MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS 2: NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS THE FIRST

Being a fan of martial arts films I was looking forward to the release of the first MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS. Everything I’d seen in the trailers looked fun and amazing. When the movie came out I went to the theater to see it and laughed throughout the entire film. It was fun! It delivered on all counts just what I was expecting from the film. The same can’t be said of this film.

A number of the main characters from the first film are nowhere to be seen here, most notable the one played by Russell Crowe. My memory may be off but it appears the only one to actually show up is RZA as Thaddeus, the iron fisted combatant from the previous film. While I encourage RZA for his enthusiasm for the genre as well as his love of it, he doesn’t have the ability to carry the entire film on his singular shoulders and that becomes the biggest flaw here.

On his way to where his training began to pay homage at the temple there, Thaddeus is attacked by old enemies and left for dead. Drifting down the river he is found wounded and near death near a village where a husband and wife take him in and help heal him. The husband works in the nearby mines run by the Beetle clan. Those who work in the mines are treated like dogs and have no hope left in them.

At the same time the majority of those working in the mines are members of the Praying Mantis clan and they plan on changing things when the opportunity presents itself. As things heat up, Thaddeus chooses to side with the Praying Mantis clan and when the fighting starts his iron fists come in handy.

So to begin with the convoluted plot here seems far too intricate for what we’re watching. Keeping characters separated becomes a chore and the bad guys seem far to Snidely Whiplash like while the good guys seem to take far too much before they rebel. The martial arts sequences aren’t the worst I’ve seen but there have been far many that were better. Above all the worst fight sequences involve RZA whose style of fighting makes that performed by David Carradine on the old KUNG FU TV series look fast. Instead of fighting most of his moves involve using the fist to pummel his opponents and to do so with plenty of blood packs there to shoot forth.

Look, like I said, I admire RZA for trying to keep the genre alive. But there are so many out there doing such a better job of it that when something like this comes along it doesn’t really help and actually sets things back a few years. Perhaps he was trying for the campy fell of a homage to the grindhouse martial arts flicks of the seventies and eighties but if so he fails. While I loved the first one I would suggest passing on this one unless you really feel the need or are determined to see every martial arts film you can get your hands on. For myself the odds of my watching it again are fairly slim.

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