The Defenders (Netflix) (2017)

I’ve seen it before, 4 times before; or 5, since Daredevil had a season 2. Watching the Defenders is like watching every Netflix MCU series, again, only this time 8 episodes long. The end conclusion is even the same: the Iron Fist is the weakest link.

(Spoilers ahead)

A Bad Start

Navy SEALs make it a point to always have their first success of the day early by making their beds to perfection. The thinking is if you start with a win the rest of the day should follow. 

Danny Rand (Finn Jones) lost a man right in the opening minutes just coming from his loss of K’un-Lun in the last series. Dead bodies of them-whom-he-can't-protect are piling up.

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Opening minutes are normally inconsequential with the story still being set up thus no context. But even when there's all the context made available it has to be asked, did Danny ever do anything right? 

A few last words from that man he lost in a battle with a then mysterious warrior, later identified as Elektra, sent everything downhill:

“Iron Fist go home. The war you fight it’s not here, it’s in New York City”.

Underneath the melodrama the intent was to set the tone, that a storm was brewing in New York which will need a superhero team. However it also reopens the weaknesses in the writing of Danny Rand and his world starting with is the Iron Fist a weapon meant to hunt down an enemy or a protector of a city?

He had one job to do, as the saying goes. The protector is the guilt Danny’s feeling in the opening minutes, failing that one job, and a soldier goes home to New York to fight a war. The Iron Fist can be both, but there’s a proper setup to things in order to properly sell it. 

A protector who lost his entire reason for being can only go on a warpath, and that could have worked if Danny ever sounded like he was hell bent on revenge. He wasn’t. 

I always thought that character had meditated himself out of a personality in the last series and so far nothing’s changed.

The Villain is Lost, the Lost City more Lost

The Hand has always been there fighting Daredevil in season 2 and recently the Iron Fist in his own series. Danny should have the sense to just trace his steps. Or, is it the Hand who should have had sense to be where Danny was waiting?

The defeat of K’un-Lun meant the war is over. The victorious get to occupy the territory of vanquished and all accompanying benefits. In principle Danny was right to wait where he did, in Asia. Why wasn't the Hand there? The business in New York is just wrong.

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The Five Fingers of the Hand – Sowande (Babs Olusanmokun), Murakami (Yutaka Takeuchi), Bakuto (Ramon Rodriguez), Madam Gao (Wai Ching Ho), and their leader Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) – have big reunion in New York because they need to find a way into K’un-Lun.

Didn't they just destroy that city? What, they just forgot to ransack the resources? I hung on to the possibility I haven’t seen it all, for enjoyment’s sake; the series was barely halfway when I came upon this plot hole.   

Only I found a bigger hole, big enough it seems for a dragon, in the end. The K’un-Lun the Hand was looking for was underground in New York and it had dragon remains. It might even be the same dragon Danny punched in the heart. 

But Danny was trained somewhere in China so what’s a part of K’un-Lun doing in New York?

Even assuming the Elders of K’un-Lun decided to place treasures far from the heartland, prudence requires such depository to have watchers.

Try seeing it from Intention and Obstacle. What does Danny want and what prevents him; what does K'un-Lun want and what prevents it; and what does the Hand want and what prevents it. There are many permutations to try using perspectives in the world of Iron Fist and I can't explain the dragon burial ground away.

One can hope that the comic book sources are better because the Iron Fist of Netflix, his world, aren't making any sense.

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Dead Weight of a Teammate

I think even Danny knows his worlds doesn't make sense because even he doesn’t even have answers. You would think being the Iron Fist and the only survivor of K’un-Lun that he will provide insight and leadership. He did not. 

Stick did most of the expository history telling which took an entire episode. And then he just had to overstep his bounds. 

Behind everyone’s back he suggested to Matt to take lead of a team which has not decided to be formal it would need a leader much less have a name like the Defenders. Being a member of the Chaste what Stick did reeks of betrayal notwithstanding his second father relationship to Matt.

The beauty of a team story is when individuals see what’s missing in each other and realize that the only way out of the problem is coming together. Whispers behind everyone’s back is a deal breaker. Most important in the story is that Stick has basically declared the Immortal Iron Fist incompetent. As if for emphasis Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) donning the Daredevil costume once again was designed as the turning point.

Which never excited me. I didn’t buy into his disillusionment. Last time I saw Matt he carried the Daredevil mask to Karen (Deborah Ann Woll). I thought she’d be a sounding board, a means of support since Foggy had walked away. How did that turn out to avoiding the suit like a plague?



No one wants to be a Hero

Matt, Jessica, and Luke all played the reluctant hero card but Jessica had the most believable arc. 

I liked that despite being reluctant she was always focused. She went from a private detective going solo to realizing she needed help. Matt was just whiny. Luke (Mike Colter) was too Harlem-centric and it felt like he only said yes because of Jessica.

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Danny Rand did not contribute anything of note despite having all the training to fight the Hand and enthusiasm to form a team. It added to my jadedness at the story’s supposed turning point since he was unceremoniously set aside. The Defenders as a team was giving off negative vibes.

Where are the Super Powers?

This one is a vicious circle. Story sucks so I notice the powers or lack thereof, the powers suck so I notice how bad the story is.

Why was this particular element of any comic book story not done right? The seeming lack thereof is also the reason why watching the Defenders feel like a repeat. Matt, Jessica, Luke, and Danny started by punching their way out of trouble; together they still punched their way out of trouble. A police show would at least have cool guns.

Being street level heroes was an excuse that worked before when they were individuals. When as an origin story they may be feeling out what they can or cannot do. When heroes come together they have to do more than just talk.  The differences in character and individual skills they bring to the table are connected with their super powers.

Consider that the worst match-up I can think of in a CW DC universe series has more effects – the Flash vs the tandem of Captain Cold and Heat Wave. It doesn't make sense for the Flash to have a hard time against both villains who only used special ray guns, but that episode had more visual interest than the entirety of the Defenders.

Also there was never a hero and villain match-up in the same light as a CW DC universe story – the one that has power vs power, ability vs ability. 

Sure the Five Fingers eventually went after the Defenders in the end but it was not a match-up in the superhero sense of the word. It opens up a consistency issue. 

I am not even sure if the Five Fingers have powers or they’re only immortal. Madam Gao has an explosive looking “force push” and that’s it. She didn’t even apply it in combat.

Worst of all is again our favorite whipping boy the Iron Fist. He needs to power up his fist for Luke Cage and yet Elektra has an easy time with Luke. Yet again Matt can go the distance with Elektra so much so that it robbed Danny of a comeback after losing a man to her in the beginning.

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There were too many brawls. That Hand in all their ancient wisdom was sending only massive numbers of goons against powered individuals. Would it really matter if they were ninjas? 

There’s not even an antitank weapon, no mercenaries armed to the teeth; just men with swords.

Diamondback (Erik LaRay Harvey) had enough sense to use a Chitauri based weapon on Luke, while the Hand in all their connections and experience can’t get a hold of bootlegged Stark weapons. It only made what’s lacking obvious.

Assuming consistency with comic sources, Luke Cage is strong enough for 25 tons; Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) can at least lift a car. Plus Jessica has jumping ability which she phrased in Netflix as “guided falling”. 

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Attacked from all sides with that strength, best approach will be grabbing a man and throw him against 3 more rushing in. Surrounding furniture can be weapons by smacking 5 – 10 at once. I'd love seeing Luke do that. Jessica could escape and evade an encirclement by jumping and then attack. 

Instead villains almost look as if they line up only to be dispatched promptly, almost always with one punch.

Danny without powers plays second fiddle to Daredevil who has always had better fight scenes even now. Iron Fist became an annoyingly apt name for powering up only one hand and for some reason punching only once each time.

Was money or design the cause of this inadequacy? The Defenders had an 80s feel with its bending steel bars, rip doors, lifting half a car, and throwing a man 10 feet away – all practical effects. I have never craved for more computer generated imagery before now. Hero and villain fights amounted to only punching and kicking.

My guess is that the uncharacteristic low profile battle between hero and villain is to stay under SHIELDs radar and of MCU in general. There’s barely if at all public panic or destruction to property which is convenient for a super villain problem.  

Most likely, coordination and continuity in all MCU properties is becoming untenable.

Last Words

It’s always fun to see more than one hero together; there’s always the expectation that it’d be a party. The Defenders has 4 heroes to look out for and that helped get it a notch higher than the Iron Fist. Whenever Danny Rand or unfortunately as well as the Hand gets nonsensical then there are at least 3 more heroes to brighten up the viewing experience.

Also I have framed the Defenders as a Jessica Jones story. She has a credible arc and what’s really great is that she had an ending that’s more heroic than most – head held up high, looking forward to what’s new. 

Jessica is the complete opposite of Danny Rand who started the series and got lost along the way. Can Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) pull him up? Considering the final scene between Misty Knight (Simone Missick) and Colleen, will Misty help in lifting the Iron Fist?  Will she do it alone or a buddy hero story in Heroes for Hire?

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As for my theory on the Defenders and the Hand avoiding SHIELD, I think about it a lot.  

If it's a funding problem then Marvel has to keep in mind that CW, however cheap looking a TV series special effects can be, is doing it every single episode. Supergirl has to fly, the Flash has to run, and even Marvel's own Agents of SHIELD have their outlandish tech and occasional inhuman power every episode.

Netflix should done as well. It’s not like it does Defenders every year. Matt, Jessica, Luke, and Danny can return to plain old punching in their own series. Spend, spend, spend.

What's the point of alluding to the Incident, used actual weapons in Luke Cage, when you can't go all the way. Have an MCU character guest which Agents of SHIELD already has done, or have the Netflix MCU characters appear in Infinity War which everyone, especially myself want.

Or else deescalate the universe or Netflix go totally solo. DC is rethinking there's maybe Netflix might do the same so as to set proper expectations.