Ironheart Season 1 Review – Another forgettable MCU project

The Review Geek

11 hours ago

Season 1
Episode Guide
Episode 1 -| Review Score – 2/5
Episode 2 -| Review Score – 1.5/5
Episode 3 -| Review Score – 2/5
Episode 4 -| Review Score – 1/5
Episode 5 -| Review Score – 2/5
Episode 6 -| Review Score – 3/5
In recent years, the MCU has been delivering a constant batch of disappointing, half-baked works. Unfortunately, Ironheart is the newest project in that group. Although it has a few interesting ideas and a good cast, with Dominique Thorne as the titular hero, the show is rarely entertaining.
Riri Williams returns to Chicago, her hometown, to rebuild her suit and a super AI as we kick off the end of Phase 5. However, she's got no money for it. As a result, RiRi is swept up in a life of crime, working with The Hood and his gang of criminals.
Ironheart's biggest problem is the number of elements it needs to handle and its inability to accomplish that in the course of six episodes. Talking about The Hood's plot alone, there are already many factors to coordinate. The villain's backstory, his crew, Riri's life of crime weighing on her, the use of magic, and the heists, to name but a few.
However, there are even more working pieces, such as Riri's own tragic backstory, her AI, a blooming romance, and another important antagonist, Ezekiel Stane.
Because of that, there's not enough time to develop anything well. Consequently, viewers can't latch onto any idea.
When Riri joins The Hood, for example, there's no weight to her decision to team up with criminals. The show only brings that up once a mission goes wrong, then her doubts about being a bad person become relevant. But, as it had no gravity before, it's hard to feel captivated by her dilemma.
This is before mentioning how lazy decisions and conveniences often happen for a quick resolution. Ezekiel starts as a friend of Riri's, but he soon begins to hate her. In their first fight, he spews out his revengeful supervillain speech and seems overjoyed in destroying the girl's armour. But when he gets the chance to kill her seconds later, he goes back on what he said and immediately gives up.
But the villain who suffers the most is Parker Robbins, The Hood. Anthony Ramos is a good actor, but he isn't menacing at all. For the majority of Ironheart, he and his crew give off the vibe of lackeys more than of dangerous criminals. His cloak only makes him seem goofier and it's hard to overstate how much of a terrible costume design it is.
The series attempts to explore his backstory, but it never goes deep enough so it feels like the result of another lazy decision. Ultimately, The Hood joins the (massive) list of half-baked and forgettable MCU villains.
Sadly, the protagonist suffers the same fate. She has many flaws, which could help her be more relatable. But we don't watch her grow or even try to overcome these flaws, so viewers can't sympathize with her struggles.
The dramatic scenes are great, mostly thanks to the cast, but they are far and few between. The same goes for the action. It's always fluid and creative, being very fun to watch. Yet, with so many aspects to handle, two of them working well doesn't save the show.
Episode 6 has an incredible fight between Riri and The Hood, in which we finally see her mixing magic with technology. It's visually creative, presents high stakes for both her and Parker, and has a smart twist that leads to her victory.
The last episode also delivers a few good dialogues and drama, making it the best of the bunch. However, watching it is weird. Everything is tied to plot threads that can be developed in a future season or movie that seems unlikely to happen. Regardless of how good these moments are, it's too late to change the story, and they probably won't lead to anything.
Ironheart proves that Dominique Thorne is a good choice for the character, but that she also deserves a better project. Even if not in a future season, it'd be nice seeing her act as Riri Williams once again with a script that can develop her character more.