Just saw it last night and enjoyed it. Reminded me (in a good way) of the classic Shaw Bros stuff - Venoms movies and Flying Guillotine. There was a heck of a lot of earnest creativity up on on the screen, from the pallette daggers of the Black Widows, Russel Crowe's crazy whirling knife pistol, the Gemini fighters, and Gordoin Liu's awesome explanation of Chi maniuplation and Thaddeus' titular iron fists. I loved the homage to Kung Fu and Kwai Chang Cain in Thaddeus' backstory, which to me, was a kind of reverse of Cain's origin (fleeing to China and being adopted by monks instead of vice versa).
I loved the idea of a hip hop soundtrack, but beyond the killer opening, I wish the songs had been a little better. Wish RZA would've gone it alone in that regard, but understand he probably had his hands full. Gordon Liu, Russel Crowe (who remains one of my favorite modern actors) and Bautista were standouts for me, as well as the Silver Lion guy.
But now I REALLY wanna see the rumored four hour version. I feel like RZA's narration was shoehorned in sometimes to lace things together, and I would've liked to see everything play out more naturally (Thaddeus' backstory, the stuff with the Wolf Clan, etc.). It'll either be Once Upon A Time In America awesome, or overblown, I think.
I loved the line 'these motherfuckers had a gatling gun, and more bullets than China had rice.' Though as my friend pointed out afterwards, if you mention a Gatling gun, then show it being loaded up, there ought to be a rule that you have to see it in action.
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