Iron Fist Throws Weak Jabs
The fourth and final show to complete this near-two-year lead-up to Defenders was Iron Fist, which debuted March 17, 2017. Netflix and Marvel collaborated together during the past two years, producing a group of shows that will lead into the Defenders, set to premiere this September. The first show to start was Daredevil, which premiered April 10, 2015. This was soon followed by Jessica Jones, which premiered Nov. 20, 2015. Luke Cage followed suite with a release Sept. 30, 2016.
Iron Fist follows the story of Danny Rand, who returns to New York after being missing (and presumed dead) for 15 years. He comes back to reclaim his birthright as the majority owner of a billion-dollar corporation. But when he comes home and finds out that his childhood friends Joy Meachum (Jessica Stroup) and Ward Meachum (Tom Pelphrey) are running the company, he realizes not everyone is happy to see him.
The performances are great. Finn Jones is great playing Danny Rand, Jessica Henwick gives a strong performance as love interest and sidekick Colleen Wing, and Rosario Dawson shines as Claire Temple, the only character to appear across all four series. Wai Ching Ho reprises her role from Daredevil as the psychologically manipulative villain Madam Gao. However, despite all these strong performances, they are wasted.
Iron Fist was a huge letdown compared to the three other Marvel/Netflix series. Whereas the other three shows featured standout antagonists, well-paced stories and engaging performances, Iron Fist lacks a legitimate villain and is cluttered with a boring story and poor character motivation and development.
The show presents four characters as villains throughout, and the main antagonist turns out to be the weakest character out of the four. The subplots are also uninteresting and prove to be very skippable scenes.
Meanwhile, Danny Rand as a character is just boring in ways the main characters in the other Netflix series were not. His reasons for returning to New York are vague and never fully explained despite there being 13 episodes in the season to do so. His dialogues with nearly all characters are awkward, lacking chemistry.
However, this show does some things well. The choreography and fight scenes are the most entertaining in the whole series. The series also establishes connections between all four Netflix shows and paints a clearer picture about what the conflict in Defenders will be.
Overall, Iron Fist is disappointing. The show misuses the villains, the main character fails to engage, and the story fails to incite interest. This show only leaves the audience anticipating Defenders which, hopefully, will get the bad taste out of their mouths. Iron Fist gets a five out of 10
