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

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.