I am Iron Man

[ebonlock]

I have to say that I'd put this film just behind X-Men 2 as far as all time greatest super hero flicks. When I heard Robert Downey Jr. was playing Stark I knew he was going to be perfect, I just didn't know *how* perfect. I'm not sure how much of his performance to attribute to a fantastic script and how much to Downey's impeccable improv. It really was just seamless.

The plot itself was entirely recognizable to someone who had only the slightest familiarity with the Iron Man comic, it established the character right from the get go and made his transformation from billionaire playboy to crusader seem realistic. The confidence that Downey exuded was nearly palpable and his dry wit made you look past the asshole aspect of his personality and just downright adore the guy. You could definitely understand why Rhodes and Potts were so devoted to him.

My own favorite sequences were those involving Tony learning to fly in the suit, beautifully written and acted and funny as hell. What actually surprised me was how little of the suit you really got to see in the film. It's one of the trickiest elements of doing a superhero flick, especially when it's going to involve a lot of CGI. It's way too easy to lose the character in the effects. Keeping the use of the suit to a minimum and spending a lot of the time he's in the suit showing a close up of his face with the head's up display helped tremendously.

I love when a movie team learns from the mistakes of the past, incorporates what they've learned into their own project, and then mixes in perfect casting and first rate writing with a healthy dash of profound love and understanding of the genre.

Very, very satisfying film overall, and if you love the character you're going to be beside yourself with adoration. If I were more of a Tony Stark fan and less of a Kurt Wagner fan I'd probably rate it a little higher than X2 when it comes right down to it. But the beginning of X2 remains my favorite sequence in superhero film history, and I admit my biases there.

However, the first superhero team I ever got caught up in was the Avengers, which is why when we stayed through the credits and we got the extra scene I nearly jumped out of my seat with glee. As soon as I heard Sam Jackson's voice I knew, knew he'd been cast as Nick Fury (they threw in a bunch of SHIELD references and I'd wondered if he was going to show, but had no idea who'd be playing him), and when he mentioned the Avengers...well, suffice to say that shit was well and truly lost. I am saying, right here and now, that if Quicksilver shows up on the team that's it, I will have had two of my all time favorite characters show up on screen. I'm not holding out for Legion who, I know without a doubt, will never appear on screen, but I can be happy with Quicksilver...so very, very happy. They've gotta' have Scarlet Witch, right? I mean they've just got to. A scene or two with Wanda and Pietro...*dies happy*

Why yes, I am a comic geek, why do you ask?

Comments

i may be lurking

[so-stoked-33.livejournal.com]

didn't you love the electronic, and yet somehow still token british, butler?

take out the trash gwyneth, YEAH. i thought she was perfect, fluttery gorgeousness at the benefit, but her half-hearted shrieking when faced with a huge metal war-hungry robot voiced by (ingratiating and awesomely creepy) jeff bridges was a bit awkward. i liked how they played with her hair.

also, have you ever seen the anime The Big O?

still lurking - possibly

[so-stoked-33.livejournal.com]

my sister mentioned the villagers' clothing was way too spiffy for impoverished villager clothing. then again, she missed half the conversation in the movie watching for forgivable details.


"If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college."

Re: i may be lurking

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

didn't you love the electronic, and yet somehow still token british, butler?

Jarvis rocked! As did his two robotic arms, the line, "If you spray that stuff at me again when I'm not on fire I'm donating you to a community college." nearly killed me.

take out the trash gwyneth, YEAH. i thought she was perfect, fluttery gorgeousness at the benefit, but her half-hearted shrieking when faced with a huge metal war-hungry robot voiced by (ingratiating and awesomely creepy) jeff bridges was a bit awkward. i liked how they played with her hair.

To be honest the only thing that would've made the movie better for me would've been if Pepper was totally disinterested in Tony. I thought the romance angle seemed a bit forced and gods I'd love to see a professional woman in a film who doesn't have a crush on her boss. Just one...once in a while.

also, have you ever seen the anime The Big O?

Yeah, the art style doesn't do a huge amount for me but I recall really liking the characters and writing in that one.

[jsmitty-o.livejournal.com]

I had never heard of Iron Man (that I remember, anyway) until scoreboard told me about this movie coming out a few months ago. He was explaining Tony Stark to me and I knew right away RDJ was *perfect* for the part. I got excited about the movie and I'm not a comic geek. I saw the movie last Tuesday and OMFG, it RUUUUULED. I love everything you've mentioned so far for the same reasons. I'd dearly love to know which lines were improved by RDJ and which were scripted. "Let's face it, this isn't the worst position you've seen me in."

Anyway, this movie could probably make me a comic geek. =) It's a shame we have to wait two years for the sequel.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Mmm, and two years for the Avengers movie too. I'm wondering if they'll do at least a minor crossover and have Tony make a brief cameo in the Avengers flick. It'd only be right after all.

And again I have to say, Nick Motherfuckin' Fury! God that rocked so very much.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Minor cameo? He's going to be one of the main characters; he's one of the founders, and the traditional big three of the Avengers is Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, which would be the trio of Marvel movies leading up to it.

I'd suspect that Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are more likely for an Avengers sequel, though they may be bound to the X-man franchise instead depending on what Fox got rights to in the way of mutants/Magneto characters.

[divine-debris.livejournal.com]

You know Tony makes a cameo in the new Incredible Hulk film with Ed Norton right?

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Huh, I did not know that. It's a brilliant idea given the incestuousness of the Marvel universe.

[divine-debris.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they are thinking of doing a "Civil War" movie at some point? That would rock!

[scoreboard.livejournal.com]

Three, if I heard right. We get Hulk this summer, Iron Man 2 in 2010, and both the Captain America and the notional Avengers flick in 2011. It looks like Marvel Studios, after watching stuff linger in development hell for literally decades (Universal optioned Iron Man in 1990, for godsakes, it's taken half my life to get this picture made), has taken it upon themselves to start building their entire universe on celluloid. I have to think that this is Stan Lee's last big dream: to see all those essential characters from 1961, everything Kirby and he created, brought into the mainstream of American entertainment, and if this is the first stroke of that, they're on time and on target.

The only trick now: keep Downey, Norton, SLJ (!!!!), and all the necessary supporting cast together through the end of what will have to be five or six movies. I know Downey is down for 15 more Iron Man pix, by his own admission, but I wonder if Ed norton will keep coming back.

Anyone else notice Rhodey's brass rat when he was on the phone? Other than tsmaster? OK, I saw it on IMDB, but I noticed *something*...

"Damn. Next time."

You know, I've been known to leave a movie, do a 180, and walk right back into the subsequent showing...

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Personally I just hope that all the success from this one doesn't end up doing Downey more harm than good. I'd hate to see him slip off the wagon because the pressure and fame got to be too much for him again.

As for the new Hulk film...I want to like it, I really do because gods I worship Ed Norton, but... Let's just say I still haven't quite gotten over the last atrocity. I grew up watching the Hulk on tv, I know that Banner can be an interesting and sympathetic character and I really hope that Norton can make that work, and that they keep the CGI to a minimum.

And as for seeing it again, I really was tempted to do the same thing, walk right back into another showing.

[divine-debris.livejournal.com]

Heh, we knew you would LOVE it, so did we!! So much fun, the acting and dialogue are top notch the special effects rock! I didn't even want to punch Paltrow that much...which is pretty impressive. The SHIELD bit at the end was just the whipped geek icing on the cake!!

And so it begins...

[moonlightnrain.livejournal.com]

I'm standing in my kitchen making pancakes when all of a sudden I got hit with a *craving* to see the movie again. Gah! Normally it takes a few days before cravings will set in.

As far as the romance, I think it was a shortcut taken by the writers. I think they needed to show that PP loves TS, and the quickest way to get that across was with a crush. I would have preferred a complexity to their relationship along the lines of Rose/10, but that took time to develop and explain to the audience, and it's time that the film's writer didn't have.

Re: And so it begins...

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I know I was really just looking for more complexity in the relationship, less typical romance and more "we're all each other has". And I really do get frustrated with the "working girl wins boss' heart" cliche.

Re: And so it begins...

[moonlightnrain.livejournal.com]

Well this movie was a lot of things -- a lot of awesome and amazing things (motherfucker) -- but complex isn't one of them. ;)

And yeah, you would have thought that cliche would have died with Reaganomics, wouldn't you? But no, they warm it up and serve it on day-old toast at least once a year.... *sigh*

Re: And so it begins...

[scoreboard.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking that it goes the other way in the next picture. He still has it bad for her, she's moved on, and the emotional strain coupled with the intensity of a single-minded crusade against anyone who has his old weapons and the problems he created for himself with that stunt at the end...

...helloooooooo, rehab!

(However, I would sell my mother to the Ten Rings for that portable super-chilled bar cabinet he had.)

MacGuire? Bale? Reeve? Morons. (Really?) This move did for superhero flicks what Casino Royale did for Bond: single-handedly took the whole genre to another level.