor controversy (a entirely separate conversation), the casting of Finn Jones ultimately dooms the series.
2. The martial arts sequences are terrible, and it’s one of the consistent complaints from just about everyone who’s seen the show. Martial arts is supposed to be at the heart of Iron Fist. How do you get this wrong?! Over the years there have been so many movies and TV shows that have believable fight scenes-this is an inexcusable sin here. There are lots of swinging arms and weird, yoga-like poses, but not much else. You would think that they would just emulate the fight choreography of Daredevil-which is fabulous by the way.
3. The show seriously cheapens The Hand. Forget that these ninjas aren’t the true villains of the Iron Fist comics, but in the Daredevil series they at least capture the eerie, otherworldly aspect of this secretive group. In Iron Fist, one faction is depicted as a group of troubled street kids? And even worse, they’re supposed to make life difficult for Rand and Wing in a fight? C’mon man!
4. The ridiculous, PTSD-like trances that the “master of kung-fu” went through are beyond annoying. I think that the writers simply did this to add filler to the episodes. It is ridiculous that they included this in the script, and even worse, how poorly Jones acted in these scenes.
5. Aside from Colleen Wing and the lawyer Jeryn Hogarth to a lesser extent, the characters are annoying to me. They are all poorly acted and, at times, over-the-top. This is surprising considering that Claire Temple (aka Night Nurse) and Madame Gao are such solid, well-portrayed characters in the previous series. This suggests that this series was muddied by the writers and directors.
6. The soundtrack and opening sequence of the show are not cool. It is as if the director is trying to sabotage the show by making the music as bland and boring as possible. A catchy opening sequence/soundtrack is a prerequisite for any decent series in my humble opinion.
7. Was there a reason for him not to have a costume? The show needs all the help it can get, and they even got this potential fan service wrong.

I can list many more things that they should have done to make the series more watchable, but it would take more time than a short post.

In short, Netflix/Marvel blew a perfectly good and easy opportunity to make four consecutive hits leading up to The Defenders.