Review of The Man with the Iron Fists (2012) by Al S — 21 Feb 2013

I feel I'm in the target demographic for this movie. I love old Kung Fu movies, enjoy Wu Tang on occasion, and have no problem with gratuitous violence. Frankly the movie is too much of a mess to be enjoyable.

First there's the story: it was jumbled, the pacing was horrible, and even with over two and a half hours being cut from the movie there were bits that didn't belong. I don't care how curious you are, the origin story for the blacksmith was not needed and stopped the story dead.

...er. Second there's the acting: RZA goes the rout of a vacant expression encompassing every emotion he's supposed to be feeling and Crow turns in the best performance in the movie. It happens to be his worst performances I've seen.

Finally the fight direction: the only reason the movie gets two stars is for the occasionally entertaining fights. Unfortunately they are mostly uninspired and the powers these characters have are not consistent.

Overall it's a skip.