The Man With the Iron Fists Review

Movie: The Man With the Iron Fists
By: Maniac E
Date: January 16, 2013

Seven clans, a fortune in gold. Let the battle begin.

Tarantino presents: The Man With the Iron Fists, they must have thought it will be a nice selling point for the movie. This is an ultra-gruesome homage to bad Oriental action movies of the Seventies written produced and starring RZA (Wu-Tang Clan). Today's martial arts films are a bigger box office draw than they were in the '70s and '80s eras so they must have thought let's do it and leave the story writing for RZA and Eli Roth...

The story takes place in "Jungle Village," a savage town in rural China where warring clans of warriors all seek to rule the land. Caught in the middle of the chaos is the Blacksmith (RZA), whose skill at crafting weapons makes him the paid lackey of every clan wishing to eliminate their rivals. However, the Blacksmith has a different agenda: use the money from selling his deadly wares to escape Jungle Village with his love, Lady Silk (Jamie Chung), a prostitute in Madam Blossom's (Lucy Liu) bordello. Meanwhile, chaos is erupting all over Jungle Village. The governor has a shipment of gold passing through gold that every clan wants for themselves. When the noble Gold Lion (Kuan Tai Chen) is betrayed and assassinated by his second-in-command, Silver Lion (Byron Mann), the fallen leader's son, Zen Yi "The X-Blade" (Rick Yune), comes seeking revenge. This vendetta quickly erupts into all-out war, bringing other killers like the insatiable Jack Knife (Russell Crowe) and impenetrable Brass Body (David Bautista) into the ring. From there, it's a showdown to the last man (or woman) standing, as destinies are discovered and blood is spilt all over the streets of Jungle Village.

Here is where it goes wrong straight away the movie is taking its self-way to seriously, the plot twists aren't really plot twists since you see them coming from a mile away. Mostly no character development and a cheesy story. With all its wackiness and strangeness the movie would have done better if it acknowledges those factors instead of going in the direction of wanting to be seen as a real Kung Fu movie. As I know RZA is a rapper etc, the hiphop music is just misplaced in every action scene and makes sure you don't get into flow of the fighting. It feels like the movie didn't really know where to go.

What the movie does do good is show us that it is made by a fan of the Kung Fu. RZA combined a few of the best hallmarks of the Kung Fu: Over the top fight sequences, signature Kung Fu styles, intricate weapons, mystical powers, and blood. Also it gives us some major cameos from Daniel Wu, Zhu Zhu, Kuan Tai Chen and more! I must admit that I really laughed at the drunk sex crazy Russell Crowe. Luckily for us RZA keeps his appearance in the movie to a minimum since his acting skills aren't the best. On the down side of the characters; Lucy Liu is almost a straight copy of her Kill Bill appearance which is a shame and makes me wonder why she toke this job on if it wasn't just for money.

But let's talk fighting since this is a Kung Fu movie. Yes the music doesn't fit the fitting I already mentioned that but the fighting scenes themselves are really well done. Does this mean it is on par with the real Kung Fu movies.. no. The quick cut editing isn't really giving you the feeling that you are watching an epic fight between good and evil and the CGI blood and other stuff just blurs your vision. The fighting scenes do get completely over the top once RZA gets his iron gloves to the point of the ridiculous.

The man with the iron fists is only meant to be seen as a homage of fan nothing more, nothing less. RZA tried his best to get this flick to come to live but the poor story and the none existing character development are just to greatly putting their marks on the movie. The movie is cheesy over the top action and some will like the style, but for me personally it is just not worth the time.