‘Iron Fist’ Review: Marvel’s New Show Needs To Focus Its Chi

Warning, this review contains spoilers for Marvel’s Iron Fist...

This past weekend, Marvel completed their final solo series of their Netflix “Defenders” Universe before “Phase 1” concludes with The Defenders with the show Iron Fist.  The show focuses on Danny Rand as the particular character, who returns back to New York City after a 15-year absence (in which he was presumed dead after a plane crash) to reclaim his father’s mega-conglomerate.  Danny also just happens to know kung-fu and is the “Immortal Iron Fist” a “Living Weapon” and in the Marvel world, that means we are in store for some more of the extraordinary.

The film has been plagued with controversy pretty much since its inception.  For one, it is the lease “street” level of the Defenders characters.  Daredevil was a man who gains superhuman sensory abilities as a result of an accident involving chemicals, yet he remains grounded not with any mystical powers.  Both Jessica Jones and Luke Cage contain heroes who have superhuman strength, yet again those powers via experiments.  Although not realistic in our world, completely realistic in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and even realistic in the grounded world build around the Netflix Marvel shows.  However, Iron Fist introduces alternate dimensions and dragons.  Given the nature of the what transpires in the comics, it would have been difficult for a more grounded adaptation of the original content, so fans paid attention closely.

The other thing is the 800-pound gorilla in the room: the decision to stick with comic book canon and keep Danny Rand as a white male.  In an era where many geek properties (Doctor Strange, Ghost in the Shell) are being criticized with “whitewashing,” here is a story that is not technically doing the same, but it “feels” like it is.  The comic was created in the 1970s when David Carradine’s Kung-Fu was very popular, and it followed the same theme of an “outsider” (white male) is raised in an Asian culture, who becomes “the master.”  Many fans thought that this was the right time to not only do some course correcting, but also give us an Asian superhero, as there aren’t many to begin with.  This is a double-edged sword though because, on one hand, it wouldn’t be staying true to the comics, which Marvel has prized itself on doing (unless you count Nick Fury and other examples), and yet looks “bad” optics-wise having a great white hero doing kung-fu against The Hand (the evil Asian cult we saw in Daredevil).  Either way, Marvel took a risk, so we shouldn’t really hold it against them for either decision they made.

Then the reviews came out for the first six episodes that were screened for critics came out, and it didn’t look too good for the TV show.  Many were calling the show an outright mess.  Many also cited Danny Rand being white, once again and unfair comparison, and a host of other things pointing to Iron Fist being a hot mess.  However, it was only six episodes out of a thirteen-episode season, so we had to see the whole thing and make our own minds to see if Iron Fist is good or bad.

So, after all the episodes were released on Netflix and we got the chance to digest them, how did Iron Fist go?  Not that bad.  Some of the criticism is valid, but some of it was just people piling on without the context of the original content.  Without a doubt, this is the weakest of all the Marvel/Netflix shows, but it is still better than a lot of stuff that Netflix (and TV in general) puts out for us to consume.  Let’s take a look at the show and measure up what worked and what didn’t.

Over the 13 episode season, we are introduced to Danny Rand as he comes back to New York City after spending his entire childhood in K'un-Lun, a mystical city that exists in another dimension.  At first, he is met with skepticism and he’s taken for a random hobo trying to capitalize on the sad story of his family’s plane crash.  It takes a few episodes, being committed to a psychiatric hospital, and him needing to prove to both Ward and Joy Meachum (childhood friends and now those in charge of his father’s company) but his identity is proven.  He also meets Colleen Wing, a young woman who owns her own dojo.  At first, he just needs a job working at her dojo, but he eventually forms a relationship with her and the two eventually become connected as they team up for his many adventures.

While being gone, Danny has become The Iron Fist.  The Iron Fist is a title given for those trained in K'un-Lun for the purpose of defending and destroying their enemy The Hand (the bad guys from Daredevil), who have faced a trail of defeating Shou-Lao the Undying, a dragon.  Once the Iron Fist defeats the dragon, he gains the ability to summon the Iron Fist, and can harness their chi and have the ability to turbocharge their fist and have superhuman abilities.  Throughout the show, he uses this power for both offensive (super punching a bunch of things and people) and defensive (healing poison, blocking bullets) purposes.  The Iron Fists’s purpose it to guard K'un-Lun from The Hand, only Danny has vacated his post to return back to Earth.

Danny’s father’s company, Rand, Inc. is involved with The Hand, as the group not only has operatives in the organization, but they also have partnered with the former CEO Harold, who is dead in the public eye but really is the man behind the curtain at the company and controlling his children who run the day to day operations of the company.  The Hand has been leveraging Harold as he was cancer-stricken and they used the same life-saving and resurrection abilities they did in Daredevil on him.  As a result, The Hand is able to peddle their drugs through Rand, Inc.’s corporate distribution networks.  Danny wants to put a stop to that, and other of Rand’s immoral business practices.

As Danny faces The Hand, he confronts both Madame Gao (the villainess from Daredevil) as well as Bakuto, the leader of a rival faction of The Hand.  While Colleen operates as his right hand throughout the series, he also teams up with Claire Temple (the Night Nurse and the “Nick Fury” of the Marvel/Netflix shows we have seen in all the other shows) as she gets involved in the activities, and his friend from K'un-Lun, Davos, who comes from the mystical city to help Danny out.  Towards the end of the show, Davos and Danny have a falling out, setting him up to be a major villain for future seasons.

Towards the end of the show, Danny takes on both factions of The Hand as well as Harold, who after his partnership with The Hand finally ends reveals himself as Danny’s true enemy and responsible for the death of his parents via plane crash as a means to gain control of Rand, Inc.  When completed, Danny attempts to return to his post as The Iron Fist, but is left with a disappointment.

What Worked?

The show overall had a strong story that kept you interested.  From Daredevil season two were started to learn about the mystery surrounding The Hand, the mysterious group of ninjas who Daredevil’s mentor Stick is at war with.  Iron Fist has them as the primary villains of the show and as a result, we get to learn a bit more about them.  While they are very much still a ninja cult, they are also heavy in the world of drug dealing, brand building, and corporate politics.  One of their Leaders, Madame Gao (returning from Daredevil) is active in Rand, Inc, Danny’s father’s company.  She uses Rand. Inc’s corporate hierarchy to ensure her heroic trade is top notch, and even has a series of beautiful corporate saleswomen selling her synthetic heroin to the business elite in New York City, as well as setting up warehouses and distribution through a warehouse owned by Rand, Inc.  As tech and business savvy as she is, she’s very old school.  We learn that she’s far older than she appears to be when Danny attempts to extract information from her when he captures her, she mentions that she was tortured in the 17th Century and they didn’t get any information from her.  Although she appears as a frail old woman, she is able to through Danny Rant against a wall without even touching him, the simple flick of her wrist was enough to telekinetically throw him forcefully across a room.  She is also a citizen of the mystical city of K'un-Lun as well.  She even asks Danny Rand why he would leave “Heaven.”  The average fans watch and think, “Oh K'un-Lun must be a nice place if they call it “Heaven.””  No, it’s real name is “Heaven.”  K'un-Lun is just one of seven Capital Cities of Heaven and it’s only available on this Earthly plans every 15 years (well, 88 years in the comic).

The Hand is also a diverse brand.  There are different factions within the group and not monolithic.  This season on Iron Fist, we are introduced to Bakuto, and learn that he has a major beef with Madame Gao’s faction of The Hand.  Bakuto also is in the business of expansion as he recruits wayward youths, trains them in fighting, and also helps put them in positions of power as some of the kids in Colleen’s Dojo get jobs in government or get placed in good colleges.  They help break down and build up young promising warriors and then give them, even more, skills to utilize for their own Nefarious means.  They even have their own campus that Danny visits later on in the show.  Expect them to be even more explored in The Defenders.

Colleen Wing is a welcome addition to to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Comic fans know that she and Luke Cage’s Misty Knight team up to become their own group, the Daughters of the Dragon.  Just like Misty Knight was the standout in Luke Cage, Colleen Wing is the standout in Iron Fist.  Her character probably has one of the best arcs throughout the 13-episode run of the show.  While we find out that she is actually the “enemy” and a member of Bakuto’s faction of The Hand, her relationship with Danny has her choose him over her group.  Even though they are sworn enemies and her group was at first using him for their own means, she comes to fall for him and even goes to betray Bakuto and side with Danny.  Actress Jessica Henwick is giving her all for the role and it shows.  Her fight scenes also work well (given that some of the criticism of the show was that the fight scenes weren’t as well choreographed as other Marvel/Netflix shows like Daredevil or Luke Cage were), especially when she does some cage fighting early on, and when she does some sword fighting in China and later on in her fight against Bakuto.  It’s already been announced that she and Misty will both appear in The Defenders, so that will be great and hopefully the beginnings of their superhero team will ferment.  It’s going to be weird, though, as in the comics, Misty and Danny are a couple and Colleen and Danny slept together on the show.

While all of the corporate shenanigans on the show didn’t work, another supporting character that ended up working well on Iron Fist was Ward Meachum.  At first, he’s a major douche.  He doesn’t buy that Danny has returned from the dead and the person who returns is an imposter.  He convinces his sister to drug Danny and then commits him into a mental hospital.  He also is holding the secret that his father Harold, who was assumed to have died of cancer, is still alive and still really in charge of Rand, Inc.  His father is manipulative and not only controls his son (to control the company the Meachum siblings are supposedly running) but his father is also a terrible parent and constantly belittles his son.  As the series progresses, he also goes through an arc from villain to hero and ends up working with Danny on stopping both Harold and The Hand.

The introduction of Davos continues the “brother-turned-villain” troupe that Marvel did with Doctor Strange as a means of providing origin stories for bad guys.  Davis is Steel Serpent in the comics, a native of K'un-Lun who failed the Iron Fist test and had a built-up animosity of Danny Rand.  However, on the show, he and Danny were friends and Danny simply became the Iron Fist by passing the trials.  Davos and he remained friends, so much that Davos went to Earth to make sure he was OK and fought The Hand with him.  However, it’s Danny’s unwillingness to return to K'un-Lun and fight The Hand turns Davos against him.  Like Mordo did in Doctor Strange, Davos turns on his friend because Danny is not being “pure,” and therefore they are enemies.

What Didn’t Work?

The fight scenes early on in the show were very much a miss.  They improved as the season progressed, but this is a show about the Iron Fist, the immortal weapon and one of Marvel’s best fighters.  This show should have had top-notch fighting and choreography.  Daredevil already showed that these shows can deliver bone-crunching, well-done fights.  Hell, Arrow does it on a weekly basis.  Into the Badlands rivals most Hollywood blockbusters in regards to their fight choreography.  It’s inexcusable that Iron Fist’s fight scene look like they were rehearsing their fight scenes, and it’s the final product.  It’s clear they did not have much preparation for these fight scenes early on as they were sleepwalking through the fights.  It’s clear in the first episode as the fight scenes were downright laughable.  As the show progressed, it’s clear they put more time and effort into the final product, but for future seasons, they need to use the stunt work from Daredevil or from Into the Badlands instead of whoever they currently have.  They also need to give Danny a costume.  Part of what makes Daredevil’s stunts work is that their hero is wearing a mask, helping to “mask” a stuntman doing the fighting.  Simply putting a blond wig on the stuntman isn’t going to cut it.  They need to give him his traditional Iron Fist costume, complete with his mask to help make the fight scene more believable.

The show tended to focus a little more than they should have on the corporate world.  While it was fine when it was about showing Danny Rand adjusting to the world of corporate politics after returning from training in kung-fu in K'un-Lun and showing how it is a completely different world than he was used to, they also showed a lot of the corporate world without him in it.  The show is supposed to be about Danny and not the mechanisms of Rand, Inc.  Danny using his majority stake in stopping price gouging was good, the other mechanizations of the Executive Board and Joy and Ward Meachum were time-consuming and overall did not do anything to advance the plot.  This might have been done to help pad out the time for the show (it shouldn’t have been 13 episodes as most Netflix shows run too long already), but that’s when it was at its most boring.

Speaking of boring, the show took too long with the “is he really Danny Rand” arc.  We the audience knew he was, and sending him to a mental institution and having hearings for Danny to prove his identity were also time-consuming.  It took three episodes for that to happen and it really should have taken only one, maybe two max for that to happen.

The cardinal sin of the show was the lead character and the writing surrounding him.  Finn Jones has done a good job on Game of Thrones, so we probably can’t blame him 100%.  However, he just felt dull.  His motivations for leaving K'un-Lun (seeing a hawk fly) was weak, as was his wishy-washy attitude.  One moment he’s the master, lecturing Colleen and her students in kung-fu, and later on, Davos says what we all were thinking “you’re the worst Iron Fist ever!”  Danny is one of the few characters in the show that didn’t have any character growth.  Colleen, Claire, and Ward all went through some changes as the show progressed.  Danny seems to just “be there” most of the time.  The show is supposed to revolve around his character, he should be the one who has some sort of growth if anyone does.

I still can’t forgive not showing Shou-Lao the Undying.  Game of Thrones gives us dragons, there’s no excuse for not showing the full dragon (not just his eyes)!

In conclusion, it’s not a complete miss.  The show gave us a wide range of Easter Eggs for the MCU.  Name dropping other Defenders characters was a welcome touch.  The show also serves as a great teeing up for us to get ready for The Defenders as we know Danny will be in it, as will The Hand.  It’s still more than a placeholder for us before the big dance with The Defenders comes later on this year.  The hope is that the show will rebound from its failures and produce a solid second season (given Netflix’s willingness for multiple seasons of their original shows, there most certainly be a second season) that delves deeper into K'un-Lun, Danny’s history there, and further goes into his relationship with Davos, the soon to be new bad guy.  While there were some problems, Iron Fist still works on many levels.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Read More

‘Iron Fist’ Season 2 Review: Marvel’s FINALLY Kung-Fu Fighting!!

Marvel and Netflix’s partnership was mostly been a successful one.  With such “street-level” shows like Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones, it made sense.  While in the comics, those characters have been known to make various Avengers-type of appearances, they were mostly grounded to New York City.  However, when it was announced that Iron Fist was going to be the fourth Defender, that immediately raised some concerns.  First off, Iron Fist is more mystical than street-level, he has a glowing fist and fought a dragon in a city that is only available on our dimensional plan every 88 years (or 10 depending on what comic you are reading), doesn’t really mesh theme-wise with the other shows right?  However, we all bit our tongue and waiting to see how Marvel and Netflix would continue catching lighting in a bottle.  Secondly, the casting of Finn Jones made some fans vexed that (while staying true to the comic) the best fighter in the world was a white guy instead of an Asian one and considered it a missed opportunity.  Still, we held our tongue and awaited the final product.  Unfortunately, it was a colossal mess.  The plot didn’t make sense, Finn Jones’ acting was wooden, and the fight scenes were downright laughable.  It was the first time Marvel hit a roadblock in both movies and TV shows.  Despite being universally ridiculed by both fans and critics, Marvel and Netflix moved forward with a second season, promising that there would be improvements.

So, did they learn the right lessons?  Is season two of Iron Fist going to be better than the first one?

Abso-f*ck!ng-lutely!!!

Thanks in part to his guest appearance on the second season of Luke Cage, we already saw a new and improved Danny Rand.  No longer the Episode IV whiney Luke Skywalker-esqe persona, Danny Rand had matured, was more confident, and seemed to have more of a purpose than just blurting out “I am the Immortal Iron Fist” every two seconds.  In fact, he served as the Obi-Wan wise master to Luke Cage when he was having problems that needed to be addressed character-wise.  This continues for the most part in Iron Fist season 2.  The first season, Finn Jones acted as if he had just gotten the script the day of shooting and didn’t really understand how his character was to function.  After hearing the criticisms, he and the production team took their time, and honed in on just what comic fans loved about the character, and did what they should have done the first season: make him a badass and much more likable, and it pays off big time.

Picking off after the events of the second season of Luke Cage, Danny is continuing to fulfill his promise to Matt Murdock and taking over as the guardian of Hells Kitchen, although most of his vigilante activities take place in Chinatown.  He and Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) are living together.  He is still a 51% owner in his family business and filthy rich, but his true passion is ridding the city of crime.  While Colleen is also a skilled fighter, she has hung up her sword (thanks to the events of the Defenders miniseries) and opts now to help the community by doing social services.  That doesn’t mean that she won’t play his “guy in the chair” from time to time, and even get involved when things heat up between different Triads in Chinatown.

In addition to trying to clean up Chinatown, Danny has his own personal threat to deal with.  As evidenced by the end of the first season, Joy Meachum (Jessica Stroup) and Davos (Sacha Dhawan), two people Danny has known since childhood, have teamed up to take him down.  She has the finances, he has the insane fighting skills to do just that.  Each of them feels “betrayed” by Danny from the first season.  Joy, angered by Danny and her brother Ward (Tom Pelphrey) keeping the secret of her father Harold’s resurrection from her (and Danny killing him), has caused her to make a deal with the devil, well, two devils (or 3-4 depending on how you look at it… more on that in a bit) to enact her revenge on Danny.

This also leads to them partnering up with a new and equally dangerous character “Typhoid Mary” Walker (Alice Eve).  Comic fans will know Typhoid Mary as a character who mostly has dealt with Daredevil and the X-Men.  In the comics, she was a mutant who suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID) and depending on what personality is manifested, she has different levels of telekinetic powers.  Since Fox isn’t 100% technically owned by Disney (at least in the MCU yet), there’s a retcon of the character for the show.  She still has multiple personalities, but no powers.  That doesn’t mean she’s not a danger to pretty much everyone.  One personality “Mary” is an innocent woman, who befriends Danny and really doesn’t have any problems at all.  However, “Walker” is another story.  Walker is a former black ops soldier who cut her teeth in Sokovia (good MCU reference) with a heavily redacted file, who is skilled in fighting and weapons and proves to be a problem for everyone she encounters throughout the season.  there’s a hind of a third personality as the season progresses that is even more dangerous as evidenced via flashbacks.  Comic fans will know that as the “Bloody Mary” persona, who we will probably meet in either a future Daredevil or Iron Fist season.

While Joy and Mary are worthy antagonists, it’s Davos that carries this season of Iron Fist.  Davos believes that Danny is the “worst Iron Fist ever” as he stated in season one, and wants what he feels is rightfully his: the ability to use the power of the Iron Fist.  Davos teams up with Joy to take the power of the Iron Fist away from Danny and become his comic book counterpart, the Steel Serpent.  Davos has an almost Killmonger type of way, as in his eyes (as with most good villains), he thinks he’s the hero, who will use the power of the Iron Fist the “right” way, since he thinks Danny has failed at it.  Through flashbacks, you get to see his backstory as he has pretty much trained his whole life to be the Iron Fist, the defender of K'un-Lun, only to have failed in a fight with Danny to the shame of his parents.  In his mind, an outsider defeated and humiliated him, and then that outsider rejected his post, and then K'un-Lun disappeared.  He’s out to right these perceived wrongs, and goes to extreme lengths to right them.

All the players return for a second season as well.  Ward Meachum is back on the side of the angels after being clouded in a gray area for the first season.  Finally realizing that he has a drug an alcohol problem, Ward has gone into counseling.  That, and trying to make amends with Danny and Joy is where he spends most of this arc this season.  Although he is still the snobby, Donald Trump Jr. type of character from the first season, he slowly realizes that money can’t buy you everything, and self-respect is priceless.  Joining the team is Misty Knight (Simone Missick), who as a seasoned officer investigates everything coded “616” (nice Marvel reference), meaning anything related to people with superpowers.  As Misty is always ready to tow the line, she ends up teaming with Colleen and Danny, and having a Rand-sponsored bionic arm doesn’t hurt to have in a dangerous situation.  In the comics, Danny and Misty ended up as a romantic pair.  While Danny and Colleen’s relationship goes through the ringer, Misty and Danny shippers will probably have to wait a little longer for their eventual hookup.  However, fans of the “Daughters of the Dragon” are in for a treat, as we get to see plenty of action with Misty and Colleen kicking plenty of ass.  Instead of one awesome bar fight like in season 2 of Luke Cage, we get to see them go toe to toe with many bad guys.

But are the fights good?  Um, yeah!  The first season was such a misfire on the fight choreography department and it was clear as day that there was no time and energy devoted to making believable realistic fights.  Now we weren’t asking for stuff from The Raid, but Into the Badlands proved that you can do high-quality fighting on the small screen on a weekly basis.  Learning the lessons from the first season, new showrunner Raven Metzner brought in Black Panther fight coordinator Clayton Barber to train the actors and make believable fight scenes.  To say it’s a vast improvement is a complete undersell.  While it doesn’t get to Into the Badlands level or fight choreography, it’s better than 90% of what is on TV nowadays.  The flashback fight between Danny and Davos is animalistic, raw, and brutal, and the kitchen fight between Danny, Colleen, and the Triads was expertly filmed, the same goes for when Misty and Collen face off against a trio of women who help Davos get his powers.  Suffice to say, there’s a lot of good fight scenes!

Despite the complete 180, that doesn’t mean that this season is perfect.  Some of Joy Meachum’s motivations have to be taken with a grain of salt.  She blames Danny Rand for killing her father last season, kickstarting her revenge plot, but her father was a zombified version of himself and a puppet for The Hand, not necessarily someone you really want to fight for.  Those critical of Danny Rand’s “white savior” role will still have plenty to complain about.  While it fits the way the comic was, it’s still a white billionaire usurping Asian culture and beating up countless faceless Asian bad guys.  Like most Marvel Netflix shows, that 10-episode requirement hurts the show.  The final episode tries to cram a lot in it to resolve plotlines as well as set things up for the eventual third season.  It does some things character-wise that although may be true in a sense to the comic, don’t really fit the narrative of the show very well and end up not making a lot of sense.  The final scene comes out of left field with no explanation as to how it came about, which will leave many confused.  Basically, the entire last episode needed a serious script rewrite before filming.

That said, Iron Fist season 2 is a substantial step in the right direction.  Danny is more likeable, the supporting characters also help him carry the show and level it up so that it is now no longer the “weak” Marvel Netflix show and can compete with all the other ones.  And you can’t stress how much better the fighting is!

Rating 4 out of 5

Read More

Review: 'The Defenders' Assemble, But Same Old Problems Persist

Champions though they may be on the cinematic block, Marvel has been scattershot on the small screen, and I think that's being generous. Forget the patchy Agents of SHIELD or the overrated Legion, Marvel's corner of Netflix has been where they've enjoyed the highest praise. They deserved it for Daredevil, which captured the darkening mood of Frank Miller's legendary comics run with fun superheroics. But it set up a paradime that Marvel has failed to break in subsequent series: Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and the pitiful Iron Fist largely followed the same beats step by step, flaw by flaw. There were cultural characteristics that yielded occasional benefits; Jessica Jones's femininity, Luke Cage's black machismo, Iron Fist's....well, blandness, but overall the shows got by on "cool factor" alone.

The Defenders is pretty much the same thing. It skates by on seeing all of these would-be heroes together fighting the same battle, but doesn't offer much else to chew on.  The first four episodes, which is all Netflix bothered to issue for review, so I had to binge the final four early this morning, are a slog as we see the long-suffering Daredevil (Charlie Cox), entitled kung-fu dude Iron Fist (Finn Jones), stoic Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and perpetually bitter Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) circling the same villains without anybody else knowing. These villains would be The Hand, of course, who have been a thorn in the side of them all in every series so far. Roped into the middle of this fight are satellite characters such as Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick), Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), Misty Knight (Simone Missick) Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), the latter two barely making their presence felt throughout.

Of course we expect there to be slow spells until the heroes actually get their crap together but after three episodes of navel gazing it gets a little tough to bear. I watched the first episode twice at Comic-Con; the first in my hotel room and I got bored as Hell, the second in a packed Hall H audience and I fell asleep. Showrunners Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez essentially triple down on the gloom of Daredevil, which would be fine if there was something more to do than stare at shadows in darkened sewer tunnels. I dare you to tell me what's going on in the earliest few fights, and no cheating by brightening up your screen. Finally, things start to perk up around the end of episode three with the already-cliche hallway fight, although it should be said that it's got some extra pop having everyone cracking skulls as a unit. And just when you're getting excited, 95% of episode four has them all chatting in a Chinese food restaurant like that one episode of Seinfeld. That last 5% is Hella awesome, though, and will get you pumped to burn through the rest of the series in one sitting.

I won't go into the individual storylines that force the Defenders to join forces, especially since one is particularly spoilery. But their common enemy is a seemingly normal woman named Alexandra, and you know she's a top shelf heel because she's played by Sigourney Weaver. Other familiar foes stand alongside her (I'm a sucker for a Madame Gao appearance) but it's Alexandra who remains the most mysterious, and as played by Weaver she's totally like a CEO who could also whoop your ass. But not in an obnoxious way like Iron Fist.

Speaking of Mr. Danny Rand, it had to have been a conscious decision to put so much of the storyline's weight on his shoulders, as a response to the negative reaction to Finn Jones' portrayal of the character. But this is indeed a series that relies quite a bit on Iron Fist, the mystical mojo of K'un Lun, and the walking enigma known as Stick (Scott Glenn). It's a mistake because, well, Iron Fist is super lame and Jones is always the worst actor in every scene, even when it's just him and a punching bag. Worse, the whole "harnessing my chi" stuff is just a little too Hong Kong Phooey for a series that relies on being grounded and gritty and real. It's hard not to chuckle, right along with Luke Cage most of the time, whenever Iron Fist starts talking about punching the hearts of dragons or whatever nonsense he's spouting about.

The relationship between Iron Fist and Luke Cage is one of the things the show does get right, and it deserves credit for taking on Danny Rand's white privilege head on. There's a terrific interaction early on when Danny is beating the crap out of a black kid who had been working for the Hand. Since the Hand are his sworn enemies, Danny beats the kid like he was one of their trained ninja assassins, up until Luke steps in and chastises him for the assault, stating the kid just needed money and had no idea of his employer. Danny stands his ground and accuses Luke of doing the same to others, only for Luke to fire back that at least he lives on their street, rather than up in some high-rise looking down on them.

“And I know privilege when I see it. You may think you earned your strength, but you had power before the day you were born", Luke puts a nail in the testy conversation. It's a great scene, one that will be catnip to fans of the Power Man and Iron Fist comic books these two have often shared. Not every moment between them works, in fact a lot of them don't, but this was The Defenders at its best. Other highlights are pretty much every time Jessica Jones has something snarky to say about their pseudo-teamup. She alone seems to get it; that this team of loners doesn't make a lot of sense. But arguing about it makes even less sense. Also, the inner workings of The Hand, which is exactly the kind of venomous snake pit of egos as you'd imagine, is genuinely fascinating. I could do with an entire miniseries just focused on The Hand and the various factions within. Plus, the return of an important character not seen for a while goes far better than their previous appearance, potentially setting them up for a future series of their own.

 At only 8 episodes, a downgrade from the usual 13, you'd think The Defenders would zip right along. The same pacing problems persist, only compacted now, and we go through the same interminable stretch of superhero angst. These are the most depressing superheroes ever, and each has had long enough to get over it. We don't need to see them rehashing the same personal demons now when there simply isn't time for it. The Defenders should be fun; I don't want to listen to Luke worry about the neighborhood, or Daredevil about his complicated dual-life. There was time for that before, but not now.

The Defenders is, overall, a disappointing crossover effort and I'm not sure it could have been anything different. A final act twist throws a curveball nobody wanted, and bears too striking a resemblance to an equally unnecessary swerve in Luke Cage. That's the problem in a nutshell. The Defenders should venture to be something new, since we've never seen anything like this on the small screen before. Not from Marvel, anyway. But it doesn't feel new; it feels like more of the same, and while that may be enough for some, shouldn't we expect more from an event like this?

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Read More

‘Daredevil’ Season 3 Review: Daredevil’s Getting Back To Basics

The Devil of Hells Kitchen is back, and he’s got his work cut out for him once again!

It’s been a rough two weeks for Marvel/Netflix.  Despite a stellar improvement for Iron Fist’s second season, the streaming giant decided to pull the plug on the mystical kung-fu superhero.  The same goes for Harlem’s Hero, Luke Cage, who was also just canceled despite also having a strong second season of the show.  We know Jessica Jones is headed for a third season, as well as The Punisher.  But what about the OG hero that started the wave of these “street-level” heroes within the Marvel Cinematic Universe?  How about the blind ninja who knows no fear?  While some didn’t think the second season was as strong as the first (we here at PDC liked it), fans were eagerly anticipating the third season.  Would Daredevil Season 3 be able to offset this recent bad news for the streaming giant and Marvel’s partnership?

Absolutely!!  Daredevil is back to basics, and just as good as the first season (if not better)!

When we last saw Matt Murdock, he was helping Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage, save New York against The Hand when the building was falling in on him and he opted to remain behind to make sure everyone got out alive as everything came caving down on him and his beloved Elektra.  Since then, 4 months have passed and Matt (Charlie Cox) has been missing all this time.  We get to see how he miraculously survived the cage in, and at near death, he manages to find his way to the Catholic Orphanage that raised him and under the care of Father Lantom (Peter McRobbie) and newcomer Sister Maggie (Joanne Whalley) who’s backstory is a very interesting one (especially if you are a comic fan).  His near-death experience has left him broken physically as his lack of hearing in one ear has screwed with his radar sense that he uses to “see” is no longer working, rendering him unable to continue as Daredevil until he heals.  More importantly, he has become broken spiritually.  Matt, who’s Catholic upbringing is just as a part of him as his abilities, no longer applies as he’s having a crisis of faith.  If he wants to get back into the game, he’s going to have to heal both his body, as well as his spirit.

Members of Matt’s inner circle are also trying to move on as well.  Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) and Foggy (Elden Henson) hold out the hope that Matt survived the cave in, but they have to continue their lives.  Karen has been paying Matt’s rent with the hopes that he will return to a home while also continuing as a reporter in search of the truth, and Foggy continues as a lawyer.  When Matt finally returns, he’s distant as he no longer wants to continue as Matt Murdock, only as Daredevil.  This forces the two of them to go on their own journeys to help Matt come back to the man he was, and at the same time in their own way fight against the corrupt forces of the city, Karen as a reporter, Foggy using the law.

Meanwhile, an old enemy has laid some plans that are finally coming into motion.  Wilson Fisk, AKA The Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio), has been patiently waiting for his moment to strike while serving time in prison for the events of the first season.  Fisk finds his way out of his prison situation in the form of turning to a snitch for the FBI.  Cozying up to troubled agent Ray Nadeem (Jay Ali), he strikes a deal to be able to lessen his prison sentence (then house arrest, then overturn his conviction) through a series of intricate plans that all work in his favor.  While the approach is very “comic-booky” on a show that prides itself on authenticity and being “grounded,” his plan works very effectively and easy to believe and accept.  One by one, you get to see him infiltrate and corrupt every institution he gets his hands on, till he once again becomes the “Kingpin of Crime” we all know and love.  You have got to give D'Onofrio a lot of credit, his performance is powerful and majestic.  Trying to play this type of character is very complex, and he now seems to be able to nail it in his sleep.

Once healed, Matt makes it his mission to take Fisk down once and for good.  Of course, this means he will have to do the one thing he promised he wouldn’t do, he will have to kill Fisk.  In the second season, he has a spirited argument with Frank Castle AKA The Punisher arguing against killing his enemies and Castle tells him, that Daredevil is only “one bad day” from being just like The Punisher, and this season proves that Castle was right.  Daredevil commits himself to do the one thing he promised he would never do: take a life.  A weird new thing this season does his have Matt talk with his conscience in the forms of an aberration of Wilson Fisk and his father Jack Murdock.  At first, the idea feels very gimmicky especially when he’s literally fighting a phantom version of Wilson Fisk, but it goes to showcase how broken Matt’s mind is becoming as the season progresses.  Karen and Foggy know this will break and change Matt forever if he does this, so they work their hardest to make sure that it doesn’t happen.

Wilson Fisk knows that the best way to beat Daredevil is through psychological warfare.  The best way to take the ire of the public off of him, it to place it on someone else.  Through intricate planning, he finds a “new” Daredevil in the form of troubled FBI SWAT agent Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter (Wilson Bethel), AKA Bullseye.  Dex is a borderline sociopath who someone managed to fall through the cracks in life just enough to be able to function without going on a murderous rampage.  We get to see his backstory as a troubled kid who would kill animals, but thanks to a dedicated therapist, managed to function properly enough to get a job where he could act on those impulses as an agent.  While under Kingpin’s protective detail, Dex gets manipulated and corrupted to carry out Kingpin’s plan of killing while wearing a mock Daredevil costume to frame Matt and change the public against him.  Dex’s take on Bullseye completely washes away the campy stink Collin Farrell left on the character the same way Charlie Cox did for Ben Affleck from the 2003 movie.  His fighting is top notch, but more importantly, his aim makes him a force to be reckoned with.  His first meetup with Matt proves disastrous for Daredevil.  In the aftermath, Matt has to not only stop Fisk, but find a way to outfight Bullseye, which is why he needs Karen a Foggy.

The only weak part of the series is to finally give us Karen Page’s backstory, and while it wasn’t a bad backstory, it was completely out of pace with the show.  Remember in Stranger Things when they just decided to stop the forward momentum of the show and give us Eleven hanging out with a goth gang for an entire episode?  This is pretty much the same type of thing where the story is moving at a very fast pace and they decided to give us a “Before” and “Now” story showing how Karen was before she showed up in New York.  It could have been done by simply giving us an exposition dump by Karen, but instead, we got a half-hour unnecessary flashback, total momentum killer.  However, that’s probably one of the only gripes of the show as for the most part, they are giving us exactly what we want from a Daredevil show.

What makes this season a return to the greatness of the first is how back to the basics the show is.  No longer focusing on the mysticism of The Hand (which dragged Season 2, The Defenders, and Iron Fist Season 1 down), which just didn’t work as well on the small screen as Marvel was probably hoping it would.  Making The Kingpin once again the primary villains (as he was the first to show that the MCU can do villains justice) and having Matt go back to the black suit (instead of the flashy red suit) showed they wanted to capture all the magic of the first season and do it properly.  The fighting is top notch as well.  While Iron Fist Season 2 stepped their game up, this season of Daredevil once again showed how you do a fight scene.  Daredevil always has their famous “hallway fight” scenes done in impressive long takes.  This time they up the ante time 100 with an elaborate single take fight scene during a prison riot that is just magic to see and expertly done with the fight choreography.  The season gives us a happy ending (opposed to Luke Cage and Iron Fist which gave us something to look forward to) and wraps everything that happened up rather neatly.  Hopefully, this doesn’t mean that Daredevil will get canceled as there’s still a lot left that we want to see.

Rating: 4.5/5

Read More

‘Marvel’s Luke Cage’ Season 2 Review: Luke’s Back For An Even Better Second Season

When Charles “Luke Cage” Lucas was introduced in the first season of Jessica Jones, fans got their beaks wet for a taste of the super-strong, bullet-proof hero who Harlem has since claimed.  While it wasn’t his show, he made quite an impact.  It was a no-brainer for Netflix to commission a solo series surrounding the iconic character.  When the first season of Luke Cage dropped it literally broke Netflix (and the Internet if you want to be honest about it), causing their ever-redundant servers to crash, an Internet first.  The first season was unlike anything Marvel (or TV itself) has ever done: a black hero who as Roy Wood Jr. would say was “peak blackness.”  Every episode was titled after classic hip-hop group Gang Starr song, which fit the tone of the series.  Centered in Harlem, for the first time probably since The Wire, a show was made, written, produced, starring, and focusing completely by and for black folks.  It was woke as hell, and a breath of fresh air for the current TV landscape.

While the second half of the season didn’t close as strong as the first one (probably due to the fact that one of Marvel’s best villains, Cottonmouth, was killed halfway through), it was still a strong and worthy effort.  Fans were excited to see more of Luke Cage.  The crossover series The Defenders, brought all of the “street” characters from Marvel’s Netflix shows together, but it was too short, which is ironic because the biggest complaint is that the Marvel Netflix shows are an episode or two too long.  Needless to say, fans want to see more of Luke Cage, so we got a second season.  And boy was it good!!!

After saving New York City from The Hand in The Defenders, Luke has returned back to Harlem to continue to protect his beloved neighborhood.  He’s matured since first coming to the city and going to war against Cottonmouth the first season, but that doesn’t mean that Harlem doesn’t need its hero to help keep the city safe.  Luke is the hometown hero, and he finds that it’s kind of hard to maintain a low profile when people are literally making smartphone apps to locate where he is and call on his help at any given moment.  He’s learning to shoulder the responsibility of being a larger than life character and still remain somewhat humble and grounded.  His love Claire Temple (the Nick Fury of the Netflix shows) and he don’t get to spend much time together.  Every time he’s about to get some “coffee” (or right afterward), he has to go out and be a hero, which causes some strain on their relationship.  Also, dealing with the seedy side of the world is also hardening him, and he’s bringing some of that darkness back home like a cop would after a hard day of work.  In addition to taking care of regular criminals, there’s one in particular that he still has his eye out for: Mariah Dillard.  She managed to remain the ever-cunning politician-turned-criminal-mastermind that she was when the first season ended, and she’s getting good at it.  Partnering with her (slightly younger and they make sure you know that) lover/partner Hernan "Shades" Alvarez, they are slowly taking over Harlem under the radar.

To top it off, there’s a new player coming to Harlem in the form of Jamaican criminal Bushmaster coming in town to claim Harlem as his own.  Not only does he have the criminal infrastructure to give both Black Mariah and Luke Cage a headache, he also has the ability to defeat Luke in a flight single-handedly.  While not entirely bullet-proof like Luke, Bushmaster has the ability to withstand gunfire and super strength, thanks to something called “nightshade,” a proprietary blend of different herbs from his native homeland than grants him superhuman abilities, and he lets Luke know if stellar fashion that he’s not afraid of him and claims “Harlem’s mine!”  Bushmaster and his family have a history with Mariah and her family connecting Harlem to Jamaica between their two families and helps showcase the sometimes disconnect and sometimes animosity between African Americans and West Indians in the form of these two families going to war with each other.  As a result, Luke has a dilemma, does he side with Mariah the monster he knows, Bushmaster, a greater monster, or let them battle each other even though it’s tearing Harlem apart in the process.  As Marvel does for the Netflix shows, they layer their villains, and give us such a complicated and tragic backstory for Bushmaster, that he at times is a sympathetic character, but he proves time and time again not to root for him.

Of course, Mike Colter returns as Luke Cage and can now do this role in his sleep.  While the first season Luke had a strong moral compass, this season he goes into somewhat grayer territory as he sees that not everything is completely black and white.  As stated, he and Claire have a few issues related to his vigilantism, and Colter is able to bring out a dark side of Luke that we didn’t see before.  He reminds you that although he’s a noble person, he could easily be a force to reckon with if he decides to let the devil on his shoulder win the argument.  In fact, towards the end of the season, Luke’s character makes a C-change that makes you wonder if Luke might end up truly on the wrong side of the law eventually.

In addition to Luke, Misty Knight is back as well.  Having lost her arm in The Defenders, she has to rehab herself not only physically but she also has to do so mentally.  She’s having problems with her compatriots on The Force and her rebel nature puts her at odds with her peers, making her wonder if police work is the best use of her skills, or should she go rogue and go the Luke Cage route to help keep Harlem save.  Misty gets a visit from Colleen Wing, which makes for an awesome barroom brawl with a couple of drunk idiots and we get a taste of what a “Daughters of the Dragon” spinoff could look like.  Lucky for her, she happens to be friendly with a certain billionaire CEO who can help her with her arm situation.  Thanks to Danny Rand, Misty gets equipped with a new robotic arm much like the one she has in the comics, which gives her superhuman abilities as well, so facing off against bad guys isn’t going to be too much of a problem and she puts it to good use.  Actress Simone Missick brings her A-game this season and reminds you once again why you fell in love with her last season.

Luke Cage season 2 also gives us the rehabilitation of Danny Rand.  Iron Fist is easily the weakest of the Marvel Netflix shows as it was just not competently put together.  We don’t need to rehash was Iron Fist got wrong in regards to the terrible fight choreography or Finn Jones’ wooden acting, or the fact that we didn’t get to see a freakin’ dragon in it.  It’s safe to say that the blame for a sub-par Danny Rand can be placed on the season one Iron Fist showrunner (who also ran Marvel’s Inhumans into the ground), who has since then been replaced for Iron Fist season 2.  However, Danny Rand returns and is a vast improvement from his solo series and even his Defenders role.  As the walls are closing in on Luke midway through the season, Danny makes an appearance to give Luke some counseling.  Danny’s more mature, he actually knows how to fight, and the chemistry between he an Luke is straight from the comics.  This is definitely a prelude to the “Heroes For Hire” as the two of them team up to take down one of Bushmaster’s warehouses, and the two work as a well-organized and cohesive unit.  While his stay this season is short, it is sweet.  If Iron Fist season two builds Danny off of what was done from Luke Cage, the show could have potential to be on the same level as the other Netflix Marvel shows.

Of course, Alfre Woodard in the MVP.  It was hard to compete with Cottonmouth last season for Black Mariah.  However, this season, she’s the Cottonmouth.  While Wilson Fisk is still the fan-favorite villain, she comes incredibly close to being the most complex, ruthless villain of the Marvel Netflix shows.  She continues to toe the line between someone who wants to be a semi-corrupt politician who in fact, believes she’s a good force for Harlem, to an all-out evil gangster.  As she goes through her war with Bushmaster, she hardens herself and halfway through the season steps over the line that she can never come back from.  We learn more of her backstory as well, which helps you understand her rage when she killed her cousin last season which began her journey to the dark side.  Her boyfriend Shades continues to be the smooth operator we saw last season as actor Theo Rossi barely breaks a sweat even as he is leaving a trail of bodies in their wake himself.  We find a little bit about his which makes you see his character in a different light as well as one of his prison buddies comes home and creates a wedge between him and Mariah.

All the supporting characters return and excel in helping Luke as he goes through his trials and tribulations this season.  Ron Cephas Jones returns as Bobby Fish who helps manage Pops barbershop with Luke after Pops dies last season.  He proceeds to replace Pops as Luke’s mentor this season.  The local DVD bootlegger kid plays a bigger role as he increases his hustle to shoot video of Luke and his Luke Cage app as well as sell Luke Cage t-shirts.  For such a small role the first season, he gets the chance this season to really make his presence known.  The late Reg E. Cathey (in his final acting appearance) who dies shortly after filming stars as Luke’s father James Lucas, his religious father who he has an estranged relationship with thanks to the events revealed last season delivers one hell of a swan song performance as he brings his A-game despite having been battling cancer while filming.  Even Sugar (Cottonmouth’s bodyguard from season one) returns and becomes Luke’s unofficial CI for all things criminal as he has a change of heart following his previous dealings with Luke.  Other Netflix Marvel characters like Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Benjamin Donovan (Danny Johnson) also make cameos to remind you about their respective shows connected to this universe.  One of the new standouts is Tilda Johnson (played by Gabrielle Dennis).  A little bit of a departure from her “Nightshade” character from the comics.  She has a special connection to both Black Mariah as well as to Bushmaster and continues to jump from camp to camp during their war.  She will most certainly be a player for a third season.

It wouldn’t be Luke Cage without the music played at Harlem’s Paradise.  Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad return as composers and once again capture an updated blaxploitation sound for the show.  As with season one, each episode is titled after a hip-hop song.  This season, each episode is titled after a song by legendary hip-hop group Pete Rock & CL Smooth.  The music is as much a character on the show as the people in Harlem.  This season, because the show deals with Bushmaster and his West Indian group, the music has branches to include more than hip-hop and R&B to include various other black music styles.  Such artists who perform include: Rakim, KRS-One, Ghostface Killah, Faith Evans, Jadakiss, Stephen Marley, Gary Clark Jr., Esperanza Spalding, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Joi, and DJ D-Nice.

Was it perfect?  Of course not.  There is a part this season where Luke tries out for the NFL which seems to be a semi-cheesy way to have a bunch of sports personalities cameo as themselves including Jemele Hill and Stephen A Smith that wasn’t 100% necessary.  However, this season marks the first time that the second season of a Netflix show is better than the first.  This season, the show sticks to the landing and finishes strong and in a place where you absolutely want a third season to see where the evolution of the character will continue to go.  Both of the main villains (Bushmaster and Black Mariah) shine and don’t outdo each other, reminding you that Marvel TV still is on top of Marvel movies when it comes to the villain department (even though the Marvel movies are catching up).  Once again Cheo Hodari Coker knocks it out of the part in not only giving us “peak blackness” but outstanding television.

Rating: 4.5/5

Read More

Marvel's Next Phase of TV Shows could Include Blade, The Punisher, Hulk, and More

Just as Marvel has done with their cinematic universe, the TV side is growing bigger and faster than anybody could have predicted. While Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter's ratings have been modest and the critical response mixed, they found much greater success on Netflix with Daredevil. Their plan for the streaming service is equally ambitious with the upcoming AKA Jessica Jones, plus shows for Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and crossover series The Defenders. While we know Daredevil is coming back for a second season (apparently with Elektra in it, too), what's up with the rest of Phase II?

According to Heroic Hollywood, which I caution is run by ex-Latino Review rumor monger Umberto Gonzalez, Marvel is eying a number of thematically dark characters for their next phase. This would include the usual suspects like Blade, Ghost Rider, and The Punisher. What may be holding them back is the fear of going too violent because all of these characters kill, making their shows more of an 'R' than the 'hard PG-13' of Daredevil. Plus, with a supernatural character like Ghost Rider there's the risk of being too silly, which Netflix desperately wants to avoid. Not to mention it would be crazy expensive to have a CGI Ghost Rider series. I would say the biggest hurdle would be that all of these characters have recently failed in one form or another. Blade had a tremendously successful trilogy of films, but the attempted TV series (which I loved but nobody else did) only lasted one season. Ghost Rider and Punisher have had multiple movies that bombed.

With a few small exceptions like Jaimie Alexander's Sif, Cobie Smulders' Maria Hill, and Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, the big screen and TV characters have rarely interacted. Netflix and Marvel TV are really trying to change this but finding little cooperation from the movie side. They're trying to get Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange to appear in The Defenders (previous rumors said Iron Fist), and a longshot pipe dream could see a limited event series with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) that would include some of the TV characters. None of these ideas seem likely to happen, though.

On the ABC side of things, projects being considered include the super-powered duo Cloak & Dagger, a Ms. Marvel series, and a Hulk prequel. The Hulk series isn't too far out in left field since Guillermo Del Toro had been developing one some years ago before it fell through. And I'm curious which Ms. Marvel character they're talking about here. The Carol Danvers version, going by the Captain Marvel monicker, is expected to debut on the big screen soon and get her own solo film. So calling her Ms. Marvel suggests it's somebody else. Are they talking about the current Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan? Now that would be interesting, and fit with recent rumors about Oscar-winner John Ridley's mystery project for Marvel.

Every single bit of this is unconfirmed and don't amount to more than wishlist stuff, so we'll just have to wait and see what Marvel comes up with for their small-screen band of heroes.

Read More

'The Defenders' Fight Together In One Final Trailer For Netflix's Marvel Series

I'm still not quite sure why Marvel always does this with their Netflix shows, but mere hours before The Defenders is to debut they've dropped one more trailer. I mean, they just had one a couple of days ago, right? And it's not like we don't already know...eh, what's the point in wondering?

All of the various storylines with the ninja crew known as The Hand converge as Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and White Boy Roy, er...Iron Fist come together as a team. Of course, it won't be quite as simple as that because the guy who has impenetrable skin will find it hard to believe in a guy with a fist as strong as iron, or a blind man who can see. When you think of it like that the whole thing is totally ridic, but there should be some fun in watching them beat up ninjas across New York. I've seen half of the series already and will have a review of the whole thing this weekend.

The Defenders premieres tomorrow, August 18th, probably at 3am EST like most of Netflix's shows.

Read More

Review: Ninja Assassin

Ninjas are pretty cool. Admit it, when you were a kid you wanted to be a ninja. I know I did. I adored Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow from the G.I. Joe universe. My favorite comic book characters were Elektra and Iron Fist, and I couldn't get enough of Wolverine's dealings with the ninja clan known as The Hand. But ninja movies have something of a bad reputation. Let's be honest, the 80s were a tough decade for ninjas, as they were watered down by bad American pseudo-ninjas who had all the speed and stealth of a knee-capped water buffalo. Ninja Assassin is an ultra-stylized, bloody throwback to those films. A gory tale of revenge and, strangely enough, a bit of a love story to boot.

Read More

Review: 'The Exception' Starring Jai Courtney, Lily James, And Christopher Plummer

The Exception is a new drama set in World War II, starring Jai Courtney and Lily James as two people on opposing sides of the war. Despite their contrasting duties and allegiances, they find love with each other at the worst possible time. 

First, I must acknowledge that I’m not a huge Jai Courtney fan. I typically find him to be a very boring performer to watch. Also, with starring roles in films like Terminator: Genisys, A Good Day to Die Hard, and Suicide Squad, he doesn’t have the best track record in terms of picking solid projects. So I have to admit, I went into The Exception carrying this prejudice and not expecting much. As it turns out, I am happy to report that my assumptions were wrong. I was pleasantly surprised by how totally okay The Exception is.

It does start out rough. The biggest problem I had with the film is with its opening act. The first half hour of The Exception really seemed to be in line with what I had feared. We spend a great deal of time right at the start of the movie with Jai Courtney’s playboy-Nazi-Officer-with-a-heart-of-gold character, Brandt. It’s made clear that we should be sympathizing with him for being a bit less of a Nazi than the other Nazis he works with. Understandably, this just doesn’t play right. Setting aside my personal distaste for Jai Courtney, as an audience member I found it really difficult to learn to care about this character. It’s pretty hard to love him, and identify with him, and root for him to win… despite him being a Nazi officer. As the film goes on and shifts its focus slightly, I came to appreciate the characterization they attempted for Brandt. Regardless, though, starting a film off by instructing the audience to sympathize with a Nazi is not the best move.

Brandt is assigned to be the personal bodyguard for bitter former German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II (Christopher Plummer). The Kaiser’s castle is rumored to be under surveillance by an English spy, who may or may not secretly be housemaid Mieke (Lily James). She and Brandt start an illicit affair, and suddenly The Exception gets genuinely interesting. Not only do Lily James and Christopher Plummer give excellent and multi-layered performances, but their characters’ complicated who’s-lying-to-who plotlines and complex motivations really get the movie going. It’s now interesting that Courtney’s Nazi guard is easy-going enough that he might compromise his mission for the safety of the woman he loves. Despite his character’s disgusting morality, it’s fascinating to watch Plummer monologue as a man jealous of Hitler for ruling with the iron fist he wishes to exert. Although the star-crossed lovers plot is not the least bit new, when set against a backdrop this complex, it does become really investing. By the end of The Exception, I was legitimately wrapped up in the drama, and excited to see where the plot would turn next.

That being said, it is hard to ever fully surrender to the suspense of a fully fictional story set around actual historical events you’re familiar with. It’s an intense spy thriller storyline, filled with talk of planned assassinations. As audience members in 2017, however, we know these plans won’t happen, or at least won’t succeed. It’s a typical trap for historical fiction, and unfortunately it does occasionally slow down The Exception.

Overall, I did rather enjoy the film. Although it takes off on an incredibly rocky start, The Exception definitely picks up speed as it keeps going, and becomes a pretty engaging costume drama romance by its end.

3 out of 5 

Read More