Marvel releases its fourth series on Netflix, Iron Fist, and early reviews for it aren’t looking good.

Released on March 17 of 2017, the series will have 13-episodes and starring as Danny Rand/Iron Fist is “Game of Thrones” alumnus Finn Jones. Danny Rand is plane crash survivor who returns to New York City to reclaim the family business after a 15 year absence.

Even before the show hit production, asian fans were frustrated with the shows possible portrayal of asian culture and also mad at the fact that they did not cast an Asian-American actor for the role but instead casted a caucasian actor to play the role of Danny Rand.

Critics call the show Marvel’s most boring series yet. With boring action sequences, uncompelling story, and casting Finn Jones as the martial arts based super hero. With only 6 episodes shown to critics, many said that there was much potential lost with the action packed life of Danny Rand in the new series.

Previous Marvel releases on Netlix scored High on the “Tomatometer” on Rotten Tomato scored high with Daredevil’s first season scoring a 98%, Jessica Jones with 93% and Luke Cage getting a 96%. Rotten Tomatoes, says, “Despite some promising moments, Iron Fist is weighed down by an absence of momentum and originality.” and got a 14% on their rating meter. Metacritic, another aggregator site shows that Iron Fist has a 33 out of 100, which means that the critics were not all too happy with the series.

The Verge quotes that “As far as diversity, representation, and appropriation go, the series fails in a number of ways. But, over the course of its first six episodes, it also manages to fall short on basic levels like storytelling. Its creative laziness bankrupts the entire show.” Not a very pleasing thing to say about a high standard company like Marvel. The Hollywood Reporter calls the show Marvel and Netflix’s “first big misstep,” which means that even the mightiest of heroes have seen better days. “Iron Fist feels like a step backward on every level, a major disappointment that already suffers from storytelling issues through the first six episodes… and would probably be mercifully skippable in its entirety if it weren’t the bridge into the long awaited Defenders crossover series.”
Despite the low ratings and harsh criticism one star did rise up on top and that is Jessica Henwick for her role as Colleen Wing.

Screen Crush was not too happy with the results of the first six episode either and said, ”Iron Fist starts to show signs of life in its sixth episode… but the slog in getting there is too great an ask, especially when the vast majority of the principal characters feel so spectacularly underdeveloped.” They also praised Jessica Henwick being Colleen Wing for she is “the most fully-realized character” with “a rich supporting performance”.

Variety‘s review was not too kind with the series either calling it “ferociously boring” and “inessential”. They quote,“Not one element of this plodding piece works. The action scenes lack spark, snap, and originality. None of the flat, by-the-numbers characters makes any lasting impression.” Even with the praise Jessica Henwick is receiving, Variety questions why she is not the main focus in the series and say that she is underwritten in the series.

They note the fact that if the series were to focus on Henwick or another Asian-American actor were to stand out with their own personal conflicts into battle like Jessica Jones or Luke Cage did, then the series would have had more depth rather than focussing on the main character. “… the distinct identities and concerns their (Marvel’s) protagonists carried into battle… Those kinds of social, political, and moral clashes among specific characters and cultures could have amped up the drama”. Polygon concurs with the idea and says, “Iron Fist’s problems with its portrayal of Asian cultures and Asian-Americans are embedded throughout every episode. It’s just that its problems with delivering exposition, crafting consistent characters, and even basic dialogue writing run right alongside.”
With so much backlash about the portrayal of Asian culture Iron Fist is depicting, The Asian-American society is more than happy to admit that they were right when it came to the series being a bad idea.

Written by Hugh Huynh