RZA

(On TV, June 2019) I ended up watching The Man with the Iron Fists 2 because I had enjoyed the first one, although my expectations were kept firmly in check by it being a direct-to-video release without most of the first film’s biggest stars (sorry, no Lucy Liu or Russel Crowe this time around). But I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the film was directed by Roel Reiné, one of the most dependable direct-to-video filmmakers out there. Reiné is a visually ambitious action director with a gift for wringing the most value out of his limited budgets, and so The Man with the Iron Fists 2 does look like a far more expensive production—foreign location shooting has its advantages, and Reiné has directed so many action movies by now that he can routinely stage decent action sequences. But filmmaking virtuosity can’t fully patch a herky-jerky script that doesn’t quite manage to bring its pieces together in a coherent fashion. The premise of the film holds promise, and even throws in a half-decent twist leading up to the final battle, but the scene-to-scene narrative is a jumbled mess that takes far too long to become interesting. The low budget also prevents the film from going all-out on its supernatural ambitions, limiting its appeal. The visual polish of the film does help it move along, but it’s a harder journey than strictly necessary. Freed from the shackles of directing but still writing much of the film, RZA is back as the titular wandering knight, er, blacksmith helping foreigners figure their stuff out—a half-inversion of the usual white saviour narrative. Carl Ng is suitably good as a villain, with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa turning it a pretty good performance. Still, there isn’t much in The Man with the Iron Fists 2 for anyone who’s not already a martial arts movie fan.