And it didn’t work. The fight scenes involving all four of them were nearly as bad as fight scenes featuring only Iron Fist.
I liked it just fine, but I wasn’t particularly impressed.
And it didn’t work. The fight scenes involving all four of them were nearly as bad as fight scenes featuring only Iron Fist.
I liked it just fine, but I wasn’t particularly impressed.
Totally disagree. I loved the fight scenes with all four of them. Very well choreographed.
Or the Russian mob from Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye. Who were hilarious but really, really malevolent at the same time. Bro.
One problem I’m having with the plot. It’s a big deal that Alexandra used the last of their magic resurrection juice to bring back Elektra. Which is fine… except, we just saw Iron Fist, where the Hand used it to bring back Harold Meachum, a guy they were already blackmailing into obedience and whom they knew to be fundamentally disloyal. It worked in Iron Fist because at the time, “bringing back dead people,” was just something the Hand could do. Now, we know that had to be the second to last dose they had, or very nearly so. Seems like whoever decided they should give their second-to-last dose of immortality drugs to the doughy American CEO made just as questionable a decision as Alexandra did in making the Black Sky.
Hell, I’ll bet all five of them were really starting to regret making that literal army of undead ninja mooks Daredevil fought in season 2 of his show.
Just binged it. Overall, I liked it, but it could have been better.
Specific points:
[ul]
[li] I really want Elektra’s coat. It is gorgeous.[/li][li] There were a lot of wasted opportunities with the sidekicks. They were brought all in a room and they stood around not talking to each other. And it wasn’t due to an active decision (e.g., I’m not going to talk because that might put _____ in more danger), they just passively didn’t bother to talk. Even the ones who know each other sat in their respective superhero corners and waited. All of these people have been shown in their own show to be engaged and active and boundary pushing, but you put them together and nothing? That was poorly done. When they finally did bother to say something to each other, it was too little, too late.[/li][list]
[li] Karen was far and away the worst and was truly awful every time she spoke to Matt. Actually, she was annoying every time she was on screen, but the talks with Matt were awful, not the time, not the place, and her points were stupid.[/li][li] I have no idea what Colleen’s deal is; this didn’t make me care.[/li][/ul]
[li] They needed a plot that had more even stakes; the ones they tried to give Luke & Jessica really weren’t enough, especially when compared to Matt & Danny’s.[/li][li] The pacing was rather uneven.[/li][li] They need to figure out how to make Iron Fist work, because right now the character really doesn’t.[/li][/list]
Just one problem?
I echo most people’s overall comments… fun, but not great.
Some specific thoughts:
(1) I was very confused by the portal that Danny (stupidly) opened. I was sure it was as portal to Kun-Lun. Only after the series ended did I realize that it was, I guess, just a sealed door around a dragon skeleton that was in fact under New York. Maybe?
(2) I wish they had done a slightly better job of coming up with some way for Jessica to hold her own against Hand leaders in hand-to-hand combat. She’s super-strong, sure, and maybe super-tough, but she just doesn’t have the lifetime of fighting training that everyone else in those brawls does. Some of the time she was holding a huge pipe and bashing people who were well out of sword range. But some of the time she was just in there somehow not getting stabbed.
(3) Luke capturing that black Hand guy was totally out of the blue, given that the last thing we saw, Luke had gotten hit by a truck. And then when you do capture one of the five leaders of a millenium-old criminal conspiracy with incredible reach, how about doing something more secure than just tying him to a chair with ropes? I mean, it seems cruel, but how about breaking his arms and legs? Or worse? Or at least CHAINING him to a chair for god’s sake?
(4) We know this show supposedly takes place in the shared Marvel universe. Seems like someone should at least mention the idea that, if the entire city of New York is threatened by magic, then maybe the Avengers might want to be on the job? Maybe a throwaway line establishing that this is right during the events of Winter Soldier so no one knows who to trust, or something?
If New York is threatened by magic it’s actually probably Dr. Strange you want… but I don’t think any of these Defenders have met him (he was part of the comic book Defenders). Maybe this is during the time Strange is still off in the Himalayas getting trained or doing his bargaining with Dormamu.
I’m actually giggling like an idiot at the idea of an entire secret ninja society – with its vast corporate wealth and its eerie life-prolonging techniques – getting taken apart by a smirking Paul Rudd, who cheerfully got in and got out without any of the bad guys seeing him or even suspecting the guy was there.
I was pretty pissed that Madame Gao was dealt with so easily and that she was demoted to Weaver’s flunky. She’s been the best part of the whole Marvel-TVverse and was just a second banana.
I’m finding myself annoyed that I caught the color scheme thing. Only an ep and a half in yet, so I might change opinions.
An outsider’s perspective.
NOTE: I don’t read comic books. I don’t know who any of these characters are, save Daredevil. I haven’t watched any of their individual series.
I quite enjoyed the binge watch. I’d agree that the dim lighting was annoying. So I didn’t/don’t care about Madame Gao. I don’t care about Luke’s previous relationships. The writing was good enough that I was able to infer bits and pieces. I liked that they didn’t jump right in with the flashy stuff.
I just started the Luke Cage series (4 episodes in). I like it too. It is a bit slower. But I like that it is moodier. The “establishing” story was tedious. I understand the need/desire for it, but I could’ve been just as happy never knowing.
Anyway, my 2 cents.
How many ancient mystical training camps are there in the Himalayas? Do they have an exchange program? Perhaps a sports league? Do people stumble into the wrong one and how long does it take them to figure out they’re in Kamar-Taj rather than K’un-L’un?
You can just use the Wi-Fi password; they’re not savages.
Well obviously if you want training in the mystic arts and you find yourself under the tutelage of warrior monks you’re in the dojo instead of the library of magic books you’ve taken a wrong turn. Likewise, if you want to learn hand-to-hand melee combat and find you’re being trained for distance damage-dealing and pew-pew you’re in the wrong school.
Clearly they’re two different schools for different purposes. You don’t go to the library looking for the elliptical trainer and bench press, and you don’t go to the gym and ask for the book of spells for opening portals.
They’re actually two very different sorts of training camps.
This was one part of the plot where the characters had to just forget to think. They have this big discussion over whether the Iron Fist is a weapon or a key… all the while forgetting that you can open a door just fine with the right kind of weapon!
Another thing that wasn’t clear was exactly what showed up as a result of the earthquake. There was a prominent shot of something burrowing along, tearing its way towards Midland Circle. And then the bad guys were all “oh shit, it’s trapped, we’ll need the Iron Fist to get it out!” but by the end of the series the bad guys were after mystical healing juice that comes from the bones of long-dead dragons. So what was the thing that did the burrowing?
Jessica Jones impressed me the most, not with her fighting (“Am I the only one who doesn’t know kung fu?”) but with her old school research! Gal can hit a mean book, I tell you what.
The more I think about this, the more it cracks me up: Strange wound up at a monastery where he got the hang of forcefields and teleportation and turning back time, and he got a sweet ‘magic carpet’ cloak that can fly him around or wrap up his enemies while he’s doing some astral projection – and, since Danny Rand was one monastery over, he’s basically Charlie Brown saying “I got a rock.”
The heroes’ chemistry was good, but the villains sucked and the plot doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny. But it was a fun romp. Now that I’ve watched it, I am more interested in how it sets up the rest of the Marvel/Netflix universe. Here’s what I would do:
Obviously, Matt Murdock couldn’t die because Daredevil Season 3 had already been announced. The final shot apparently is reminiscent of a comic storyline called Born Again involving Murdock’s mom. His supposed death lets Karen Page move over to the Punisher series, but I hope she comes back, as she was important in the Born Again comic book storyline, if they want to be faithful to it.
I really liked Jessica Jones. I also really liked Luke Cage until they killed off Cottonmouth. After one more season of each, I hope they combine the shows though. As good as Luke and Clare are together, Luke and Jessica is canon and I ship them. I loved the cup of coffee line at the end.
Instead of Iron Fist Season 2, I wish they would just give us Daughters of the Dragon Season 1. I loved it when Misty lost her arm because that means she gets her bionic arm just like the comics, although from Rand now, not Stark. Finn Jones is okay in small does as a support character, but he can’t carry his own show. Make Clare a third Daughter, then have Danny jump from show to show like Clare did. He can provide monetary support and occasionally his fist.
“She’s hurt! We’d better get her to the police station.”
My favorite exchange:
Danny: “There was a dragon…”
Luke: “No there wasn’t!”