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ashcol47
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- Review count2
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- First reviewMay 3, 2008
- Last reviewJuly 22, 2008
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating2.5
ashcol47's Reviews
Overall rating
4
/
5
Good, dark comic book flick
PostedJuly 22, 2008
ashcol47
from Brooklyn, NY
There are a few contrivances, they play fast and loose with the "no guns" rule (you won't use handguns, you're specifically disdainful of people who use handguns in your name, but slapping a couple turrets on the front of your bike is okay?), and I still find Christian Bale's rasp vaguely ridiculous.
Even so, this managed, despite being set mostly in daylight, to be even darker than Nolan's first outing in the franchise and I'll admit it, I got swept up in the crowd-pleasing moments right along with the rest of the audience. And, note to the Iron Man crew, the film demonstrates that there are in fact ways to depict a ladies' man without setting the women's movement back fifty years (even if, although probably because, it's just an act). Everything you've heard about the performances is correct, so I won't repeat those accolades here. I'll probably see it again, if only because I missed Keith Szarabajka (whom I'd heard had a part) and Anthony Michael Hall (whom I hadn't) on this viewing.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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Overall rating
1
/
5
Disappointing
PostedMay 3, 2008
ashcol47
from Brooklyn, NY
Okay, so I got sucked in by the hype machine.
This was a movie that desperately wanted to be an Event with a capital E. The most telling example: it's a staple in filmed comic book origin stories that we'll have a scene with a great, dramatic unveiling of the hero's costume. Iron Man had three of these. One of the prototype, one of the finished suit, and one of the finished suit with a paint job. This could have worked as parody, but was played completely straight and somber - the audience was clearly intended to be equally awed each time. Which is not to say there was no intentional humor in evidence; unfortunately it was uniformly forced and obvious, often telegraphed well in advance. Equally obvious was pretty much every plot development. I won't be a meanie and spoil anything, but suffice to say it was all by the numbers. And again, this could have been used as a gentle poke at the genre - Sam Raimi made little self-referential nods to the plot contrivances in all three Spider-Man films and it worked beautifully; why couldn't Jon Favreau do it here?
Fine, fine, so it's no great piece of art or literature. What about the action sequences? That's what everyone waited in line to see, right? Well...they weren't *bad* per se, but they were too few and far between. The CGI was nicely realistic and, okay, yeah, it was kinda neat to watch Stark's assembly line machines dress him in the armor. But regardless of how well it was all realized, there just wasn't much of anything NEW here. Pretty much everything was, once again, strictly by the numbers - lots of stuff getting blowed up real good, sure, but nothing to make me sit on the edge of my seat and go, "Man, that was COOL!"
Finally, I have to make note of the terrorists who capture Stark at the beginning of the film. You know, the Al-Quaeda terrorists (no, they're not identified as such, but...c'mon) who were so stupid they couldn't tell, even with 24-hour camera surveillance, that their prisoner who told them he'll make them missiles is instead making an armored body suit. In a word, offensive. This sort of blatant propaganda ranks a bit below WWII-era caricatures of Germans and Japanese, but it's still in the same ballpark. And while the villain ultimately turns out to be the US arms dealer who supplies these terrorists (fine, I lied about not spoiling anything), given the current climate, there's just enough jingoism present here to make me hold my nose.
All I really wanted was an engaging comic book action flick, the sort of thing you can see on opening day with a theater full of fellow geeks and get swept up in the mania. Admittedly, everyone else in the theater seemed to be having that experience, and from a cursory glance at some other fan reviews, I see they're not alone. And you know, I'll freely admit that the little post-credits scene everyone tells you to stick around for gave me a genuine thrill. But couldn't the film have had a few more of those moments?
No, I do not recommend this movie.
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