Being as how I have quite a few of the
'Wu-Tang Clan Presents…' kung fu series of films in my private
collection, being as how I was a fan of the music of the
Wu-Tang, being as how I am a fan of kung fu movies in general,
not to mention that I am a genuine Master of the Flying
Guillotine which we won't get into right now… RZA's
directorial debut of 'The Man with the Iron Fists' was pretty
much a no brainer here at the FCU offices. Did 'The Man
with the Iron Fists' meet expectations? Well… not
really, but we'll discuss it.
The Blacksmith, as played by RZA, narrates the goings on in
his little Chinese enclave known as Jungle City. Jungle
City probably isn't the best place to raise a family
considering there are constant warring clans running through
the streets killing each other and the number one industry, as
far as I can see, is the brothel run by the lovely Madam
Blossom (Lucy Lui). The Blacksmith is a specialist at
making weapons, and he has been making some particularly
lethal weapons for the various clans, which he is not proud
of, but he needs the money so that he can purchase the freedom
of his lady love Lady Silk (Jamie Chung) from the house of
Blossom. While we here at the FCU decry the exploitation
of women through the criminal industry of prostitution, we can
clearly see why the House of Blossom would be a primary
destination of interest when passing through Jungle City.
Regardless, as bad as things are in Jungle City, it's about to
get a whole lot worse. The problem is the fiercest clan
in Jungle City, the Lion Clan, has staged an in-house coup as
led by the scurrilous Silver Lion (Byron Mann) and his right
hand Bronze Lion
(Cung Le) dispatching their leader Gold Lion,
with the plan to steal a boatload of the emperor's
bullion. The problem with this plan of theirs would be
Gold Lion's son Zen Yi (Rick Yune), a master of blades who
will no doubt be looking for revenge. Silver Lion is
fully aware of this and as such has contracted the unforgiving
hired killer Brass Body (Dave Bautista) to handle his light
work. Zen Yi believes himself to be a badass. Zen
Yi, meet Brass Body. Illusion of badassery dispersed.
Also in Jungle City at this time is magical knife wielding
Englishman Jack the Knife, as played by Russell Crowe who we
gotta say is looking a lot like John Goodman these days.
I'm sure the extra pounds are just to add authenticity to the
role, you know how actors are. Why is this
whore-mongering, very dangerous Englishman in Jungle City
right now? We're not going to spoil it for you.
Unfortunately the Blacksmith has found himself caught up in
this mess in the worst way, finding himself on the bad side of
Silver Lion which we cannot see ending well.
Nonetheless, with the emperor's gold in the balance, the life
of Lady Silk and Jungle City as a whole is in danger unless a
trio of outnumbered heroes, which includes the soon to be born
Man with the Iron Fists, can succeed in stopping the force
known as the Lion Clan, or all will be lost. Kung fu
action, Black Widows and of a course a dude with flailing
white hair will ensue, en masse.
Please recognize that if there was ever a modern love sonnet
paid to classic Kung-Fu movies, it is RZA's 'The Man with Iron
Fists'. I imagine it would be difficult for anybody who
is a long time fan of kung fu flicks to watch 'The Man with
the Iron Fists' and not smile early and often at the nods
given to the genre. The Gemini twins? Come on
now. It is RZA's clear love of the genre which makes
this movie borderline awesome, but like the source material it
is sprung from, 'The Man with the Iron Fists' is also
borderline a complete mess.
I mean I get that kung fu movies in general have a jumbled up,
fractured, nonsensical storyline, but I'm thinking that's one
avenue where RZA and his co-writer Eli Roth might've been able
to improve upon. No need to be that damned
authentic. I also hear that the original cut of the
movie is four plus hours long, so that would go a long way to
explain the jumbled nature of the storyline, but to that end I
do believe I'd rather view a messed up narrative than watch a
four hour kung fu movie.
But my main issue with 'The Man with the Iron Fists', which
should've been its saving grace, was the fight scenes. I
could tell that the Cory Yuen choreographed fight scenes were
probably sweet, and in some of them were… kind of… but the
editing of the majority of these sequences was so choppy and
jumbled and clumsy that it was hard to find a groove to truly
enjoy what I'm certain would've been some awesome action
sequences if they were just assembled a little better.
The casting and characters… with the probable exception of
RZA… sorry… was just about perfect. We've been a fan
Byron Mann ever since we saw him 'Crying Freeman' almost
twenty years ago and he has rarely let us down and his Silver
Lion with his crazy hair and exorbitant use of eyeliner was
right on point. Lucy Lui as the madam and the captain of
the Black Widow death squad was awesome, finally somebody
found the proper way to use Dave Bautista in a movie and we
enjoyed watching Russell Crowe in the movie almost as much as
Russell enjoys Twinkies. I mean everybody in
this movie was just about perfect. Except for maybe
RZA. Sorry.
What I'm saying is I really wanted to… not like 'The Man with
the Iron Fists'… but love 'The Man
with the Iron Fists'. The fact is I didn't love it, and
ultimately I barely liked it due to its numerous flaws.
This made it a disappointment which is probably more my fault
for heaving unreachable expectations on this movie and a first
time film director, but there is fun to be had here.
