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Iron Fist (Marvel/Netflix)

I'm starting to feel a bit sorry for Finn Jones, as he seems to have been hung out to dry by Marvel and Netflix and given the sole job of publicising/defending the series and is unsurprisingly failing at it. Someone should have told him that "We made it for fans not critics" never works.
 
It's also a bit of a minefield navigating around all the people who are going out of their way looking for things to be offended by.
 
Has it still not been in any of the skylines in any of the Marvel Netflix shows?
 
I'm starting to feel a bit sorry for Finn Jones, as he seems to have been hung out to dry by Marvel and Netflix and given the sole job of publicising/defending the series and is unsurprisingly failing at it. Someone should have told him that "We made it for fans not critics" never works.
I think Marvel's taking the position that no response is necessary just yet before the full show is released (I'd also suggest the only other person who would be likely to respond is the show runner, who is busy right now). But Finn Jones took this on himself to respond rather than being given the job of defending the series.
 
No doubt it is more likely that the character is poorly written and given dull things to do, rather than his "privileged" status.

I mean, Stephen Strange didn't face similar public mauling right in the midst of Trump's Rise of the Empire

Finn needs to step away from the pulpit and let the show talk for itself. We'll either enjoy it or we won't. But the more he talks the less inclined I am to give the outfit the benefit of the doubt.

Hugo - Looking for Moon Knight as the replacement Defender ;)
 
I'm starting to feel a bit sorry for Finn Jones, as he seems to have been hung out to dry by Marvel and Netflix and given the sole job of publicising/defending the series and is unsurprisingly failing at it. Someone should have told him that "We made it for fans not critics" never works.
Well, Jessica Henwick has defended it, too, as brought up earlier in this thread.

That being said, I agree that Finn Jones' attempt to blame Trump is bizarre and off the mark.
 
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I dunno, his comment could potentially be read as pro-Trump, in the sense of "Aww, stop treating rich white billionaire heirs as the bad guys!" Not that I'm suggesting Jones intended it that way, just that it could be read that way by those so inclined.
 
Casting Finn Jones in a role this physical always struck me as a questionable move.

I still don't understand why "White" or "(east)Asian" were seen as these binary choices. They could have cast him as Persian, or Black, or Indian, or Hispanic, or straight up ethnically ambiguous. he can still be born in New York to a privileged life without blonde hair. It alters his character not a whit and sidesteps the more blatant visuals that are so concerning people.
 
Why do people keep complaining that Jones isn't "physical" enough for the role?
Bruce Lee was tinier than him...
 
The A.V. Club calls the show bland, Finn Jones uncharismatic, and the action by-the-numbers.
Had Netflix rolled out Iron Fist first, its unsteadiness would be forgivable; this is a process, after all. But it’s actually the final step before a huge showdown, so it can’t afford to buckle under the pressure. And yet, with all that riding on it, the first half of the season is just a checked box. Filler episodes are one thing, but right now Iron Fist looks like a filler season.
I'm still going to give it a chance but with pretty low expectations. A shame considering Netflix's great track record.
 
I'm reserving judgement for now. After how almost universally lauded the other three shows were, it seems odd that they'd cock it up at the final hurdle before Defenders. On the other hand, now is usually about when it suddenly becomes trendy to hate on a thing that had until that point been really popular. (The "thing" in this case being Marvel Netflix in general, not Iron Fist in particular.)

I'm not saying it's not going to suck regardless, it's just that I've been on this merry-go-round more that once before. We'll see.
 
I still don't understand why "White" or "(east)Asian" were seen as these binary choices. They could have cast him as Persian, or Black, or Indian, or Hispanic, or straight up ethnically ambiguous. he can still be born in New York to a privileged life without blonde hair. It alters his character not a whit and sidesteps the more blatant visuals that are so concerning people.

In fact, a number of people did make that suggestion before Jones was cast. I proposed it myself in post #6 of this very thread, more than a year ago, and I was passing along a suggestion I'd seen on an online comics news site even earlier. This debate has been going on ever since Netflix first announced they were doing Iron Fist, and since human beings are diverse, every possible approach to the problem has naturally been proposed and discussed.

But of course, as with any other approach, there were points in favor of it and points against it. Yes, it would've sidestepped both the white-savior cliche and the Asian-martial-artist cliche; but the argument was made that it would still be cultural appropriation if any non-Asian character had the role, and it was argued that having Danny be a minority-American would undermine the symbolism of the white, privileged Danny and the black, street-level Luke Cage being best friends.

That's the thing -- as I keep saying, the issues are complicated and there's no easy, pat solution to any of it. Every option has been proposed and debated, and every one has potential positives and negatives. Whichever approach they'd chosen would've been controversial. And that's not a bad thing. Part of the reason race relations have gotten so much worse in this country is because we got afraid to talk about them, to confront the problems openly and work toward solutions. So we just hid from them and got defensive every time they were brought up, and it just made things more tense and bitter. Confronting controversy in fiction, engaging with it intelligently, can be beneficial. I think Iron Fist had an opportunity to make the issues of white privilege and Asian representation part of the story, to use the premise as the basis for a conversation about issues that need to be addressed -- in the same way that Jessica Jones frankly confronted sexual violence and abuse and Luke Cage boldly embraced the black American experience both good and bad. From what the critics have said, though, it doesn't sound like it really tries to do that -- unless the first six episodes are some big fakeout and they totally subvert the cliches later on.
 
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