I was really looking forward to this adaptation. Iron Fist is a really tough super-hero. It's hard to not fall into cheese-wheels of cheesiness with the poses and the Buddhist quotes. The only way you can counter that is with Post-Bruce-Lee/Donnie-Yen era razor sharp choreographed fights.
When I saw the look of Danny Rand in the opening scenes, I was very hopeful. "They are going with understated eternal Nature Boy confronting and unsettling the superficial now", I thought. But Nature Boy turns out to be more clumsy and confused than confident in the Eternity of his wisdom. And apparently, Eternity means having a horrible memory (how many times do we have to see the plane crash flashback, for IATA's sake?! It's almost as bad as Bruce Wayne's Crime Alley schtick!). Finally, I was expecting some awesome fights to counterbalance this slippery cheesy slope (a.k.a. the Bruce Lee Mind Trick), and was rather disappointed. I saw nothing that could hold its own in a post-Bourne and post-Kill-Bill era. Daredevil of early first season packs more grit and grace in his jumps, flips and punches than Iron Fist...
I am going to continue watching this series, however— although not as hungrily as Daredevil. The reason? The ONLY reason? Tom Palphrey's performance. Even though Ward Meachum is one of the pettiest, lamest villains of the super-hero world, Tom Palphrey manages to make us understand where Ward is coming from (an emotionally abusive father—almost worse than a physically abusive one—and the twisted version of growing up in a rich and powerful family). Palphrey's Ward reminds us of all the times we surrender to the ugliness of the world instead of rising to the challenge. Iron Fist is supposed to be above all that. Unfortunately, in this version, he fails to impress.
When I saw the look of Danny Rand in the opening scenes, I was very hopeful. "They are going with understated eternal Nature Boy confronting and unsettling the superficial now", I thought. But Nature Boy turns out to be more clumsy and confused than confident in the Eternity of his wisdom. And apparently, Eternity means having a horrible memory (how many times do we have to see the plane crash flashback, for IATA's sake?! It's almost as bad as Bruce Wayne's Crime Alley schtick!). Finally, I was expecting some awesome fights to counterbalance this slippery cheesy slope (a.k.a. the Bruce Lee Mind Trick), and was rather disappointed. I saw nothing that could hold its own in a post-Bourne and post-Kill-Bill era. Daredevil of early first season packs more grit and grace in his jumps, flips and punches than Iron Fist...
I am going to continue watching this series, however— although not as hungrily as Daredevil. The reason? The ONLY reason? Tom Palphrey's performance. Even though Ward Meachum is one of the pettiest, lamest villains of the super-hero world, Tom Palphrey manages to make us understand where Ward is coming from (an emotionally abusive father—almost worse than a physically abusive one—and the twisted version of growing up in a rich and powerful family). Palphrey's Ward reminds us of all the times we surrender to the ugliness of the world instead of rising to the challenge. Iron Fist is supposed to be above all that. Unfortunately, in this version, he fails to impress.
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