The Man With The Iron Fists (2012)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie The Man With The Iron Fists (2012).

Dave Bautista was only reason, why I wanted to watch this movie. As I told in Riddick post, he will be in upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie. My goal is to write post about the comic before movie is released and write post about the movie, when it comes here. I am not sure, if it will get global release or do we have to wait for months after it comes here. Guardians of the Galaxy is only movie I am waiting this year. Fact, that I started this post talking about Guardians of the Galaxy, tells how interesting The Man with the Iron Fists is. It is fan film with professional production values.

RZA is better known for his music. This is first movie he wrote and directed. He is a fan of kung fu movies. He has earlier used kung fu movies as inspiration for his music. This is his own kung fu movie. It looks like kung fu movie. Characters and story are full of kung fu clichés. It doesn't sound like kung fu movie, because music is from RZA. And it doesn't feel like kung fu movie. I feels like fan movie for kung fu movies, which it actually is. Main problem is, characters are written to be cool. In real kung fu movie main characters are tragic, they are examples of what happens to you, when you try to rise above the rest, not something to aim for.  Heroes have tragic moments here too, but it is not as much of a character trait like in real kung fu movies.

Another big problem is, there is too much stuff included. Too many characters and too many fancy sets. It felt like RZA put everything he wanted to see in one movie. There are so many characters, that you don't always know who is who or which side they are on. And everyone is as cool as possible. For example out of our three heroes I expected only one to be hero until they ended up together. That could happen in good movie too, but in this every character is so paper-thin and cool, that you can't guess their motives. And their motives seem to change when ever movie needs cool action scene.

I didn't like how RZA became kung fu champion at the end. He didn't look like he could fight against Bautista. It felt more like he wanted to look tough fighter in movie he wrote and directed, than his character could fight against toughest fighter in movie. If he wanted to look like best fighter in movie, his fighting style should have been something else than boxing with iron fists.

Then to reason I watched this movie. it is hard to say anything about Bautista's acting. His role was to be strong, unstoppable Brass Body. His fighting scenes looked good. Considering action scenes, he will be perfect as Drax The Destroyer.

Back to this movie. I have told you things, that are wrong. It is much faster to tell what is right. Movie looks good. Actions scenes are interesting. Sometimes  fighters do stupid moves, but generally there is enough variance between different scenes. Movie doesn't try to make it look like they didn't use wires. That is how fighting scenes look like in kung fu movies. Genre fans may enjoy this. For others this is quite boring.

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