Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates | Tagged:

9 Things About The Red Band Trailer For Man With The Iron Fists

Published Sat, 30 Jun 2012 10:27:33 -0500

Alasdair Stuart chews over the trailer for RZA's grand martial arts opera for Bleeding Cool.

1.Universal Forging

It's a little thing, but I like the forge sparks popping up over the Universal logo.We're in the movie before we're quite in the movie, and that's always a nice sight gag to open with.

2. The Man With the Iron Fi-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

The image of The RZA's characters slipping the still hot gauntlets on fascinates me, especially when combined with this description of the character. 'blacksmith who channels an ancient energy to turn himself into a living weapon'. I wonder if there's a Faustian element to this, with him being granted the ability to defend the village at the expense of his hands. There's certain some nice narrative symmetry to the last weapon a blacksmith ever forges being the one he uses.

3.The Blacksmith With The Sentient Tattoo

It's not immediately apparent but watch that shot of him from behind closely. As the gauntlets go on, a tattoo writes itself across his back and what appears to be a set of eyes opens. I find it interesting that the trailer is initially coy about the supernatural elements of the story. It's a smart move and I wonder how much more is being kept for the full release. Plus, given that we were basically able to cut together Amazing Spiderman and Prometheus from the never ending parade of trailers, teasers and teasers for teasers for trailers, it makes a nice change.

4.Avatar: The Last Haemoglobin Bender

Aother hint that things might be just a little bit supernatural comes from this sequence of Rick Yune dismantling a group of unfortunate henchmen. Whilst this is probably just their arterial trails as they hurtle through the air, it does look rather a lot like he's pushing the blood into those patterns.

5.Deja Liu

Lucy Liu, dozens of disposable henchmen and a mass fight scene in a period setting, that takes me back. However, I notice this time Miss Liu's doing her own massively destructive melee weapon wielding. School must not have been out yet.

6.Watch the Man. Not So Much The Hair

The Lion-O lookalike bellowing 'ATTACK!' is Cung Le, who is appropriately enough, playing Bronze Lion. Le's been patiently working his way up the billing for a while now and I first saw his work in the enjoyable (To me, if no one else) Pandorum. He's excellent in Dragon Eyes, an extended Yojimbo riff (With a lot more face punching admittedly), and he's also still a professional mixed martial artist. Definitely someone to keep your eye on.

7.Russell brings a gun, some more guns, a hat and what appears to be a spinning bowie knife to the party

One of the things that interests me the most about this movie is the culture clash that's hinted at, especially in the contrast between RZA's blacksmith, who's clearly part of the community, and Crowe's cowboy, who's a hired gun and by implication an outsider. I enjoy Crowe's work a lot and there's an interesting ambiguity to his character here, a man who clearly enjoys the work of violence but doesn't seem controlled by that.Whether the movie manages to balance that interesting moral ambiguity with face punching remains to be seen.

8.David Bautista. A More Aesthetically Pleasing Colossus

Then we get hit with the big reveal; Dave Bautista as Brass Body. Bautista's another interesting character, a pro wrestler with a stalled MMA career and, like Cung Le, a series of journeyman action roles behind him. He's got effortless physical presence and he's a good talker so seeing him bodes well. More importantly, this is the moment where the trailer lays it's big, fantasy stall out and invites us to buy in. I love how deliberately he moves when he 'brasses out' and there's something almost mournful to the character that I can't wait to see explored.

9. All The Punching

Of course, Brass Body might be mournful about getting punched right in the filigree by the blacksmith. They're carefully not showing too much of the iron fists themselves here but these last two shots, especially the 'face plus punch = minus eyeball' moment really mark them out as a battlefield changing weapon. Which in turn neatly ties into the implication that the blacksmith may be something more than human at this point.

The Man With The Iron Fists is, at present, just 'Coming Soon'. As soon as we know more we'll let you know. Or you'll hear the screams of battle as the movie approaches.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!