By Jeremy Hannaford (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: November 14, 2012
What do you get when you put a former member of the Wu Tang Clan, Lucy Liu, Former WWE Superstar Dave Bautista and Russell Crowe in the same movie? A film equally as odd as that casting line up. The Man with the Iron Fists is a strange undertaking of Chinese martial arts and Kung Fu legends as it follows the story of a local blacksmith who gets caught in the middle of a war between rival tribes.
The film doesn’t waste any time with getting to the violence. Within the opening credits, we see ridiculously fit tribe members flying around the room and performing hysterical fight scenes all the while listening to modern age hip hop music. The mix is erratic at first, but over time it begins to sink in as a norm. The same can be said of the overall movie experience. The film isn’t trying to be real; it is trying to be atypical, at least with this current generation.
With names like Silver Lion, Lady Silk and Brass Body, the first thing that comes to mind are the old Kung Fu legend flicks from the ‘70s and ‘80s. But unlike those films, the actors know how absurd their characters really are. This in turn actually makes the film more entertaining. Bryan Mann’s character, Silver Lion, can be best identified as an evil version of Prince while Russell Crowe brings a bizarre and entertaining performance the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Virtuosity. From grooming extremely large and stylish eyebrows to revealing ancient martial art styles last minute, Man with the Iron Fists is showing its appreciation for these classic films all the while still taking a light, humourous poke at it.
But while these funny moments are numerous throughout, there are many parts of the film that are unintentionally funny or give off a far different vibe then what was originally intended. The performance from some actors is pretty dreadful. This is especially true for the director (and actor) Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known by his stage name RZA. When he is narrating certain scenes in the film, it is difficult to make out what he is mumbling. In person, he rarely looks fully awake or fully aware of what is going on, which stands in contrast to the intensity of his fellow cast members.
In his directorial debut, RZA pays homage to several genres of the past including western, martial arts and even old romance films. The amount of genres, themes and objects shown serve their purpose but can also be very overwhelming at times. RZA reportedly met Quentin Tarantino on the set of Kill Bill and gained a lot of influence from Tarantino (who is a producer for this film) on making movies and constructing stories. While some of this is evident, it feels like nothing is his own work and rather a mix of different films and themes.
Man with the Iron Fists is entertaining no matter how you look at it. Whether the humour is intentional or not, it truly helps make it an interesting watch. While RZA isn’t a great director by any means, this is a decent debut with heart and a whole lot of kick.
