It’s days like this I’m thankful Marvel TV isn’t a part of the MCU!
Kevin Feige would have never messed up this bad!
With Iron Fist currently getting a beat down of its own on Rotten Tomatoes, and just about every reviewer jumping on the anti-Iron Fist bandwagon, it’s learned the disastrous performance of the series isn’t on Finn Jones’ shoulders.
A big problem many have with Iron Fist is the fact that the martial arts sequences are really bad, especially considering it’s supposed to be a “kung fu” show ; however, I’m kind of surprised at that reaction because, yes, Daredevil‘s action scenes were just as bad.
Regardless of what our opinion is on the two shows, in an interview with London reporters, Finn Jones fills them in about the behind-the-scenes preparation for the Iron Fist fight scenes–in that there was basically none.
“Well, here’s the situation,” Finn Jones explained as reported by the Guardian and offering 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.”
So we see that Finn Jones basically had zero training for Iron Fist, which isn’t his fault. We can’t even lie the blame on the fight choreographers and stuntmen because they had little time to prep for the fights as well. The fault lies on Marvel TV including head of Marvel TV Jeph Loeb and showrunner Scott Buck (who is now on to Inhumans). It’s obvious they rushed Iron Fist into production when it’s clear it was no where near ready to start filming.
And regarding Daredevil, let’s not forget they used a stunt double for Charlie Cox as DD is masked (they used martial artist Chris Brewster), while Finn Jones’ Iron Fist didn’t wear a mask, so he did most of his own stunts (why they went that route is anyone’s guess).
For an example of the Iron Fist action, watch this scene, which features tons of cut scenes in an attempt to make the action look good:
