Right now, I'm halfway through Iron Fist.
You know, I could get over a show hiring someone who doesn?t know any martial arts because of his acting ability. Or even hiring someone because they have the right look. Or sometimes, there?s that certain je-ne-sais-quoi where that person has a compelling presence.
Finn Jones has none of that.
At the very least, they could have hired someone who can fight. Or people that can direct action. The best fight scene so far was the episode RZA directed with the Game of Death style action.
Even if Finn Jones can?t fight, they have a tight budget, shooting schedule and poor fight choreographer? they could have switched to handheld moving cameras up close like Paul Greengrass did in the Bourne films, or like Nolan did in Batman Begins.
Instead, despite the director, in episode 1 and 6 they move to the overhead cameras for the more complex fight moves. Presumably to cover the fact that an average stunt man is fighting, not Finn Jones.
So by zooming out from the action it makes it a lot less intense than it could be. And they keep doing it even when there?s a different director.
I thought Finn Jones was fine in his few minutes of screen time in Game of Thrones so I still think the big problem was the script. Great fights could have helped it, instead it just exacerbated the flaws in the show.
Also. I wouldn?t have minded a tone shift. Daredevil and Jessica Jones needed to be dark because of the underlying subject matter, Catholic guilt and mind-rape, but Iron Fist could have been a great fish out of water story. Little moments like eating a hamburger or mac and cheese or having a Squeeze-It (because he was a kid when his plane crashed) for the first time in 15 years would have made me happy.
It made me realize that the Netflix shows are the Batman V Superman of the extended MCU. So unrelentingly dour. 4 dour, depressed super heroes band together in Defenders. yay?