O Homem com Punhos de Ferro 2

When THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS was first released, I think I was one of the few critics in the nation who gave it a favorable nod. While it was a glitzy martial arts affair, it did boast a few rather impressive fight scenes and a bevy of heavyweight stars including Dave Bautista; Russell Crowe; Rick Yune and Lucy Liu.

THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS 2 lacks all of that. The stars have bolted, with RZA the only hold over from the first. The fight scenes are good, but not spectacular, and the story is culled from the plot lines of many of the original martial arts films that inundated the Silver Screen in the 1970's.

Thaddeus Henry Smith (RZA), after the events of the first film, decides his soul is uneasy as a vigilante warrior. He begins a journey to return to his beloved temple, strengthen his chi (inner strength) and unite his mind and body. Along the way, he is beset by old enemies who refuse to buy his assertion that he is now a man of peace. While Thaddeus thwarts his attackers, he is rendered unconscious and sent adrift in a river. He lands in a small mining village, ruled by the evil Beetle Clan; a gang of cutthroat bullies led by Master Ho, played by Carl Ng and Lord Pi, played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who allows those who disagree with him the opportunity to fight in what appears to be the original octagon of the UFC. The people of the village are mere cannon fodder for the Beetle Clan, but one family, Li Kung, played by Dustin Nguyen and his wife Ah Ni, played by Eugenia Yuan, are secretly members of the Praying Mantis Clan. Why they are in hiding, or why the Praying Mantis fighters are reluctant to reveal themselves to the Beetle Clan is never really explained. I guess if there are too many Beetles and Praying Mantises, the members of the Orkin Clan will appear. Thaddeus doesn't want to become involved in the village's conflict, but obviously, circumstances will dictate that he takes a side and fights for honor and friends.

RZA desperately wants to promote himself as a martial arts star, but frankly he was the weak link in the first film and his sole fighting expertise is pummeling thugs with his iron fists, complete with a multitude of spraying blood packets. The fight scenes in THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS 2 are okay, but there is nothing stellar, and certainly nothing that compares with what Jason Statham and Tony Jaa are doing in FURIOUS 7.

Despite enticing cinematography by Roel Reine and several scenic shots from the Thailand locations, THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS 2 is an average view. It seems RZA is planning more films to highlight Thaddeus' journey back to the temple. Until he reaches his destination, he'll walk the Earth, helping people, like Caine in Kung-Fu. Let's hope his next adventure has better fight choreography and a handful of grade A list stars to help the endeavor.

I enjoyed the first one... OK, it's nothing new, and it's was nothing outstanding, but still, it was very entertaining...the cast had some world class names, from Russel Crowe to Lucy Liu and Dave Bautista as well...

I was awkward to see this second one... I've read the reviews, and I found myself thinking: "The first one was entertaining... the second one, as any sequel, will be mediocre, at best..."...and so, last night, I give a try.. Glad that I did... first, the cast here, is more "B-level". They are well known from Asian movies or action B-films... Dustin Nguyen, Carl Ng, Sahajal Boonthanakit and the most famous of all, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.

This second movie, doesn't evolve around Thaddeus (Rza), but over Li King (Dustin), as the leader of an enslaved mining village. MAster Ho, and his henchmen, abuse physically and mentally of every villager, and those who do not submit to his will, are tortured and killed. The arrival of Thaddeus to the village, is the sign the villagers were waiting for, to fight back, against tyranny.

So, this second movie is more about martial arts, itself. Nguyen is awesome, as always, and the old kungfu moves, are very good. Even though it has it's flaws, the movie is good... from my personal point of view, I prefer this one to the first one...

But still, I recommend you to see it, and make your own conclusion. Remember, it's not class A material... but is still, a good movie.

RZA is definitely passionate about martial art movie and he invests a lot of time for this niche, but The Man with the Iron Fists 2 is a subpar action movie. It has low production value, the exotic location surprisingly isn't appealing, the script is flimsy and most importantly the action choreography is utterly disappointing. Fights are no better than scenes from ancient action flick from decades ago, and with this flaw the movie just loses its main appeal.

Story goes that there's an entity on a mining town that feeds on life force. The people of this town also have to content with oppression from the ruling clan. Meanwhile Thaddeus (RZA) is unexpectedly involved in a rebellion against the dictator. Main focus of the movie is the struggle of town folks, there's barely any continuity from the first movie and RZA himself only here as a supporting role. The plot tries to resolves its several subplots, only to be hampered with poor execution.

Writing and characterization are not satisfying, it follows the usual rebellion theme with screeching pace. Though it has a couple of twists, the direction is so slow, one can skip thirty minutes of the movie and doesn't miss much. The build-up is inconsistent with shady acting, and change of setting to beach town doesn't prove to be amusing as well. Environment only consists of a dark barren town and a rural village. The use of color contrast feels archaic, it's nothing more than the visual of B-movie. Furthermore, the soundtracks don't fit the theme, it may be intended as clash of cultures, but the end result is borderline intrusive.

While the first movie wasn't that great, it still had production value with famous names and stylish design. This one definitely has less budget as everything looks lackluster. Whereas the screenplay is abysmal, the action might fare worse. The motion seems fake even though it uses slow mo to mask it, some scenes even depict missed punches and overacting but these are still edited clumsily for the final product. It looks awkward for an action film not being able to deliver action sequences.

While it may benefit from oriental ambiance, the cumbersome plot and underwhelming choreography sink the movie like two giant anchors strapped on its limbs.

Review: What a complete waste of time! I thought that RZA would have learnt from the first movie but this one is even worse. Without Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu, this sequel really didn't have a chance, especially with its terrible storyline and weak characters. Basically it's about a evil man who runs the village and forces the men to work in a mine. The miners group together to try and take out the vicious evil-doer but they always end up getting murdered, until Thaddeus comes along. After getting saved by one of the miners daughters, Thaddeus makes them weapons to take out Master Ho and the leader of the miners, Li Kung, challenges him to a duel. With the help of his fellow miners and Thaddeus, they battle to take down his clan with there martial arts skills and weapons. The storyline is really bad and the heavy hip hop beats throughout the movie didn't match the mood of the film. The acting is pretty poor but it does look authentic and some of the scenery was impressive. Personally, I don't know how RZA was able to release another one of these movies because the first one was a joke. He seemed really out of place throughout the film and his fighting skills were terrible and hard to watch. Anyway, I personally think that this was a total waste of time and money and I'm not surprised that it went straight to DVD. Terrible!

Round-Up: Although the music throughout the movie didn't suit the scenes, I was bopping my head to RZA's beats so he should really stick to what he's good at. The whole iron fist concept really didn't play a big part in this movie and RZA seemed to be missing most of the time. On the plus side, the film didn't look low budget and some of the gory fighting scenes were OK but RZA really needs to do something with Thaddeus, who just seems to be in a bad mood all of the time. If he's going to come out with another movie in this franchise, he's need to do the Iron Fists in America because the Oriental flavour really isn't working. 

I recommend this movie to people who are into their martial movies about a group of miners who want to take down there evil boss with the help of Thaddeus. 2/10

I'm only writing this review because some of the other reviews are far too harsh. Yes, this is a bad movie, but it's not any worse than most other low budget chop socky I've watched, if anything it suffers from a lack of fighting. My biggest complaint would be that the asians in this flick all speak english to well and detracts from that asian market grindhouse martial arts feel. Anyway if you've watched more than five none hollywood kung fu movies you'll see it's Ok.