PREVIEW -- Spider-Man: Homecoming Trailer #2 (2017)

There's a LOT of things that Marvel are pulling from with this "homecoming" for Spider-Man and I absolutely love what I'm seeing. It's a healthy blend of the Steve Ditko era of Spider-Man mythos that heavily influenced the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon and the current Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon (back in the earlier seasons when they actually focused on Peter's out of costume life) along with the current revamp of Spider-Man's earlier adventures in the current comics continuity where he meets various heroes for the first time, notably Ironman/Tony Stark.

I'm glad they went with a MUCH different design for Vulture as that's one character who would NEVER look accurate enough or cool enough like his comic book counterpart in a live-action film unless you you CGI'ed the fuck out of him IMO. Besides, what old man is going to sit back and let himself be strapped to a flying harness for all of these scenes that would be required for that character anyway.

Another thing is that I'm not making a big deal about the "web wings" on this Spider-Man's costume like everyone else because that's another Ditko era thing. Sure, Spidey might use it to help him against Vulture in the film but that was merely part of the costume back then before it had some functionality to augment Spidey's mobility.

REVIEW -- Marvel's Iron Fist (Netflix) - Season One

Marvel's Iron Fist, or simply Iron Fist, is an American web television series created for Netflix by Scott Buck, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise and is the fourth in a series of shows that will lead up to The Defenders crossover miniseries. The series is produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios and Devilina Productions, with Buck serving as showrunner.

Finn Jones stars as Danny Rand / Iron Fist, a martial arts expert with the ability to call upon the power of the Iron Fist. Jessica Henwick, Tom Pelphrey, Jessica Stroup, Ramón Rodríguez, Sacha Dhawan, Rosario Dawson and David Wenham also star. After a film based on the character spent over a decade in development at Marvel Studios, development for the series began in late 2013 at Marvel Television, with Buck hired as the series showrunner in December 2015 and Jones cast as Rand in February 2016. Filming began in New York City in April 2016 and concluded in October 2016.

Iron Fist had its premiere on March 15, 2017, in New York City, with the full season of 13 episodes releasing on Netflix on March 17, 2017.

Cast: 

Main

Finn Jones as Danny Rand / Iron Fist
Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing
Tom Pelphrey as Ward Meachum
Jessica Stroup as Joy Meachum
Ramón Rodríguez as Bakuto
Sacha Dhawan as Davos
Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple
David Wenham as Harold Meachum

Recurring

David Furr as Wendell Rand
Barrett Doss as Megan
Alex Wyse as Kyle
Marquis Rodriguez as Darryl
Wai Ching Ho as Gao
Ramon Fernandez as Kevin Singleton
Clifton Davis as Lawrence Wilkins
John Sanders as Donald Hooper
Elise Santora as Maria Rodriguez

Guest

Victoria Haynes as Heather Rand
Murray Bartlett as Paul Edmonds
Carrie-Anne Moss as Jeri Hogarth
Craig Geraghty as the ringmaster of an underground fight club.
Henry Yuk as Hai-Qing Yang
Samantha Herrera as Becca
Olek Krupa as Radovan Bernivig
Shirine Babb as Sandi Ann
Jeanna de Waal as Sophia
Tijuana Ricks as Thembi Wallace
Hoon Lee as Lei Kung
Nikita Bogolyubov and Stan Demidoff as Andrei and Grigori Veznikov
Jane Kim as the Bride of Nine Spiders
David Sakurai as Scythe
Suzanne H. Smart as Shirley Benson
Jon Kit Lee as a blind beggar who provides Wing with information on Gao in China.
Lewis Tan as Zhou Cheng

Plot: (FULL Spoilers)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"Snow Gives Way"	John Dahl	Scott Buck	March 17, 2017
Danny Rand enters Rand Enterprises, asking to meet Harold Meachum, but is ignored due to his appearance. He fights his way through security and reaches Harold's children Ward and Joy, who state that Harold has been dead for years, not believing him to be Rand. He starts spending his nights in a park, befriending a beggar calling himself Big Al. He also meets Colleen Wing, whom he asks for a training job in her newly opened dojo; but she ignores him too. Rand makes another attempt to convince Joy, and later Ward. The siblings believe that the rivals of Rand Enterprise are planning to show a leadership struggle within the company now that they are going to announce their expansion in China. Rand is attacked by Ward's mercenaries. Wing attempts to save Rand, but witnesses him overpowering them. Harold is revealed to be alive and in hiding, being in contact with Ward. The former considers the possibility that Rand is alive and orders Ward to leave the situation to him. Rand faces Joy and tells her about Ward's actions. However, she poisons Rand, who is taken to a hospital. Flashbacks show Rand as a child when his family plane crashes in the Himalayas.
2	"Shadow Hawk Takes Flight"	John Dahl	Scott Buck	March 17, 2017
Rand is revealed to be at a psychiatric hospital, assigned to Dr. Paul Edmonds. Rand continues insisting on his true identity. Harold is revealed to be surveilling the hospital. He has Ward talk to Wing. Ward offers her money in exchange for her confirmation of Rand's alleged condition. Harold secretly visits Rand, who reveals that he is the current Iron Fist, the sworn enemy of the Hand. Wing visits Rand, who reveals his true identity and why Ward is afraid of him. She refuses Ward's offer. Joy deduces that Rand is right and tells Ward, who refuses to free him. Edmonds also learns the truth and asks Rand about after the crash. The latter states that he was transferred by two monks to K'un-Lun, another dimension that becomes connected to the Earth every fifteen years. Edmonds does not believe it and diagnoses him with an anxiety disorder caused by trauma. Harold decides to move Rand to a safe place since he can be useful. Instead, Ward orders his men posed as patients to kill Rand, who overpowers them by summoning the Iron Fist, which he uses to break out of the hospital.
3	"Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch"	Tom Shankland	Quinton Peeples	March 17, 2017
Harold is revealed to be under the control of an unknown woman who punishes him for temporarily leaving the penthouse. Wing is attacked by Ward's mercenaries, whom she overpowers before being confronted by Rand, whom she allows to stay at the dojo. Rand visits Joy, who offers him 100 million dollars if he changes his identity and leaves the Meachums. He refuses and later meets Jeri Hogarth, an old friend of the family. She promises to reclaim his identity in exchange for a permanent contract between her firm and Rand Enterprise. Rand attacks an impolite student of Wing's, provoking her to expel the former, who goes to an apartment owned by Hogarth. In a meeting, Hogarth and Rand show Ward and Joy a handmade ceramic bowl of the latter's containing a younger Rand's fingerprint, thus proving his claim, promising to present it in the upcoming court. Deducing that Harold is alive, Rand follows Ward to the penthouse, where he climbs to the window, which he opens before being pushed down by an unknown person. Meanwhile, Harold forces Ward to buy a specific pier, which is secured by Joy's intellect. Flashbacks show Rand being beaten by the monks.
4	"Eight Diagram Dragon Palm"	Miguel Sapochnik	Scott Reynolds	March 17, 2017
Rand wakes up in the penthouse, where Harold reveals that his cancer was secretly cured by the Hand, which demanded his loyalty in return and allowed him to reveal the truth only to Ward. Harold asks Rand to destroy the Hand in order to free the former, which he accepts. In exchange, Harold orders Ward to accept Rand's return to the company, where his return is announced in a press conference. In a board meeting, Rand uses his position as the majority shareholder to enforce his decision to sell a newly developed leishmaniasis drug at cost in order to save more lives. At his apartment, Joy is attacked by Triad operatives, whom Rand overpowers. He takes her to the dojo before confronting the Triad leader, who reveals that they hold a grudge against Joy for robbing the pier. However, he completely surrenders to Rand's position after the latter reveals that the Hand was behind it. As a reward for securing the pier, the Hand allows Harold to observe Joy from distance. He notices she has been wounded and asks to be allowed to kill the Triad member responsible, which is accepted. Rand receives a message from Yang Hai-Qing.
5	"Under Leaf Pluck Lotus"	Uta Briesewitz	Cristine Chambers	March 17, 2017
A new synthetic heroin appears in New York City. Rand connects it to the Hand; but Ward dismisses it. After a chemical factory owned by the Rand Enterprises on Staten Island produces carcinogenic waste chemicals, Rand personally apologizes to a complaining citizen, with the conversation being recorded by a lawyer and later disclosed to the media. In a board meeting, where Rand is absent, Ward convinces the shareholders to stand against the accusations instead of accepting responsibility. However, the anxiety of being always watched by Harold causes Ward to have a drug overdose. Rand meets Claire Temple, who trains at the dojo. He convinces Wing to help him infiltrate the pier in order to prove his theory. At the pier, they find the containers apparently loaded with normal supplies. Rand enters one of the containers, where he finds a hidden room housing Radovan, the chemist who created the formula since the Hand has his daughter hostage. Rand engages and overpowers a bodyguard after the latter critically stabs Radovan, whom Rand takes to the dojo, where Temple stabilizes him. Wing vows to help Rand defeat the Hand, which is revealed to be run by Wilson Fisk's old ally Madame Gao.
6	"Immortal Emerges from Cave"	RZA	Dwain Worrell	March 17, 2017
In order to satisfy Joy, Ward throws all of his drugs away. He and Rand start searching the warehouses of Rand Enterprises in order to find clues. They find a message left by the Hand challenging Rand to a combat. Rand tells Ward to proceed to the crisis management meeting about the video alone. Rand enters the building, demanding the Hand to free Sabina, Radovan's daughter, and leave his company if he wins, which Gao accepts in exchange for Rand to leave the Hand alone if he loses, which he accepts in return. Rand wins all three rounds by the help of his mentor from K'un-Lun; but Gao threatens to kill Sabina if Rand kills the last opponent. Rand spares him, against his mentor's orders. Gao frees Sabina, revealing that she has been in K'un-Lun before, and also knowing Rand's father. She easily overpowers Rand and allows the duo to leave. Meanwhile, Radovan's condition becomes critical, forcing Temple and Wing to take him to a hospital, where the Hand abducts him. Ward shows withdrawal symptoms in the meeting, forcing him to leave in order to search for drugs. Joy stops him from causing trouble at an infirmary.
7	"Felling Tree with Roots"	Farren Blackburn	Ian Stokes	March 17, 2017
Two Hand operatives arrive at the penthouse to interrogate Harold. Rand arrives and engages them with Harold, who kills both. Harold has Ward dump the bodies in a river. Rand develops romance with Wing. He starts investigating his father's past. Gao arrives at Rand Enterprises, advising Rand to stay out of the Hand's way. She leaves, with him tailing her to an office, where she discusses business with an employee loyal to her. After Gao leaves, Rand confronts the employee and convinces her to leave the city and give him her password. Rand and Wing persuade Yang to help them fight the Hand. Joy convinces Ward to go to a vacation. In a board meeting, Rand announces his decision to close the Staten Island plant while keeping the workers on payroll. Rand, Wing and Yang's operatives attack a Hand facility, where a dying Radovan reveals that Gao has departed for Anzhou, where Rand's family was headed fifteen years ago. The board ousts Rand, Ward and Joy. Ward learns that his personal account has been depleted. He confronts Harold, who humiliates him. Ward stabs Harold several times to his death. He dumps the body in the river.
8	"The Blessing of Many Fractures"	Kevin Tancharoen	Tamara Becher-Wilkinson	March 17, 2017
Rand deduces that his father was going to Anzhou to shut down Gao's operatios, but were targeted by her on the plane. The former, Wing and Temple head to Anzhou, where they acquire information from a nearby beggar. They infiltrate the facility just as Gao arrives. Rand engages Zhou, who has high martial skills despite being a drunkard. The former overpowers the latter and continues beating him until Temple and Wing arrive and stop him. Gao arrives and her men engage the trio, who overpower them. Rand deduces that Gao poisoned the pilots. He spares her life and apprehends her. Meanwhile, the board offers each Ward and Joy 100 million dollars as severance. He attempts to accept it; but she refuses, later showing him photos of the board members that can be used to blackmail them. Ward decides to tell her the truth about Harold and takes her to the penthouse; but hallucinations of blood change his mind.
9	"The Mistress of All Agonies"	Jet Wilkinson	Pat Charles	March 17, 2017
Rand takes Gao to the dojo, where Temple offers using truth serum to force her to talk. Rand steals the serum from Rand Enterprises. Temple injects it, with Gao stating some stories about Rand's parents before they turn out to be lies and Gao being resistant to torture. Wing is revealed to have been poisoned in Anzhou. She contacts her mentor Bakuto. Gao's military operatives attack the dojo, but are defeated. Bakuto arrives and instructs Rand to use the Iron Fist to heal Wing. Rand's energy is depleted and he falls unconscious. Bakuto, Wing and his men take Rand and Gao, leaving Temple at the dojo. An unknown assassin arrives at the dojo. Meanwhile, Harold recovers from his wounds and gains relatively normal mental function after hours, returning to the penthouse, where he confronts Ward and feigns absolution. Ward learns from Yang that those revived by the Hand become more psychopathic after each revival, and attack those closest to them first. Harold kills his assistant Kyle and places heroin in Ward's car, leading to his arrest and transfer to the psychiatric hospital, where he is assigned to Edmonds. Joy arrives at the penthouse and reunites with Harold.
10	"Black Tiger Steals Heart"	Peter Hoar	Quinton Peeples	March 17, 2017
Rand wakes up in a martial academy run by Bakuto, who teaches him how to recharge his "chi". The former becomes suspicious and infiltrates a restricted area, where he learns from an imprisoned Gao that Bakuto is a Hand leader. Rand confronts Wing, who states that Gao is the leader of an evil faction of the Hand. Bakuto offers Harold partnership; but the latter later determines to kill him. Rand learns that the Hand is conducting mass surveillance. He is confronted by Bakuto, whom he overpowers and attempts to escape before being surrounded by Hand operatives. The assassin, revealed to be Davos, comes to his aid. Bakuto stabs Rand by an unknown object. The duo fights its way to the gate, which needs to be destroyed by the Iron Fist, which Rand is unable to summon. The duo continues fighting the Hand until Wing opens the gate, allowing the duo to escape while she escapes in her own direction. Davos tells Rand that they need to return to K'un-Lun. Meanwhile, Harold kills board member Wilkins, staging it as suicide. Joy manages to convince the board to reinstate the Meachums and Rand. Harold denies his involvement in Wilkins' death to her.
11	"Lead Horse Back to Stable"	Deborah Chow	Ian Stokes	March 17, 2017
Rand tells Davos that they will not return to K'un-Lun until the Hand is destroyed. They go to Temple's, where she extracts the fragment of Bakuto's weapon from Rand's wound, stopping the bleeding, but failing to control the infection due to lack of antibiotics. Wing arrives and tries to reason with Rand. She goes to a hospital, where she asks an extern, also a Hand member, for antibiotics. Rand goes to the penthouse, where Joy has discovered that Bakuto has been transferring the Rand Enterprises money to his own accounts. Harold formulates a plan to flush out Bakuto and his operatives from the compound by having Joy freeze the accounts. The former and Rand agree to kill Bakuto, opposed by Joy. The Hand captures Wing and take her to the compound, where Bakuto decides to use her for revival. Outside the compound, Rand and Davos wait for Bakuto. Davos continues questioning Rand's motive for staying in New York. Joy freezes the accounts. Wing frees herself and escapes, spotted by Rand, who rushes inside and calms her. Davos learns about the romance.
12	"Bar the Big Boss"	Andy Goddard	Scott Reynolds	March 17, 2017
Ward escapes the hospital and goes to the penthouse, holding a gun and demanding Harold to let him take Joy. Bakuto and his operatives arrive, with the former calling Rand, shooting Joy and giving him half an hour to arrive at the penthouse in order to save the trio. Against Davos's objections, Rand decides to go, arriving just before Bakuto can decapitate Harold, the only way to kill him for good. The Hand locks Rand and takes him to the lobby, where Rand uses the Fist to free himself just as Davos and Wing attack the Hand, with Rand overpowering Bakuto, who escapes outside before he is cornered by the trio. Wing engages and overpowers him, refusing to kill him, which Davos does after Rand's refusal. The latter engages Davos and overpowers him, stating that he wishes to be both Rand and the Iron Fist. Davos departs and the pair finds Bakuto's body gone. Harold and Ward take Joy to a hospital. Rand and Wing return to the dojo. The next day, Ward texts Rand, alerting him that Harold has framed them of bearing drugs. The dojo is attacked by DEA agents, whom the pair defeats and escapes.
13	"Dragon Plays with Fire"	Stephen Surjik	Scott Buck & Tamara Becher-Wilkinson & Pat Charles	March 17, 2017
Harold enters Rand Enterprises and takes control of it. Rand and Wing go to Bakuto's facility, which is abandoned by the Hand. However, they find Gao, who reveals that Harold was the mastermind of the plane crash fifteen years prior. Ward tells Joy about Harold's actions. She confronts the latter, who denies framing Rand. She leaves for an unknown destination. Ward allies with Rand's team to defeat Harold. The former enters Rand Enterprises, but is spotted by Harold, who wounds him. Temple creates a distraction for Rand and Wing to infiltrate the building. Harold instructs his men to shoot Rand, since the Iron Fist is not bulletproof after all. Rand and Wing manage to overpower Harold's operatives. While Ward acquires evidence of Rand's innocence, the latter follows Harold to the rooftop, where they fight until Ward arrives and shoots Harold, who falls to his death. Ward has the body cremated. Rand convinces Wing to accompany him to K'un-Lun. In a meeting with Joy, Davos tells her that Rand must be killed, overheard by Gao. Rand and Wing arrive at the gate, but find it destroyed with bodies of Hand members.

The Verdict: 

Those descriptions are SCARY accurate...

When I wrote my review on Luke Cage a few months ago, I ranked the Marvel Netflix shows from best to worst. Here, I'm going to start this review off by doing the same to set the tone for this review.

Daredevil (Season 1), Jessica Jones (Season 1), Daredevil (Season 2), Luke Cage (Season 1), Iron Fist (Season 1) 

Yeah, somehow Marvel managed to screw this one up worse than Luke Cage in my eyes...

People still ask me what was my issue with Luke Cage and allow me to clear that up first.

A few of you who know me personally who read this blog know that I'm black, but my issue with that show is that while it stems from trying to showcase and highlight black culture (namely the Harlem community that it takes place in), it still encourages the negative black stereotypes that I don't really much care for how Hollywood consistently enforces in television and film. Bravo to that show for it's stellar multi-cultural cast, but that show, much like Iron Fist, is riddled with tons of narrative flaws from top to bottom.

Casting

How most people felt about Finn Jones being cast as Danny Rand instead of an Asian-American actor...

Unlike most people, I didn't have an issue with Marvel's casting a white/Caucasian actor to play Danny Rand, as if I'm perfectly honest the casting wouldn't have made the depiction of this character here any better from the lackluster writing that we will be discussing shortly. Finn Jones starts off strong but transforms into a whiny, mentally-unstable teenager by the end of the series. Maybe the writing is more to blame as the actor can't make chicken salad out of shit, but still. I wasn't too crazy about his performance here. The breakout star of this series is Colleen Wing, played by Jessica Henswick. She made the most out of what she was given here, especially when the narrative was really bare bones and inconsistent on what they wanted to do with her character, but she made the most if it. As a result, she is a joy to watch in every scene that she's in. Rosario Dawson's Claire Temple is easy on the eyes as well as a delight to see bring her sass and charm here like she has throughout the other Marvel Netflix shows, so don't expect anything different from her here outside of her actually helping a bit in the action in this series. I was cool with Ramón Rodríguez as Bakuto and Sacha Dhawan as Davos, but those guys screamed villain from the second they showed up on the scene. Much like Henswick, they made due with the shit they were given in this show's script. I swear though, everyone from K'un-Lun came off like a bunch of whiny bitches instead of great warriors...

Narrative

Claire Temple is the shining grace in terms of dialogue in this series bar none. She voices EXACTLY
what the audience is thinking watching this show.

One thing that I notice a lot of reviews were citing when I read them prior to watching this was that they were saying that original Iron Fist comics were full of racist stereotypes (something the live-action adaptation of The Spirit had to work around when Frank Miller took up that task) and they didn't have much to go off of. That's a weak excuse when Luke Cage managed to work with what they were given - at least for the most part anyway, when that character has a FAR less impressive rogues gallery to work with... It just shows me that the minds behind this lack creativity and were stuck in that last second rush to get in every major and minor tie-in to set up The Defenders around the corner. As a result, this series ends up being the Iron Man 2 to the Avengers for the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, meaning that the show suffers from an identity crisis when there's so much bridging to be done to set up the next "big thing".

I'm hearing this while watching Iron Fist...

...While thinking back at THIS from Daredevil Season 2. Yeah, you're not the ONLY one, bro.
Once again, I'm left wondering if the various minds behind each of the Marvel Netflix shows watch
each others' shows at all??

The first few episodes did exactly what I feared going into this - the show has too much of an Arrow vibe from the CW. For what was promised to be an action-heavy narrative, Iron Fist ends up allowing the action take a backseat to enforce the "rich kid returns home after being lost/thought to be dead and acquiring special training" tired, yet true trope from Batman, (Green) Arrow, Ironman, and so on.
Danny's special training and zen-like control of his chi and mantra seems to go out of the window completely as there's far too many instances where he has no idea what he is doing. Perfect example? Why is a guy with the education background as far as grade school (no higher than elementary school if he was gone since he was roughly 10 years old) given a board meeting seat of a billion dollar conglomerate? Sure, he inherited 51% of the shares of the company but should have there been something in place that had senior members override him given his lack of experience and education? They could have just had it where the Meachums accepted him back in the family with open arms, gave him access back to his inheritance money that's been building up interest over the past 15 years and move on. We could have done this whole family double cross thing as a subplot for the following season where they reveal that Harold was still alive. Revealing that now seemed to jump the gun too soon (much like how Daredevil Season 2 blew their load on the Hand and killing off Elektra all in one season) and somehow managed to create a lamer first season villain than Diamondback in the last half of Luke Cage when it was clear Black Mariah or Cottonmouth should have been the major antagonist for the first season.

This show had so many in-between the line references and jokes at blue balls that I'm sure people are going to be making
memes from this for months to come.

This show could have been called "Keepin' Up with the Meachums" or "Harold Knows Best" instead of Iron Fist since there's a bigger focus on the Meachum family drama than on Danny Rand and his burden of responsibility as the Iron Fist. That subplot really bogs this show down with completely unnecessary weight to the point where I was beginning to wonder if the Meachums would end up getting their own spin-off from their unnecessary drama.

It seemed that Marvel didn't learn anything here after their mistakes and criticisms following Luke Cage and Daredevil Season 2 as Iron Fist recycling the same ideas and tropes from previous Netflix series.  For example, you have the potential best friend turned enemy (Diamondback in Luke Cage, Davos here, who will become the Steel Serpent later) and the mentally disturbed son pushed over the edge by oppressive father (Wilson Fisk kills his father in Daredevil Season 1, Ward kills Harold here, but Harold comes back to life later only to be killed off by Ward again in the finale).

Claire Temple used as the bridge to tie all of the Defenders together up to this point. Much like with Luke Cage, Claire grounds Danny here but Colleen Wing deserves more credit for that until her "betrayal" at the halfway point of the series. Claire seems more like the voice of the audience here than a bridge/tie to the other Marvel Netflix shows.

Speaking of other ties to the Marvel Netflix shows, Daredevil's Karen Page mentioned briefly during Danny taking a stand against his board members, but she is never shown on-screen. I'm guessing they didn't want to pay her for a 5 second cameo. Another minor tie-in was that Jessica Jones was indirectly mentioned as the private investigator who got the dirt on the Rand Senior Executives for Joy Meachum to blackmail them to get her and Ward's positions of power back within the company. There's a lot more easter eggs and tie-ins to the other Marvel Netflix shows and references, but you can check out that full list here.

Harold Meachum being the mastermind/culprit behind the Rand family demise/plane crash was so obvious that even Ray Charles could have seen that twist coming. I had so many questions on how come no one never exposed him living in that building all of that time over the past 15+ years to the point where the show got to the halfway point, I just said fuck it because it was so damn ridiculous. Better yet... it was just so fucking stupid - even more so on how naive and trusting Danny was of Harold. I love how Danny's zen-like mantras and mental conditioning and training went completely out of the window after Colleen Wing and Harold's deceptions. So much for all of those years of training to make his mind AND his body the ultimate living weapon when he loses his shit at the first sign of things not going his way.

This guy should've been around for more than one episode. I could say the same for ALL of the assassins/fighters thrown against Danny in this to be honest...

Why would Madame Gao want to kill Danny when it's painfully obvious that she's got just as much power to rival his own - along with the experience to boot - and her influence within Rand's corporation was so deeply rooted that Danny's 51% of control didn't mean jack shit. All of this corporate bullshit only bogged this show down even more with unnecessary bullshit when it should have been merely a show focusing on Danny's return to civilized society outside of K'un-Lun and learning the mastery of his powers as they focused merely on the Hand organization as a whole. Why is it that the Hand have been the "major" antagonists in roughly 2-3 of these Marvel Netflix shows but viewers barely know anything about them since this end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been introduced? Back when I was watching both seasons of Daredevil, the excuse I kept telling myself is that "OK they can't go too far into the Hand until Iron Fist comes out where they'll spend the entire season establishing who and what they are..." Iron Fist came out and goddammit I was horribly wrong when I said that as the show did little to explain the Hand. Sure, they revealed that the Hand has a power struggle going on within rival splinter factions within their own organization, but they did nothing to establish what necessarily makes the Hand the bad guys or why they are understood as evil.

My reaction to every time Danny says that he's the Iron Fist or when someone back in Daredevil mentioned
Black Sky. 

Let's not to mention that both seasons of Daredevil failed to explain exactly what the Black Sky was (along with why were the Hand so obsessed with it) nor what or why were the Hand digging a hole underneath Hell's Kitchen. That has to be literally the biggest plot hole in the Marvel Netflix universe to date...

Action

This is exactly what I thought of when I was watching most of the fight sequences in this series. To be fair though,
most modern seasons of Power Rangers/Super Sentai have better fight choreography than this show and that's just damn
sad.

To say that this show was promised to be martial arts-inspired and action-heavy show, there wasn't much action here at all, especially during the first 6-7 episodes. Keep in mind that Danny Rand technically doesn't defeat any of the major villains in this season himself at all. Colleen Wing defeats Bakuto and Davos lands the finishing blow that "kills" him while Ward killed Harold himself when Danny refused to do it. I will admit that Colleen Wing's fights (ALL of them...) were the standout to the entire series, especially in the first few episodes when she was those street fights (that was pretty much Fight Club) for money. Then the whole sequence where Danny and Davos break out of Bakuto's sanctuary was pretty awesome too. I really didn't care for how the "final boss" sequence where Danny faced off against Harold during the season finale was pretty much a rehash of the original Sam Raimi Spider-Man film where the bad guy gets impaled on something to meet his end before Ward ends up finishing the guy himself.

When asked a general question about how he (Finn Jones) prepared for the exciting martial arts scenes, his reply is halfway between an excuse and an apology. 

“Well, here’s the situation,” he begins, explaining that he only had three weeks to train before filming. “Unfortunately, with the filming schedule, I wasn’t given as much time as I would have liked to continue the training.” Shooting for 12 or 14 hours a day took its toll. “I was learning those fight scenes just 15 minutes before we shot them, because that was the schedule... It would be 2am, 3am, I’d just done a long day of work, and usually the stunt department would come up and say ‘Hey, right, we’ve got this huge 30 person fight and you’ve got to learn it right now.’ So I was learning it on the spot, within 15-20 minutes, and then shooting it. That was the reality for six months.”

I'm not cutting Finn Jones any slack here. He knew what show he was getting cast for and he could have taken some martial arts classes for this to look better in some sequences, but the blame goes on the fight choreographer as well for not consulting whoever does the fights for Daredevil and Agents of SHIELD for the last two seasons. Hell, what's that guy who did the choreography for Captain America: The Winter Soldier doing now? If he's not working on Avengers: Infinity War, then whoever that guy (or gal) is needs a full-time job doing fight choreography for these films and TV shows for the MCU.

To be fair though, Danny's fight against this drunken master (and the whole gauntlet against the Hand's "best" - VERY loose term here - fighters) was actually very well done, but I was expecting more of that as the series went on but ultimately seemed like we got less action as the show dragged on

In my honest opinion, I would have forgiven the lackluster writing here (somewhat...) if the fight scenes made up for it. Instead, the fight sequences (majority of them anyway...) end up being this series' biggest shortcoming and disappointment.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

Why does the Iron Fist have to look like he's just holding a light bulb/flashlight in his hand?

As the last stop on the way towards The Defenders later this year, Iron Fist is an utter disappointment. There's some things to like here, such as the cameos by Jeri Hogarth and Claire Temple along with Jessica Wenwick's stand-out performance as Colleen Wing, but lackluster narrative and a sluggish pace that somehow manages to drag along slower than last year's Luke Cage weighs this series down with so much unnecessary baggage (if setting the stage for The Defenders wasn't bad enough...) that made watching this show much more of a chore than it need to be. It's not a complete trainwreck, but I highly recommend not going out of your way to watch it in one sitting. 

QUICKIE -- Samurai Jack: Episode XCII

Saturday, March 11, 2017 marked the return of a Cartoon Network original animated series as Samurai Jack returned as part of the current iteration of the Toonami block. Out of all of Genndy Tartakovsky's animated works,  I felt that Samurai Jack was the one that deserved a proper ending after having it's legs chopped out from underneath it during the early 2000s era of Cartoon Network.

Hopefully after this wraps up, maybe we can get a proper ending to Sym-Biotic Titan?

Cast:

Phil LaMarr – Samurai Jack
Greg Baldwin – Aku
Grey Griffin – High Priestess, additional voices
Sab Shimono – Emperor

Plot:

Fifty years have passed. But, I do not age. Time has lost its effect on me. Yet, the suffering continues. Aku's grasp chokes the past, present, and future. All hope is lost. Got to get back. Back to the past. Samurai Jack.
— Jack, in the opening sequence

Fifty years have passed since Jack arrived in the future; his sword is missing, he has given up hope of returning to his time, and he is tormented by hallucinations of his parents, his kingdom, and a mysterious figure on horseback. Jack rescues a mother and daughter from several bug robots and defeats Scaramouch, a fast-talking musical robotic assassin (styled after Sammy Davis Jr.)[18] who has destroyed a village to get Jack's attention. Meanwhile, seven young girls are raised and trained from birth to become the Daughters of Aku, a team of elite assassins with the sole purpose of killing Jack.

The Verdict:

Anyone else notice the subtle design similarity to Jack's new armor to Lance's Manus armor from Sym-Biotic Titan?

I'm going to try not to ramble to much about this as it's going to take me a few episodes to see where they are going with this. For Jack's first appearance in about a decade, this wasn't a bad way to kick start the revival of his animated series that never saw a proper ending.

First of all, I love that they are going into a more mature direction. Jack's not fighting only robotic enemies as the "Daughters of Aku" who were introduced here seem to be Jack's first "human" enemies that aren't demons or robots like the usual minions of Aku. I just hope that their story doesn't turn into one where Jack doesn't kill them and they all end up being his sidekicks or something lame like that. I don't condone killing children (even grown up ones) but it seems like from the previews for the next episode, Jack is going to be conflicted when forced to harm them.

This episode opened up a lot of questions for sure. Why doesn't Jack age even after 50 years has passed? What happened to his trademark sword? Why the hell is Jack hallucinating? Where the hell IS Aku?

I have a few theories. I think that his separation from his sword might be the cause of the hallucinations since it was essentially a part of him, so his psyche could be damaged as a result. As for Jack not aging, I think something that cut Jack off from going back to the past caused that. It has to be either that or some crazy plot twist where he never left the past but his journey to the future was like a spiritual thing instead of his physical body going. The lack of Aku is pretty obvious since Mako passed away after recording the original Avatar: The Last Airbender a few years ago, voicing Iroh. Greg Baldwin was his student and filled in the follow-up, The Legend of Korra, so naturally he would fill in for Aku's lines here in this premiere where Scaramoush called him.

Sorry Scaramoush, but Jack's not a fan of your musical and lyrical talents.

Speaking of Scaramoush, how awesome was fucking Tom Kenny in this episode as that character? He really surprised me here. While I wasn't crazy with his portrayal of Doctor Octopus in Ultimate Spider-Man, I liked his character here. I love how that guy is really branching out more into other action roles instead of being known as merely the guy who voices Spongebob Squarepants. I was hoping that he would have been a new reoccurring villain, but at the same time, I can't be surprised that they killed off Scaramoush in one episode because the original series killed off Demongo in the same episode that he debuted in as well.

The Daughters of Aku... Why do I feel like they have some kinda of X-23 style redemption storyline incoming?

The Daughters of Aku seem to be the new big bads that will be the ongoing villains for this season so Scaramoush served as the sampler for the viewers to show that Jack hasn't lost his touch - completely. He's still just as formidable as he was when we last saw him, despite not having his trademark sword. I thought it was a nice touch that Jack is pillaging the weapons of his fallen foes like a true wandering warrior with no direction. Samurai Jack's powerful usage of symbolism and clever visual metaphors is still very strong here. They haven't skipped a beat in that aspect in the least with age. The same goes for the action and the visual style. At first glance, I was feeling that the visual style was looking a little dated, but they added a few subtle nods to comic books as the episode went on and I can get behind this again.

Watch It or Don't Bother? 

Absolutely. Jump back into the world of Samurai Jack. It seems like we're in for a wild ride this time around. I'm so anxious to see where this goes.

REVIEW -- Yu-Gi-OH! The Dark Side of Dimensions

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions is a 2016 Japanese animated film, part of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. The film is an original story and features Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba as its main characters. The film's story is set six months after the events of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga in Japan. In English speaking countries, the film's story is set one year after the events of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. In celebration of the film and twenty years of the franchise in general, TV Tokyo began airing a remastered digital edition of the 2000–2004 Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime in Japan. The film was released in Japan on April 23, 2016 and was released on January 27, 2017 in the United States and Canada and will be released on February 2, 2017 in Australia. This will be the fourth theatrical release of a Yu-Gi-Oh! film after Yu-Gi-Oh! (1999), Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, and Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time.

Creator Kazuki Takahashi published a new one-shot manga called TRANSCEND GAME in Weekly Shōnen Jump. The two-part prologue story is set between the end of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and the beginning of The Dark Side of Dimensions. Part 1 released in the 19th issue on April 11, 2016 and Part 2 released in the 20th issue on April 18, 2016. VIZ Media's digital Weekly Shōnen Jump announced that it will publish Yu-Gi-Oh!: Transcend Game. Part 1 released in the December 19, 2016 issue.Part 2 released in the January 2, 2017 issue.

Voice Cast: 

Character	Voice actor (Japanese)	Voice actor (English)
Yugi Mutou/Yugi Muto	Shunsuke Kazama	Dan Green
Seto Kaiba	Kenjiro Tsuda	Eric Stuart
Katsuya Jōnouchi/Joey Wheeler	Hiroki Takahashi	Wayne Grayson
Anzu Mazaki/Tea Gardner	Maki Saitō	Amy Birnbaum
Hiroto Honda/Tristan Taylor	Takayuki Kondo	Greg Abbey
Ryo Bakura/Bakura Ryou	Rica Matsumoto	Ted Lewis/Michael Crouch (Young)
Mokuba Kaiba	Junko Takeuchi	Tara Sands
Ryuji Otogi/Duke Devlin	Ryō Naitō	Marc Thompson
Aigami	Kento Hayashi	Daniel J. Edwards
Sugoroku Mutō/Solomon Muto	Tadashi Miyazawa	Wayne Grayson
Ryō Bakura's Father	Kazuhiro Yamaji	Marc Thompson
Sera	Kana Hanazawa	Laurie Hymes
Mani	Satoshi Hino	Tamir Cousins
Kudaragi	Kendo Kobayashi	Billy Bob Thompson
Shadi Shin	Nozomu Sasaki	Wayne Grayson

The Plot (FULL Spoilers)

In the opening, KaibaCorp is doing research on the Millennium Puzzle. Suddenly, a mysterious cloak man is at the underground as one of Kaiba's bodyguards Roland tells him that he is behind schedule and to start digging. A few years after the departure of the Pharaoh, Yugi Muto and his closest friends are in their final year of High School and are talking about what they will do in the future. Meanwhile, Seto Kaiba has commissioned an excavation to retrieve the disassembled Millennium Puzzle from the ruins of the Millennium chamber. The item had previously housed the soul of his rival, Atem, whom he hopes to revive in order to settle their score. The excavation is interrupted by Diva, who faces Kaiba in a game of Duel Monsters and steals two pieces of the recovered Puzzle. He keeps one fragment and gives the other to his sister Sera who passes it on to Yugi Muto, aware that he was the host of the Pharaoh.

Diva, under the alias "Aigami," forges a "friendship" with Yugi. He takes interest in Yugi's friend Ryo Bakura, whom he believes is responsible for the death of his father-like mentor, Shadi. Using his Quantum Cube, he transports Bakura to another dimension. Bakura apologizes and explains that the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring had been responsible. The two are interrupted by Mani, who has become warped by the evil energies of the Millennium Ring.

Kaiba has a computer rebuild the Millennium Puzzle and discovers the last two pieces are missing. He abducts Aigami and approaches Yugi, so he can have the two take part in the showcasing of his updated Duel Disk virtual reality technology. He intends to duel both Aigami and Yugi, while gambling their pieces of the puzzle. However, Yugi is furious with Aigami over what he did to Bakura and insists he duel him instead, which Kaiba agrees to.

Yugi defeats Aigami, resulting in Bakura's return to reality, and while dueling Kaiba, Yugi re-completes the Millennium Puzzle to demonstrate that the spirit of Atem is no longer inside it. Aigami becomes corrupted by the incredible evil powers of the Millennium Ring and duels both Yugi and Kaiba. Kaiba sacrifices himself during the Duel and makes a final plea for Yugi to call forth Atem. Yugi succeeds in doing so, and he and Atem defeat Aigami with ease. Atem and the Millennium Puzzle then fade away, and Kaiba and Bakura return to reality.

The film concludes with Yugi and his best friends seeing Tea off at the airport as she goes off to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer in New York City while Kaiba uses his technology in conjunction with the Quantum Cube to transport his consciousness to the Netherworld, where he approaches Pharaoh Atem, sitting on his throne who responds with a confident smile.

The Verdict:

I went into this expecting that it was going to be either pretty average like the first Yu-Gi-OH! movie or being mere fan-service like Bonds Beyond Time was that brought Jaden (GX) and Yusei (5D's) together with Yugi and Yami against a common enemy. What I wasn't expecting that this was going to be full blown story arc crammed into a bit over two hours. I cannot rave about this Yu-Gi-OH! film enough for long-time fans. From a narrative standpoint, this manages to continue and expand upon the issues that weren't resolved at the end of the anime series, such as Seto Kaiba not being satisfied with never defeating Atem/Yami Yugi before he left this world forever or how Yugi Muto and his friends are coping with the departure of their long-time friend, Atem/Yami Yugi.

One obvious change here is that Yugi and roughly everyone has aged up slightly since quite some time has passed since the end of the anime. Yugi and his friends are on the verge of graduating high school (Hell, Yugi even looks more like The Pharoah now without transforming). Mokuba Kaiba looks a bit older than he was back during the course of the anime series, but other than those two, everyone else barely look much different.

I was a fan of Seto Kaiba during the anime but here, this film solidified him as my favorite character in the series now. He was always Yugi's "Vegeta" trope to challenge him at every opportunity where the story demanded it, but now Kaiba's obsession to finally even the score with his loss to Atem has driven him to create even more advanced dueling technology in hopes of bringing him back to our world. Kaiba's story of redemption is what drives this narrative to be such a compelling story for long-time Yu-Gi-OH! fans as it comes down to Kaiba truly respects Atem, despite their differences and would do anything to see him again. I love that Kaiba's character has gone full circle here instead of being the boring recurring villain trope that plagued him for the bulk of the series until the filler with the former corporate board members of his adopted family's company during the Battle City story arc. Here, Kaiba steals the show on multiple occasions with his impressive dueling prowess - even almost besting this film's feature villain prior to even Yugi's clash with him at the film's climax before their duel was rendered a draw.

One thing about the duels here in this film they are just as good if not better than every single of those exhibitions that the creators of the anime setup with the voice actors at official Yu-Gi-OH! tournaments. The new additions and upgrades to the Duel Monsters formula was a nice touch to see even the original series is getting a taste of the newest additions to the game. If I were to see the film again, I would watch to see it in a theater or on a proper home video format (instead of streamed on my laptop) just to see the improved visuals and designs to the Duel Monsters cards.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that they finally shown how the Millennium Ring first possessed Bakura. I honestly don't remember if they detailed that or not in the original anime, but that was something I wish they showed in the anime since he (the spirit within the ring) ended up being the series' biggest villain by the last story arc came around.

Joey Wheeler and Tristan Taylor are reduced to comedy relief here for the most part. I was completely fine with that as I laughed my ass off at Joey Wheeler throughout this, especially at that line where he demanded that Kaiba buy him a change of underwear after scaring the shit out of him - literally. Tea's merely around for moral support, but they never resolved the ordeal about Tea's feelings for Atem. Oh well... Yugi's grandfather is hanging around at the card shop as usual but doesn't do much here either. In his case, I can't complain too much as his role wasn't ever too significant in the original anime series anyway. One thing that did really surprise me was that Atem/The Pharoah didn't have not ONE speaking line in this entire film. It was kinda a bummer to have Dan Green do his young Yugi voice the entire film without any dramatic flair from the King of Games himself.

Oh well... this film does a better job of establishing Yugi Muto as the new hero to replace the Pharoah than how Gohan did in the follow-up seasons of Dragonball Z after the Cell Games. Yugi definitely held his own against the threats thrown his way in this film, but I couldn't help but feel that this film was painting the picture of Seto Kaiba being the new protagonist. There was that one point that he got an insanely lucky draw during his first encounter with Diva. It's so awesome that I don't even want to spoil it - it's that damn good. Then there were several points scattered throughout the film where Kaiba held his own and outsmarted everyone - including this new adversary - at every turn. Hell, Kaiba was even willing to sacrifice himself to give him Yugi the chance to bring back the Pharoah to deal the finishing blow to Diva at the film's climax. Previously, Kaiba would have done everything in his power to win on his own. Once again, I have to applaud the writers here with Kaiba's growth as a character whereas rivals like Goku and Vegeta in these Shonen Jump properties tend to rehash and recycle the same tropes over and over again in a boring fashion.

That being said, with the way how the movie ends with Kaiba confronting Atem once more, it seems like things have gone full circle back to the beginning of where this anime took place in terms of all of the ancient legends of the Pharoah facing his greatest rival, a mage who looked oddly similar to Seto Kaiba. Then again, the door is left wide open if the anime's creators would like to do another full blown season based on the original Yu-Gi-OH! anime and characters.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

For long time Yu-Gi-OH! fans, I highly recommend checking this out. This movie serves as an epilogue of sorts for the original Yu-Gi-OH! anime that follows the adventures of Yugi Muto, following the events of the end of that anime. If you haven't seen that anime from start to finish, there's going to be a few major spoilers, so I recommend that you finish watching that in its entirety first before jumping into this.