Amph Marvel's Iron Fist

I attended the Iron Fist panel at SDCC late, so I didn't see Jeph Loeb doing that thing posted above.

However, I did see a good amount of footage and what I saw was a lot of "kung fu fighting. those kicks were fast as lightning. In fact it was a little bit frightening, but they fought with expert timing."

Seriously though, Finn Jones vastly improves his martial skills/performance from season one as there's this scene where...

Spoiler

Danny Rand and Davos (IIRC) are both dressed up in the Iron Fist costume, with the IF mask and all, challenging each other in a duel of fists in a throne like room in front of the elders in K'un-L'un for the right to fight the dragon in the cave and claim the mantle of the Iron Fist.

The fight choreography is up there or better than Daredevil, and it's very visceral and tense.

Additionally, the panel revealed the character played by Alice Eve, which is...

Spoiler

Typhoid Mary, and she can fight too. IIRC, the Daughter of the Dragons, Colleen Wing and Misty Knight track down Typhoid Mary and a fight breaks out. Or something like that. I do remember a verbal confrontation between the characters in (what appeared to be) a hotel room or perhaps office.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty exciting, especially in comparison to the boardroom meetings in season one.


And there was another scene that showed at the panel that takes place in a nightclub, (I'm thinking somewhere in Asia) and...

Spoiler

It's Davos, aka The Steel Serpent, and he throws down in the nightclub and the scene ends with his fist glowing,

and I was like as I'm not at all familiar with the source material.

 

Yes, Yes, Yes!

Spoiler

Davos whole thing is that he believes that the Iron Fist is his, not Danny's and he has succeeded in stealing it a couple of times and getting a power that's copies the Iron Fist some other times in the comic

 

IIRC...

Spoiler

Davos' fist was glowing red or an orange-red. It was definitely a different color from Danny's glowing fist.

I should mention, Danny Rand appears in the second half of season two of Luke Cage and his brief martial arts performance is good there and a really cool team up with Cage, which pick up from the meeting in The Defenders. However, like the other season twos of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, there appears to be no influences from The Defenders. Also, season two of Luke Cage lays additional foundation for Colleen and Misty. So, I'd watch those episodes from Luke Cage season two.

 

I think Missy straight up missing an arm in Luke Cage Season 2 is a pretty big deal influence from Defenders, esp if one just went from Luke Cage season 1 to Season 2. Jessica was tangentally related to what happened in Defenders so no big influence on her. both Iron Fist and Daredevil Season 3 pretty much have to reference it as well, big impact on their shows.

 

Yeah, Misty's missing arm is definitely something that occurred in The Defenders. But what I meant was that The Defenders didn't have much of any ripple effects on Luke Cage the character or the plot.

 

Another step in the right direction for season two...

Iron Fist Season 2 Confirmed to Be 10 Episodes, Instead of 13

 

This new trailer is so woke. #IronFistSoWoke

 

I find it really difficult to adjust to Davos being relatively small and skinny, whereas in the comics he is larger and more muscular than Danny. But as a long-time Iron Fist fan I'll be watching it regardless of any qualms I have about the adaptation.

As far as martial arts TV series go, recently I watched the first half of Into the Badlands season 3 and I felt that show had really come together - not just the martial arts of the actors, but the art direction as well. It has set a high bar which other shows in the genre will find hard to clear.

 

That is more like it.

 

Iron Fist season 2 "Epic Fight Sequences" featurette:


It looks like they've put a lot more work into the fights for s2. Thankfully.

It is a little painful to see Finn Jones and Jessica Henwick trying to put across that this time the fights won't be so disappointing without actually saying that everyone thought s1's fights were crap. They've got this "please don't hate us, we're under contract" vibe to their interview snippets.

Anyway, as an Iron Fist fan I'm looking forward to this. Fingers crossed.

 

Just starting season 2 tonight, and one episode in, it's pretty solid! Much improved over last season (which I didn't even hate as much as most people). It's more "fun," and the writers seem to be taking themselves less seriously. Danny and Colleen have better chemistry too. Love the sinister dynamic between Joy and Davos as well.

Though I'm actually really confused about Joy's motivations here. (I'll put it in spoiler tags just in case even though it's more of a late season 1 spoiler than anything else.)

Spoiler

Granted my memory of all that happened in season 1 is sketchy, but why exactly does Joy want Danny dead? I mean, she and Danny seemed pretty tight in season 1. Does she blame him for her father's death? For her falling out with her brother? Both of those reasons seem pretty daft. I don't know--maybe someone with better recollection can help jog my memory as to why Joy would now say, "I want to rip everything from him just like he did to me." What did Danny rip away from Joy?

 

watched the 1st ep of season 2 and I liked it but I may not be a good source because I didn't have this undying, eternal rage about Iron Fist that other people did. I had to google who the angry karate guy was cuz I had him confused with the other angry karate guy from Iron Fist who I thought was dead. But the 1st ep is definitely watchable with some great stuff like the opening scene, Ward bringing Cronuts, the restaurant / kitchen fight, Coleen talking about her Hand dinners, the swelling of the music in the end as Iron Fist Iron Fists the bejesus out of a metal door like Rocky training with a slab of meat.

As for Joy, I think she just got ran around a lot by Ward, Danny and her father last season so she's basically taking it out on Danny. Karate Guy muttering angry things in her ear all day probably doesn't help much either.

 

You can tell they listened to the fans about getting away from the business meetings, boardroom, corporation stuff.

And despite that, still managed to include Joy and Ward.

And

Spoiler

If you see the last 10 minutes of the season finale, you can see how they'll have Joy and Ward next season, without getting into any corporate shenanigans.

 

@Diggy - presented without comment.

 

So, the first three and a half episodes is pretty tough to get through as there's not really a hook or a identifiable plot or villain to be had. The characters are just going about their business, and stopping crime whenever the opportunity shows itself. At least Danny Rand isn't saying every other sentence that his purpose is to defeat the Hand and there aren't boring board room meetings. Danny is actually living the life of a normal person for the most part. Colleen Wing's character is pretty much "domesticated" as she hung up her katana and retired from street fighting in tournaments and being a vigilante, as well as quit being a martial arts instructor. She's doing community volunteer work. Other characters from season one like Ward and Joy appear and they're dealing with personal issues and therefore pretty messed up internally.

As far as the new characters, I can't remember if Davos appeared in Season One because I hate watched it and really didn't absorb much of it. Anyway, through the first few episodes of season two, he doesn't provide much spark or interest other than the flashbacks to K'un-Lun the battle for the right to challenge the dragon and claim the mantle of the Immortal Iron Fist. The give vague details about Davos' motivations and overall schemes. The other new character is Alice Eve's "Mary" which comes off as a weird and bizarre tourist that just arrived in New York. She's just comes in and out of scenes without really adding much to the story telling or plot. There are some introductions with some small timers teenage-like gang members, which reminded me of the "Foot" from the original live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The first three episodes is just pretty much a turf gang war between the Chinese gangs in Chinatown, that serve as fodder for Danny to go around punching. There's not much stakes or intensity, thus no hook for season two. However, by episode four things pick up nicely and the plot starts forming and characters motivations are revealed.

I'm up to episode five and can't wait to get from work later today and watch a few more episodes.

 

Finished off season two of Iron Fist over the weekend, and while it's an improvement over season one (which was a very low bar to step over), it still has a very long way to go to live up to Daredevil.

I still wouldn't call this a Kungfu type of series, but rather the typical Netflix way of doing their Marvel shows, which is on a budget of a nickel and a lot of filler time. So, the pace of the series slows down quite alot and there's no real hook. Davos is an okay TV antagonist, but he doesn't provide much in terms of stakes, drama or a compelling character. However, they tried with some certain flash backs and character development. And same goes with Alice Eve's character "Mary." They try to make her character interesting with a twist here and there and some insight to her background, but there's nothing in terms of the story or plot she really adds.

By the end of it all, I felt like season two was all about "righting the ship" and addressing some the problems in season one, which are the lack of kungfu ability by Danny Rand, him saying over and over his purpose is destroy the Hand, and the series being long and boring. It did address those issues, but it still failed to become anything remarkable or fun. A lot of the elements in the final couple of episode felt like they were setting up the ground work for season 3.

 

Only finished ep 2 but I think ep 2 goes a longgg way to establishing how/why Danny Rand got the title of Immortal Iron Fist. One ep with a few random flashbacks does it better than all of Season 1.

 

IIRC, it wasn't until like episode nine of season one where it was noted that the "Iron Fist" was a mantle given to the most worthy fighter, and we were given a glimpse of a previous Iron Fist from 1948. And that Iron First had two glowing fists.



I would rather have had a season of this 1948 Iron Fist than the modern one.

And I don't think this is a spoiler, so no tags, but there's not a scene where Danny fights the dragon (which was referred in season one and in The Defenders) in season two to claim the Iron Fist.

Anyway, I don't think season two paid off itself or the viewers very well.

 

Just finished Season 2. I think the show writers responded too receptively to the criticisms that Colleen needed a more prominent role in the show. Don't get me wrong, I think Colleen's character was easily the best part of Season 1, but I'm not entirely certain how I feel about how the entire thing pans out.

It was a little odd for me to take Davos as a serious threat to Danny seeing as how the former seems fairly small by comparison to the latter. Didn't really much care for the Ward and Joy drama, either. I'm not sure if any of us do? However, Joy was beyond redeemable and just awful, in my opinion. I think this season added some extra layers to her, but she still comes off as a bland extra character to me.

The constant references to Matt Murdoch made me increasingly giddy for Daredevil Season 3.

 

Well, I freaking loved this season, almost as much as I hated season 1. I thought the Typhoid Mary character was excellent, and I thought the use of an ensemble cast, rather than a focus on Danny, made everyone better for it. I thought they were able to add emotional stakes that were severely lacking in Season One. For instance

Spoiler

when BB was killed, it felt like an actual blow, with real emotion

. I loved every time Misty and Colleen teamed up (Night Wing! Yes!) and I would love to see those two clash heads with Danny and Luke in the future. I found myself actively rooting for Colleen as it went along, an emotional attachment missing from too many of the Marvel Netflix series recently.

I would rank the series so far as:

Jessica Jones Season 1
(razor thin margin)
Daredevil Season 1
(large gap)
Luke Cage Season 1
Luke Cage Season 2
Iron Fist Season 2
Daredevil Season 2
(small gap)
Jessica Jones Season 2
(enormous gap)
Defenders
(largest gap possible)
(double that gap)
Iron Fist Season 1


I started Punisher, but after three episodes it didn't hook me, so I never went back to it. I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

 

I'm glad to hear you really like season two of Iron Fist.

For me, I still think it suffered from some pacing issues and a strong character arc for Danny. In a lot of ways, I felt season two was designed to phase out Danny.

Alice Eve hopes to comeback for a season three and go full on Typhoid Mary costume.

“If your motivation is to seduce men and kill them, that is definitely a practical outfit,” Eve said in response to a picture showing Typhoid Mary’s scantily-clad comic book counterpart, who traditionally sports an outfit comprised of leather, fishnets, and bare skin.

"So I would like to take it definitely in that direction if she has a future, which I hope she does, and I loved playing her. I’d love to explore different sides of her and definitely explore her powers of seduction and how she uses them and manipulates situations to her advantage."​

As for season one of The Punisher, they wanted to give the character an origin story of sorts and a psuedo love interest, which is totally against his characterization in season two of Daredevil, which was beyond redemption or any need for an imitate relationship as Karen Paige learned. I would have preferred season one of The Punisher to pick up right where we last saw him in season two of Daredevil, where the Kingpin explains to Frank that he (Frank) is going to owe him one. I imagine a season of The Punisher vs. The Kingpin's reach and influence.

 

Watched a few days ago and loved it. Had no idea it was only 10 eps instead of 13 so when I got to Ep 10 ending bit I was like “holy hell these last 3 eps are gonna rock!”

Nope lol

 

Yes we just needed to see the Punisher actually punish people, instead of himself and the audience.