The Man with the Iron Fists

This is the directorial debut of hip-hop star the RZA, de facto leader of the Wu-Tang Clan and lifelong martial-arts movie fan. Much of RZA’s style, identity and music comes from the Asian films he watched constantly as a youth, so its not surprising that he would eventually try his own hand at one.  It turns out that he’s a much better rapper and music producer than filmmaker. The Man with the Iron Fists is a totally derivative film, in the worst sense of that word. It might seem exciting or novel for people who've missed the last few decades of Asian martial arts films, but there is nothing really new here, and every “fresh spin on the genre” was already done by Quentin Tarantino back in 2003's Kill Bill.  RZA did the soundtrack for that movie and was clearly influenced by Tarantino, who lent his name to this film to help it get financed, but he doesn’t have Tarantino’s unique flare for reinvention. There is no new perspective on the genre here, just a clear appreciation of it, and though RZA used kung-fu movie samples to influence hip-hop music in the '90s, there is no corresponding hip-hop influence on this kung-fu movie, at least that I can detect.

There are some cool weapons and characters--I especially liked Russell Crowe looking pudgy and impersonating Richard Burton--but all the actors in this film are either dreadful or just phoning it in.  Lucy Liu, who was the weakest link in Kill Bill, reaches new lows of screen incompetence that I thought even she could never achieve. RZA and co-writer Eli Roth clearly had a good time fleshing out their characters' backstories and fighting styles, but they haven’t really written a script, and RZA’s direction is as incomprehensible as his voice-over narration.