(Original Post date 10 November 2012)
It’s that time again, time for the Infraggable Tony-Man to give one of
his reviews. This time on Quinton Tarantino’s* “Man with the Iron
Fists.”** While it was a good movie in its right, and I’d even go to say
that it was a better than average movie, I found that there were some
elements that posed itself to be somewhat weak. Here with some minor
spoilers, is my take on the movie.
The movie has a pretty strong cast; with Russell Crowe (Gladiator,
Master and Commander), and Lucy Liu. It also has RZA, Jamie Chung, and a
lot of other Asian actors. This movie also has the movie debut of David
Bautista; from WWE fame. This Kung Fu action flick has a lot of the
same mantras that Tarantino is known for; such as flashbacks, and over
the top violence and gore. The movie takes place, probably sometime at
the back end of the American Civil War, and it involves Chinese gangs.
And right here, is the first issue that I have, is that it really
doesn’t make it clear what time period its set in until roughly the end
of the movie; so it was hard for me to put the entire movie into
context. Not really a breaking point of the movie and it’s certainly
something that can be overlooked. The entire premise of the movie is
the leader of one of the gangs, the Lions, is betrayed by one of his own
gang and it begins dissent between the leader’s son, and the rest of
the gang.
The biggest problem I have with the movie, is the
characters and more specifically the motivations behind why the
characters behave in the manner that they do. Starting with one of its
main characters, Zi Yang, or as I’m just going to call him, the
Shredder. He is the son of the killed leader; Gold Lion. He’s a pretty
straight forward guy. Father gets killed, and he swears vengeance on
his father’s murderer. This is about as straight-forward as one could
get as far as motivation, yet since it never speaks about the
relationship between father and son, I admit that I couldn’t really feel
sympathy for this character. I really wasn’t invested in his actions,
or why he turned to the life that he lived. He’s really a stock Asian
character, and a little bland. His fight sequences were phenomenal, and
his armor does sort of remind me of the Shredder in several ways, but
otherwise, he’s a rather forgettable character.
The next
character is Jack Knife, played by the always regal Russell Crowe. He’s
an English Colonel, fighter, and womanizer. In my opinion, he’s the
most memorable character from the movie, but he’s not without his flaws.
He’s sent by the Emperor of China to retrieve lost gold. He has
several funny scenes (though probably unintentionally funny), and he
comes off as kind of a jackwagon. There’s also a scene that involves
him that kind of threw off the atmosphere of the entire movie when he
has a semi-sadistic moment, and then screams about how he’s on vacation,
that seems almost out of character for Russell Crowe. There’s
completely no backstory for this character, and even though it’s Russell
Crowe, I just couldn’t seem to have any kind of investment in why his
character was the way it was.
The next main character is the
blacksmith. I’m not sure if it was just Hollywood’s decision, or if
there’s any relevance to this, but he’s the only brotha in the movie.
Yet, the blacksmith is the central character. It’s his story, he’s the
one who is telling it through voice-overs and flashbacks. He’s the one
who is creating weapons for everyone, including the poison darts that
killed the Shredder’s father, and he’s the one who created the weapons
for everyone who pretty much has a weapon in the entire movie. And due
to events that happen with the movie, he becomes “the man with the iron
fists.” We learn through flashbacks, that he was once a slave in
America (the only time where time period is established) and that he was
given his freedom by his white slaver. We also learn that he became a
practicioner of Bhuddism, and eventually became a blacksmith. Out of
the main characters, he’s really the only one of them that I really gave
a rat’s ass; because he’s the only character that I felt was really
fleshed out.
Other notable characters are Mistress Blossom,
played by Lucy Liu, who as always gives a phenomenal performance. She
runs the Pink Blossom Geisha House, and plays a very caring, if not
authoritative mistress. She seems to care about her … uhm… whores,
because she was once one of them. Again, maybe I just have a soft spot
for Lucy Liu since in my eyes she could do no wrong with her acting. I
could watch her just standing still for 2 hours, not say a damned thing,
and just take everyone’s abuse, good-natured or not, and I would
worship her in a non-sacreligious way. It’s fuckin’ Lucy Liu, I mean
come on. The other notable character is “Brass Body” played by David
Bautista. I gotta say, I kind of expected a little more, since he’s
technically the big villain of the movie. He’s the nigh-invincible
uber-badguy that the main characters must face. But again, like most of
the characters in this movie, I felt was sort of just there to be
there. He does present a huge problem to the heroes, but then again,
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was much like the uber-badguy in “The Mummy
Returns” but had little reason to explain just WHY he was the badguy.
The only real thing that we know about Brass Body is that he was hired
to kill the Shredder (Zi Yang) and that he was paid a large amount of
money to do so. Other than that, we don’t see much about his
aspirations, his motives, or even how he became what he is. Really, I
couldn’t figure out why as a movie watcher, or a reviewer I should give
any fucks for this guy.
Still, even with its characters and
motivations lacking for the most part, “The Man with the Iron Fists”
does turn out to be quite a good movie; one that I would put up there
with “Kill Bill”*** volumes one and two. If you’re looking for a movie
that philosophically thought-provoking, emotion jerking, or even
intellectually compelling… this is not a movie that will achieve that.
If you’re looking for decapitations, blood, gore, and implied sex… then
this is a treat for you, as this movie has no shortage of it. This is
probably not a movie you want to shell out and see in the theatre; but
it does make a good rental to watch by yourself, or like I did, with
good friends. Which of course, is much of the movie-going experience;
it’s definitely not “Wreck-It Ralph,” but it does have its charms. Just
don’t expect to find it in its mostly bland and trite characters. This
is Tarantino doing what Tarantino does; I’m just here for the ride and
review.
*I didn't realize that Tarantino didn't actually direct this movie, which may also explain why it was crap. [15 January 2013]
**I think it's sad that the best part of the movie was "Asian David Bowie" and even that got fucked up because he didn't sing "Dance Magic Dance" [15 January 2013]
***Except unlike Kill Bill, this movie lacks any sort of cohesive "give a fuck" story. [15 January 2013]
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