WU-TANG Clan ain't nothing to F**K with, if you don't know who this is then you've must have lived under a rock for the majority of the nineties. Wu-Tang clan was a rap group obbssesed with martial arts films and pretty much all their music had references in the lyrics, but they had also been one of the better groups to emerge. RZA is the head of the group and produced all their music, he is also a Grammy winner which adds credit to his claim. I digress The Man with the Iron Fists is RZA' baby you know that this director want to create a movie like this for a long while and while this isn't the greatest martial arts movie this one isn't terrible like almost all of the recent ones are. Clocking in at 1hr30mins would seem standard for a movie like this but it is very apperant that this was supposed to be a longer film, I believe the original cut was 4hrs long but he was told to cut it down to its current runtime. Obviously you will lose a lot if you have to cut 3/4 of a film and at times it can take away from the movie especially when these characters start appearing and they are supposed to have these connections to other characters but these connections are never explained.
Most surprising however was that Russell Crowe is in this movie, and that his parts are some of the best one's in the movie. Lucy Liu is fine and all the others fall in line, RZA was going for a satirical take on the whole genre and I think it worked out fairly well. Rza himself is the main character and while is performance is very one dimensional he still fills the role fairly well. The music is very strong in this film as it should be, as anyone would guess it is filled with the signature rap that RZA and the Clan are known for and it actually fits quite well. Though the best parts are the fighting as it should be, over the top and bloody these fights are all unique from each other and when the punched and kicks start flying you know you're in for a bloody good time. The effects and the choreography are all top notch in this film, the fact that RZA doesn't over utilize the CG effects is great as it makes the fights look more realistic and brutal.
All-in-all while this may not be the best film of the genre there really isn't anything wrong with it and I think a lot of the critics spend to much time bashing the man himself rather then looking at this movie as a whole. Hell maybe when they release this on Blu-ray they'll put back all four hours of it, if so then I will do a full review when that drops.
The Man with the Iron Fists: 7/10
+Great Fights
+Strong Soundtrack
+Not in 3D
-Pacing problems
-Because it feels and probably is to short
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