So here we are, just after my wife and I got done binging the first season of Marvel’s The Defenders on Netflix, and miraculously, I am still conscious! Despite the general mushiness of my brain at this point from watching the first four episodes until around 3 in the morning, getting around 6 hours of sleep, and proceeding to finish the last four episodes over coffee and breakfast, I will attempt to lay out some thoughts on the strictly martial arts content presented in the show, as well as a general review of the season in whole while trying to avoid any spoilers.
Martial Arts Breakdown of The Defenders
Overall, the Martial Artistry was pretty good for the street-level heroes first go-around together. While I don’t think anybody will put this season’s fight choreography up with movies like the Raid series, the fight scenes were pretty solid overall, and nowhere near the level of vomit-inducing, lightning-fast-editing you might have found in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (sorry, not going to be forgetting that one anytime soon). The fight choreography team, and film crew did a good job of blending the different styles of the individual protagonists together in a complementary way without looking too contrived. Now, like any good instructor running a group class, let’s break down the highs and lows of the individual martial artists’ performances separately:
Daredevil
We got the typical, high-end martial arts technique and execution from both Charlie Cox and his stunt team that fans have come to expect from the first two seasons of his solo series. It really is impressive how the martial arts quality drops very little when he is actually performing the fight sequences himself. They don’t shy away from taking his mask off nor using him in plain-clothes, whenever the story could benefit from it for this reason. Top marks to Charlie for dedicating himself to delivering a high-quality martial arts performance, again!
Elektra Natchios
Elodie Yung continues to perform admirably when she is on-screen for the fight scenes, but it is difficult to accurately critique her with her long hair, dark scenes, and editing potentially allowing for stunt doubles to be used. Regardless of that, there’s nothing here to complain about, and she and her stunt crew are at least on par with Daredevil season 2.
Colleen Wing
Jessica Henwick continues to be a bright spot as a performer in the fight scenes. She demonstrates a fair level of proficiency with the katana that she always has with her (no one in New York City ever seems to notice or think that’s weird, save one cop). She never looks like she’s in over her head with the fight choreography, and she deserves praise.
Stick
Scott Glenn continues to look the part in his fight scenes, as previously exhibited in both Daredevil seasons.
Iron Fist / Danny Rand / Finn Jones
Now for the elephant in the Dojo! Yes, I’m giving Iron Fist, and Finn Jones, their own section. So, sit back, buckle up, and get ready for some fresh ranting, but not the kind you might expect.
I want to get the obvious out of the way: Season 1 of Iron Fist was, by far, the lowest in all facets of quality that we have seen from the Marvel and Netflix marriage. In terms of martial arts on-screen quality, it was a major disappointment when compared with Daredevil. Everybody knows this, and this dead horse has been beaten so badly that some out there are trying to bring it back to life, so they can beat it all over again.
Instead of doing that, let’s talk about it like martial artists. Do you remember when you felt like a buffoon on the training floor? I do. It was when I had only been doing Kenpo Karate for about 4 weeks. I was enthusiastic as all get out, but I’m quite sure I didn’t look or move like I do today. How about you? Did you move like a highly-trained master after 4 weeks of your first martial art? I’m going to take a wild guess that you didn’t, either.
The point of this walk down memory lane is to put into perspective that Finn Jones was widely reported to only have had approximately 4 weeks of martial arts training before filming began, and most of what he did on screen was taught to him shortly before filming that scene.
How awesome were you at that new kata/form 10 minutes after being shown? I don’t know about you, but I was lucky if I only forgot half the sequences. I know we all had high expectations going into Iron Fist, but Marvel dropped the ball by rushing production on season 1 and should shoulder a large portion of the blame here.
As for The Defenders…I think someone has been training! If I am going to criticize Finn Jones for not looking the part before, then I better applaud him for putting in the training time. Mr. Jones has obviously improved quite a lot from Iron Fist. He looks much more at home in fight choreography, and his stances and movement are improved as well. There are still obvious times where he can be swapped out with a stunt double (i.e. when he puts his hood up right before a fight, darkly lit scenes, etc…), but when it is him on-screen, he looks more the part this time around. If he was a white belt in Iron Fist, he looks more like a mid-rank now. It seems as if Finn Jones is growing and maturing in the martial arts, right along with the character of Iron Fist in the show. My hope is that this improvement continues into Iron Fist season 2.
The Defenders Show Review
The Defenders, in general, starts slowly by laying out all the pieces and moving them closer together. When they collide, however, you’ve got four to five episodes of a darn good ride! I really enjoyed the banter back and forth, and the fact that none of them but Danny Rand wanted to team up initially. This felt authentic because they were all loners of one kind or another before. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones were appropriately fish-out-of-water characters with the more supernatural elements of The Hand, and kept things grounded. Daredevil owned most of his scenes as usual.
Danny Rand as a character, however, was more likable than in his solo outing. He is still young at heart and naïve but does demonstrate some forward movement in his maturation. He is the more enthusiastic of the bunch, which creates some humor at times. If there is one thing The Defenders makes phenomenally clear about Danny, it is that he is not done growing into the mature and experienced Iron Fist from the comics. The supporting cast does a good job with their limited time on-screen, without slowing things down too much.
One of the welcome things that I took from Season 1 of Iron Fist was the time spent in Colleen’s Dojo. Not very often do we see the inside of a dojo with students and an instructor trying to keep the lights on and doors open. Unfortunately, in The Defenders, the dojo itself is only used as a set a couple times, and there are no students to be found. Danny did buy the building in Iron Fist, so I guess rent isn’t a problem now, right?
However, there was a different kind of martial arts-specific theme permeating throughout this season. This theme was about the Master-Student relationship. Daredevil, Elektra, Iron Fist, and Colleen all had their own unique arc with this theme. No spoilers here as we all know that Iron Fist seems to have been kept in the dark about what his purpose really even is and how little he actually knows, and is still struggling with this fact. We also know that Daredevil and Stick don’t get along, but there was a little more meat on the bone there as well. Colleen is still struggling with the fallout with her former master from last season. Without spoiling, Elektra also has an interesting arc with this theme that culminates near the end of the season.
All in all, I can safely say that if you have been along for the Marvel/Netflix ride up to this point, you should definitely enjoy The Defenders!
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Great review. Got right to the point and had enough information to back up the insight. Well worded and thought out. Keep it up and I look forward to the next review.
Great review!
Great point about Iron Fist and Finn Jones and his training. I still feel like that all the time!
Must say Daredevil is by far the best in terms of the choreography in my opinion. I still regard the hallway scene in episode 3 of season 1 of Daredevil as one of my absolute favourites ever.
Mr.Amram, I totally agree. Both Daredevil seasons featured amazing choreography, but the hallway scene in season 1 is tops!
I’m hoping that they will continue to grow his character into the next season of Iron
Fist, and continue to give him the training that he has been getting.