Iron Fist TV Series Review Megathread

The embargo has been lifted and reviews are steadily coming in. If any more reviews land, let me know and I'll include them.

Metacritic: 33/100

Rotten Tomatoes: 0%, 8 Reviews Counted

Written Reviews:

Iron Fist isn't just racially uncomfortable, it's also a boring show - Verge

Gamespot liked it: 5 Reasons You Should Watch Marvel's Iron Fist

Iron Fist: a second-rate Daredevil that matches the low expectations - Radio Times

It’s safe to say that, based on the first six episodes of “Iron Fist”, the series delivers a knock-out punch of chi-powered action, (and music) scoring another hit for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. - Kung Fu Kingdom

When you pour water into a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water into a toilet bowl, it becomes the toilet, and you need to flush. 6/10 Geekculture

“Marvel’s Iron Fist” is deadly — in all the wrong ways. - Variety

Instead of badass martial arts, ‘Iron Fist’ is mostly about corporate drama - Dailydot

Marvel's Iron Fist is a show that starts somewhat on the rough side. It has trouble finding its vision and footing. The show definitely picks up later on in the first half for the first season and does appear to be getting quite stronger. - 411mania

Iron Fist doesn't pack as much of a punch as comics fans might like. - IGN

Limp ‘Iron Fist’ Is The First Complete Misfire Of Netflix’s Marvel Shows - Uproxx

Marvel’s ‘Iron Fist’ puts up a fight, but may be ‘The Defenders’ weakest link - DigitalTrends

Marvel fanatics will relish another addition to the growing Netflix canon but should be forewarned of the diminishing returns inherent in the fun but subpar Iron Fist. - WeGotThisCovered

Marvel breaks winning Netflix streak with Iron Fist - Polygon

After the successes of 'Daredevil,' 'Jessica Jones' and 'Luke Cage,' Marvel and Netflix have their first big misstep. - HollywoodReporter

A Hero And Show In An Identity Crisis - HeroicHollywood

Too grounded to punch out of the Marvel mold - Cnet

Marvel's final piece to the Defenders puzzle falls into place, even if it takes some time to find its inner chi. 3,5/5 - TheReelBits

The Final Defender Arrives - MarvelReport

'Iron Fist' is a fine addition to the Marvel universe but suffers from its white lead - BusinessInsider

Come for the Fights, Stay…for the Corporate Litigation? - Collider

Where’s the Action? - Koalition

‘Iron Fist’ Is Marvel First Real Netflix Misfire - CutPrintFilm

Iron Fist is not actually very good. - Hypeable

Marvel's Iron Fist Netflix series takes longer to get going than its predecessors. Maybe a little too long. - DenofGeek

A Solid Entry Into Marvel's Line-Up Of DEFENDERS - ComicBookMovie

Iron Fist is waiting for the spark to ignite. 3/5 - Nerdist

Jessica Henwick & Rosario Dawson Are Real Muscle In Marvel Series - Deadline

Hmmm. I would rather watch and judge for myself

Its a pity that Iron Fist fell short of other people's expectations. They probably would have been better off making a series about Shang-Chi. The Netflix Marvel series should have been dedicated to Marvel characters who are more grounded and wouldn't require too much CGI or team ups. I probably would have done Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Punisher, Shang-Chi and maybe Iron Fist. By having Daredevil isolated with Netflix, we won't ever see a team up with Daredevil and Spider-Man.

thats a shame, Iron Fist is the one I want to like the most

That's a shame but at least it's too late to ruin the hype for The Defenders. I think everyone will still be excited for that and Iron Fist himself should look a bit better with the other characters to interact with.

The first crack in the Defender series in the MCU

and offensive mess

I really hope this isn't just blow back because Danny wasn't portrayed by an Asian actor, if it is that is some super petty bs.

• I,m going to start trusting my intuition on trailers a little bit more.
• Because i knew(Based on the trailers)...That Luke Cage and Daredevil were going to be brilliant.
• But i also knew from the trailers: That something looked very off about the tone of Iron Fist, nothing jumped out to me it looked way too plain and boring....I was expecting this very gritty/humors criminal underworld Chinatown vibe...Mixed with a very back door Oriental mystical magic vibe similar to the Doctor Strange film.
• Ill still check it out..But i expect to be very disappointed.

So long as Finn Jones gives a good performance and the character himself isn't the reason the show is bad, I think The Defenders should be fine.

If the character is just really bad and Jones isn't good, then yeah, it will affect Defenders hype as people won't want a second serving of a character they didn't like.

@Feartheliving: I was wondering the same thing

If this TV series had a tone similair to the Doctor Strange film, that would've been awesome.

One thing to note with this! Press only gets the first 7 episodes to review, which definitely effects scores. I'm not sure Daredevil season 2 would have the same positive numbers it has if the full season was reviewed, for example. Might even be arguable for Luke Cage as well, though I personally felt like that was still great after the first half of the season.

That being said, I won't be surprised if this show gets around a 7/10 on average (or less) from critics. I'm still hyped for it and plan on binging day one, but there's a lot of stuff that has to be addressed with Iron Fist to make this story and character stand out. People have already pointed out how similar the origin stuff is to typical superhero tropes. Kid loses his parents, gets trained by someone/some people, returns to his city to be a hero. It's Batman, Green Arrow, etc. in a nutshell. One of the reviews points out that Finn Jones might be miscast due to lacking the personality to play Danny and add emotional resonance needed in his performance to make the character as strong and layered as the other three Netflix heroes are, and also says he never comes off quite right for the action, which is actually something I wondered when they cast him. Charlie Cox seemed like a weird choice for Daredevil but you can't deny the guy got into shape for the role and even got into better shape for season 2. Maybe Finn didn't have enough time to get right for Iron Fist, but he looks so...not like anyone would expect a person who spent their life training and basically becoming a quintessential kung fu fighter should look.

I'm sure the politically correct SJW argument will come up regarding this since it's already coming up in reviews, and that's a messy, complicated thing to touch on. For what it's worth based on what I'm reading, it definitely sounds like an Asian actor playing Danny Rand wouldn't have made a big difference if the pace and writing stuff was the same.

@brucerogers: Especially when you have that right in the middle of your review...all the while saying it in the review as well.

@Feartheliving: Jesus,smh

Early reviews were saying that Luke Cage was the best of the Netflix shows so far, let's wait for the show to come out.

I fear a lot of this is just salt because he's white to be honest, Iron Fist is one of my favourite characters so I've been following this for ages and it seems like there's always some article saying why he should be Asian-American and complaining about the show, then with the recent Twitter controversy, I pretty much knew this was coming. Maybe the show will suck, I'll be the first one to complain if it does, but this show was gonna be the victim of SJW/PC groupthink no matter what.

Also, the Reel Bits was actually 3.5/5.

The review complains about mansplaining, cultural appropriation and all that jazz. So yeah.

@rogueshadow:

Also, the Reel Bits was actually 3.5/5.

Thanks for letting me know. I'll be sure to edit it before people accuse me of being paid off by CW.

Added another review.

But hes always been white in the comics..What exactly is their point?

@jumpstart55: Nothing, they just want something to complain about.

@jumpstart55: Comics are racist. Your socks are racist. Your left testicle is racist.

• Oh i see their just cherry picking elements out of the orginal story that go against their left wing ideologies.
• You gotta love Sjws..lol

Yahoo review:

"Why couldn’t Henwick be the star of “Iron Fist”? Or another actor of Asian descent?"

This is doing my head in, it makes me question the validity of the entire review.

Added another review.

Holy shit, this show sounds worst than I thought.

From the polygon review, very minor spoilers:

That's just laughable.

I find it strange that you only pulled up negative reviews not a single good review. I'm guessing your not on board with iron fist then.

Point me to a good review and I'll add it.

Damn, although 3.5/5 ain't bad even if the reviews are correct.

@theamazingspidey:And just before that again we have.

Sure, this is a show where a white male character explains how to punch to an Asian-American, female head of her own dojo, in her own dojo — wait, let me be painfully specific. A white male character explains his martial art — which was made up by white men in the 1970s as a nonspecifically Asian but definitionally more powerful technique than those invented by actual Asian cultures — to an Asian-American, female expert in actual martial arts developed by actual Asian cultures.

At this point just gonna have to see it for myself not expecting the greatest story ever told because it is mainly focusing on Danny's origin which like reviewers have said isn't exactly an original thing when you have had Batman, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, and Arrow touch on aspects but I can't say I'm having a ton of faith in these reviewers who can only see color or the lack of color when it comes to the main character.

Ethnicity doesn't change the fact that advancing the story by having a hobo come up to the main character and say "here, have this phone I just stole" is lazy.

I can't help but feel that a lot of this stuff is being relayed through a lens of extreme bias. I'd have to imagine that there will be more context to it. I can't picture them writing a homeless guy just randomly walking up to him in the street and asking if he wants to use Google, he may have already spoken to the hobo in an earlier scene/episode and/or be living in a homeless community because he has nowhere to stay, in which case a hobo offering him a phone to use Google with when he's asking questions isn't dumb at all really.

True. I mean, if I read reviews that said "Batman and Superman become friends because their mothers have the same name" I would've believed 'em, but seeing it for myself, there's more to it than that. Either way, pretty lazy way of advancing the story if this guy is just a plot device.

@theamazingspidey: I didn't say it did, in fact I believe I said I'd watch the show and see for myself. I'm pointing out the clear race agenda a lot of these reviews seem to share that focus more on the color of the skin of the lead character then the actual context of the scenes, tone, and dialogue. They'll go into vague non descripts when speaking on the quality of the show but go into detail about a scene again taken out of context just to tell us about a white male showing an asian woman how to punch?

Again maybe it's all completely justified not saying it's not just pointing out the common theme these reviews share.

In that case, sorry for misinterpreting your comment and I agree! I don't get why these reviews just don't keep their goddamn bias out of the review. It makes the review less reliable when it's headlined with "IRON FIST ISN'T JUST RACIALLY OFFENSIVE!"

@theamazingspideyOut of curiosity, Are these reviews from people who have watched the whole series? or just the first say 2-3 episodes? I was really hoping it'd be good after i was let down by luke cage.

First six episodes :)

Is this for the first episode only or the whole series?

6 episodes (Except the IGN one, which is only first episode).

Added Uproxx review.

Trailer looked pretty lame. Almost like one of the DC CW shows.

But I cant really trust reviews for this show. They have that stupid bias for it being another "WHITE MALE" show/movie.

~MiB

Did they not watch Luke Cage? Completely prepared me for not liking iron fist if that happens

As for the review site that says "the first break of marvel netflix" i beg to differ . I watched Luke Cage and didn't think it was nearly as good as Jessica Jones. I thought it was a little bit disjointed. The first half of the season was ok with Cottonmouth but it really went off the rails with the Diamondback storyline. Why not just do one season with one bad guy?

If you had me to rank them it'd be like this DD>JJ>LUKE CAGE

Same. All these reviewers saying "Marvel's first misstep." I thought Luke Cage was a misstep.

I also agree with your ranking. Daredevil is honestly the only one I've loved.

Incidentally, is there some kind of contract that has them do 13 episodes per season ? why they don't just keep them around 8-10 ?

for instance, Luke Cage starts ok, then nothing happens for like 6 episodes. Then there's a rap song and they rush the villain. I don't understand why they drag this show out to thirteen episodes when they only had enough content for 5-10 tops.

So I'm usually not the one to bring this up, but after seeing all the mess that took place on twitter the other night, I think some of these reviews might have to do with people throwing in their own PC bias. I'll decide on my own, but I have a feeling it's pretty good.

I think Netflix had it all planned out from day one and by the time they realised they need less than 13 episodes to tell a story, it was too late.

The Defenders will only be 8 episodes, though.

Insider:

"Iron Fist is a fine addition to the Marvel universe but suffers from its white lead"

Imagine this:

"Luke Cage is a fine addition to the Marvel universe but suffers from a black lead"

"Daredevil is a fine addition to the Marvel universe but suffers from a disabled lead"

"Jessica Jones is a fine addition to the Marvel universe but suffers from a female lead"

I am and I can already picture the kaka storm. I had a bad feeling that people will be a tad unfair thanks to them being butthurt by casting choices