Before I start this review, I would like to mention that Into the Badlands has been praised by the legend himself, Jackie Chan. The series is about a martial artist-warrior and a young boy traveling the land, which is run by feudal barons. Barons are those that control certain territories. The main character is played by martial artist, Daniel Wu. Choreographed by Master Dee Dee, the fighting styles are clear shadows of classic Jet Li films. It makes sense because Master Dee Dee choreographed just about all of Jet Li’s films.
One of the interesting aspects of this series is that it features no guns. No guns! All fighting is done with swords and sticks and pikes. While on the road, Sunny (Wu) comes across a stack of bodies cut ear-to-ear and a turned over a truck. He’s confused as to what caused this, and figured that some raiders had done the horrible deed. As he discovers a smoke trail through the treeline, he comes across a group of men sitting around a roasting pig. One thing leads to another and next the thing you know, there’s a bad-ass fight scene! One of the best martial arts scenes ever seen in a television series. Oh, and it’s quite gruesome as well, folks!
After kicking some major ass, Sunny catches a young boy, M.K. played by Aramis Knight (The Dark Knight Rises, Ender’s Game), trying to run away. This leads to the relationship mentioned above. Sunny takes the young boy to his village, where he meets his new baron, Quinn, played by Marton Csokas (XXX, Lord of the Rings, The Equalizer).
M.K. gets in a fight with one of the boys at the camp over a medallion that the boy had stolen from him. It’s quickly stopped by Sunny and the boy gives it back to M.K. Later, Sunny studied the medallion because he had seen it before and he had another artifact with the same crest on it. He doesn’t know what to make of it. That night, M.K. got jumped in the bathroom by the boy from earlier. M.K. got knocked down hard, bloody nose and all… Suddenly things get really weird and intense as his eyes black over and all of a sudden he’s like a super ninja. He counters a blow from the boy and sends him flying into a mirror, causing glass shards to shoot out everywhere. He even happens to grab one in midair and throw it like a knife right into the kid’s eye. Pretty impressive!
Because of this fight, M.K. got locked up, but Sunny ends up releasing him and they then they’re on the run together. But before you finish reading this, I will remind you that there’s a bad-ass fight scene that you will love at the end. There were minimal scenes and subplots for this premiere, and it gets you right into the mood instantly.
Into the Badlands airs every Sunday night, after The Walking Dead on AMC at 10 p.m. EST/CT.
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