The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)

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nTitle: The Man with The Iron Fists (2012)

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nDirector: The RZA

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nCast: Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, RZA, Byron Mann, Rick Yune,nDavid Bautista, Pam Grier, Gordon Liu

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nThe RZA’s love for Kung Fu movies can be traced all the waynback to his beginnings as a musician in the Wu-Tang clan, where the famous rapngroup would conceptualize whole albums based on Kung Fu movies like The 36^thnChamber of Shaolin (1978). RZA also scored the music to Tarantino’s Kill Billnmovies,   Afro Samurai (2007) and its sequel AfronSamurai Resurrection (2009). So it’s safe to say that RZA’s love for Kung Funfilms has always been there. In a featurette RZA did for the Afro Samurai dvd, hisngenuine love and appreciation for these films was evident; so the fact that hendirected, wrote, starred and scored The Man With the Iron Fists doesn’t surprisenme the least, in fact, it makes all the sense in the world. Here’s a guy who’snseen thousands of Kung Fu movies. He understands and obviously loves the genre;nthis isn’t some ignorant poser trying to make a Kung Fu film, this is anconnoisseur. With The Man with the Iron Fists he meant to unleash all that KungnFu knowledge onto the silver screen as a love letter to genre. Problem is, thisnis his first film ever, so a lot was depending on him pulling it off, andnpulling it off well. So, the question remained: would the RZA be able to do it?nCould he pull off this ambitious project on his first time out?

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nStory is all about this peace loving blacksmith (RZA) whonhates making weapons and would much rather spend his time making toys for kids.nBut, as fate would have it, he ends up having to make weapons anyway so he cannsave enough money to escape with the woman he loves. He makes weapons for two gangsnthat are fighting each other over a shipment of gold, and the control of thentown. You see one greedy bastard known as ‘Silver Lion’ killed his own master ‘GoldennLion’ just so he could take over the clan; problem is that while Golden Lionnwanted peace, Silver Lion wants war and The Blacksmith is caught in the middlenof it all. Will The Blacksmith ever find the peace and love he yearns, or willndeath, carnage and revenge force him to turn into a stone cold killer?

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nThe Man with the Iron Fists was obviously a labor of lovenfor the RZA who basically took all the things he loves about Kung Fu movies,nput them all in a blender and called it The Man with the Iron Fists. It’s gotnelements from recent Kung Fu films like True Legend (2010), a little bit ofnAfro Samurai (2007) and a whole lot of Shaw Brothers. The thing with The Mannwith the Iron Fists is that if you’re a lover of Kung Fu movies (like I am) younwill immediately identify the films where RZA got his inspiration from. It kindnof reminds of what happens when you watch a Tarantino film. The film has that repetitivenstoryline that a lot of Kung Fu movies have where the hero gets all banged upnby the bad guys, goes through a recuperation/training process and by the endingnof the film, he ends up kicking everyone’s collective asses to kingdom come.nThe difference between a Tarantino film and The Man with the Iron Fists is thatnwhile Tarantino takes the genre he is paying homage to and re-invents it,nbrings something new to the table, makes it better somehow, The Man with thenIron Fists hardly re-invents the Kung Fu genre, or brings anything new to thentable. It’s quite simply a homage that walks on tired ground. Still, that beingnsaid, the film is an extremely entertaining affair; I was not bored for anmoment.

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nAnd here’s the part where I start talking about all the coolnstuff this movie has going for it. First off, the production values are topnnotch. The art direction, the wardrobes, the weapons and the look of the filmnwere all great. I’m thinking that the production benefited a whole lot fromnshooting on location in china, which is a great surprise; I love it when a filmnshoots on location. The Kung Fu action is excellent and very well shot. I’venread some reviewers complaint about them not being able to comprehend what’sngoing on in the fights, I don’t get where they are coming from, I could seenperfectly well what was happening during the fight choreography, which wasnquite good in my book. Characters have all sorts of cool weapons that I had notnseen on any movie before; like for example there’s these two sword fighters,  each has a sword that when united with thenother, creates a ying and yang symbol that allows them to kick some serious assntogether.  The gore was plentiful asnwell, which caught me completely off guard! Since Hollywood’s so shy with bloodnand guts these days, I was expecting a tame film in this regard, but I wasnwrong. There’s all sorts of over the top death sequences; which were gruesomelynentertaining; a kung fu fan should be pleased with all the blood spraying onnthis movie.

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nI won’t lie, the film does have a few flaws here and there,nmost of them related to this being the RZA’s first film. For instance, I don’tnthink it was a smart choice on the RZA’s part to juggle so many production responsibilities.nHe directs, writes, scores and on top of all that, acts in the film! The RZAnplays the titular ‘Man with the Iron Fists’ and his performance is quitensubdued. The Blacksmith is a very quiet, laid back kind of character, it feltnto me like this pivotal character should have been played a bit more intenselynby an actor with experience.  I don’tnthink it’s the worst performance ever, but the part called for someone whoncould display more emotion,  plus to benhonest, I don’t think RZA’s much of an actor. As a director? Sure, he did a decentnjob, but acting is definitely not his forte.  Also, somewhere near the end, the film feels anbit rushed. This could also have something to do with the fact that thenoriginal cut of the film was four hours long and the RZA had to compromise andncut it down to the usual hour and a half; this is his first film after all. I’mnlooking forward to a director’s cut of the film where hopefully we’ll get morencharacter development and story. I hear RZA is pushing for a director’s cut fornthe dvd release, which would be awesome in my book. Since this film only costn20 million dollars to make (a modest budget by Hollywood standards) I think itnwill be successful enough to make its money back, and hopefully bring on ansequel. I wouldn’t mind getting a second dose of Kung Fu awesomeness from RZA, becausenthis movie satisfies in that department.

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nMy final word on this one is that it’s not a perfect movie,nbut it is fun enough for you to forget all about the flaws and just enjoy thendamn thing. The violence is so cartoonish and over the top that people laughnafter some of the deaths, which I think is a perfectly normal reaction to allnthe mayhem that happens on screen. The idea of this character having Iron Fistsnis freaking awesome and him battling this other dude with metal skin? Sweeeet.nThe RZA as the Black Smith was the weak link of the show, but then we havenRussell Crow chewing up scenes and having a blast with Lucy Liu who plays thenlady who runs the local whore house. Fun times are to be had, if you love yournKung Fu mixed with some hip hop tunes; this is the place to go. I wonder ifnwhat RZA was really trying to prove with this film is that he could be the onento direct the Afro Samurai movie? Now there’s an idea!

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nRating: 4 out of 5

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