Share Vorkosigan's profile
Vorkosigan
Vorkosigan's stats
- Review count1
- Helpfulness votes0
- First reviewMay 2, 2008
- Last reviewMay 2, 2008
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating5
Vorkosigan's Reviews
Overall rating
5
/
5
Not you average super-hero film.
PostedMay 2, 2008
Vorkosigan
Let's start off with my opinion right up front. Iron Man is a really fun film and everyone in the theater seemed to enjoy it last night. They were many moments in the movie that drew huge laughs and outright applause. Everyone seemed to go home happy.
The interesting thing to me was that the movie's pacing seemed different than your standard super-hero flick. There was a lot less violent action and a lot more focus on development of the armor. It wasn't all about fight scenes and non-stop explosions at all.
I pondered this as I went to sleep last night and realized that Iron Man isn't really a super-hero movie. It isn't really an action flick at all. It's an inventor movie. It's all about Tony Stark dreaming and building the suit. Most of the movie is focused on this process with Tony designing two suits in a row. And, except for one girl in the back, everyone in the theater seemed to enjoy it. The film focused Tony's experiments and his design efforts. If there was action in the middle act it was non-violent but exciting action as the suit was tested and the challenges were test failures. All of this doesn't sound very exciting to describe, but it was very enjoyable.
I tried to think of other movies that focused on invention as the theme of the whole movie and I didn't come up with any others really. I'm sure they are out there, but mostly this concept is a scene. Television has used this idea more successfully. 80s shows like the A-Team and Macgyver were all about the invention and really the story setup (like in Iron Man) was just a justification for the main characters to build something cool. That's what Iron Man is as a movie and it does it really well. There are loads of tech gadgets that are visually fun. The process is well-paced and the actual violent action (a total of 4 scenes one of which starts the film) is parceled out over time to make sure that people think it's an action film.
This, of course, begs the question of what they will do in subsequent films (and, oh yes, there will be subsequent films). I don't think they can recapture the same formula in another movie. Granted, the comics have spent years focusing on Tony Stark designing new and different armors. But I don't see this working as the basis for another movie. They will have to go more conventional (or do something else original, we can hope).
I am impressed by the different path this film has taken and I think it will lead to a lot of success.
The interesting thing to me was that the movie's pacing seemed different than your standard super-hero flick. There was a lot less violent action and a lot more focus on development of the armor. It wasn't all about fight scenes and non-stop explosions at all.
I pondered this as I went to sleep last night and realized that Iron Man isn't really a super-hero movie. It isn't really an action flick at all. It's an inventor movie. It's all about Tony Stark dreaming and building the suit. Most of the movie is focused on this process with Tony designing two suits in a row. And, except for one girl in the back, everyone in the theater seemed to enjoy it. The film focused Tony's experiments and his design efforts. If there was action in the middle act it was non-violent but exciting action as the suit was tested and the challenges were test failures. All of this doesn't sound very exciting to describe, but it was very enjoyable.
I tried to think of other movies that focused on invention as the theme of the whole movie and I didn't come up with any others really. I'm sure they are out there, but mostly this concept is a scene. Television has used this idea more successfully. 80s shows like the A-Team and Macgyver were all about the invention and really the story setup (like in Iron Man) was just a justification for the main characters to build something cool. That's what Iron Man is as a movie and it does it really well. There are loads of tech gadgets that are visually fun. The process is well-paced and the actual violent action (a total of 4 scenes one of which starts the film) is parceled out over time to make sure that people think it's an action film.
This, of course, begs the question of what they will do in subsequent films (and, oh yes, there will be subsequent films). I don't think they can recapture the same formula in another movie. Granted, the comics have spent years focusing on Tony Stark designing new and different armors. But I don't see this working as the basis for another movie. They will have to go more conventional (or do something else original, we can hope).
I am impressed by the different path this film has taken and I think it will lead to a lot of success.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
Share:
0points
0of 0voted this as helpful.