Posts tagged iron man

I don’t think I’ve ever been more torn about a movie than I currently am about Iron Man 3.

Look, I’m not going to waste time telling you about Iron Man, IM2, and The Avengers. You know the story so far: genius billionaire playboy, and part time superhero, Tony Stark has invented some awesome suits, and he saves the world when he’s not too wasted. He got roped into fighting some aliens in New York, and now his life has turned upside down. How Tony, a mere mortal, deals with the concept of gods, aliens, spies, and hulks is, more or less, the backbone of this film.

That being said, I’m forced to split the movie into two halves: Before Mandarin and After Mandarin. You’ll find out why in a moment.

The film opens a rather brilliant, if not exposition-heavy, flashback scene, where we’re introduced to two new important characters: scientists Maya Hensen (Rebecca Hall) and Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). While there are a lot of hilarious jokes and throwbacks in that opening flashback, it’s also a pretty crucial scene, as it shows how one man’s mistakes can create demons in others.

Once we get back to the present, we’re greeted with half of the best Iron Man movie ever made. Tony is constantly tinkering with his suits, to varied success and the usual hilarious one-liner, Happy (Jon Favreau) is now head of security at Stark Industries, and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is still proving to be a more responsible CEO than Stark in every way.

However, there’s a new threat looming: The Mandarin. He uses “suicide bombers” to completely decimate major American landmarks, and kill dozens of people in the process. The segments of the film that deal with The Mandarin’s televised threats are easily some of the darkest moments in any Marvel film, and it’s great to see the studio step out from the shadows in terms of real terrorist threats.

Unfortunately, Tony barely has time for The Mandarin. He’s too busy having panic attacks due to the events of The Avengers. He can’t sleep, he’s straining his relationship with Pepper, he’s barely able to be out in public; and this time, it’s not even his fault.

In fact, I’m going to take this time to say that Robert Downey Jr. blew it out of the park this time around. I dare say that this was his best outing as Tony Stark, conveying every necessary emotion with flawless nuance. He still has that classic Tony Stark narcissism and charm, but he also has nightmares and anxiety and deals with a great deal of loss in this film, and Downey Jr. plays it perfectly.

The attack on Tony’s house is as mind-blowing and nail-biting as I could’ve hoped, and our entire audience was on the edge of their seats as Tony plunged into the ocean within the rubble. Strangely enough, it’s the scenes following the attack that I really enjoyed. Tony finds himself armorless in a small Tennessee town, and he starts investigating a Mandarin attack-like explosion that occurred there years ago with the help of a precocious 10-year-old boy named Harley (Ty Simpkins). It’s these quieter moments between Tony and his new sidekick that really shined, ranging from hilarious to dark to downright emotional. I have no clue if Harley will return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe anytime soon, but I certainly loved the banter between him and Tony.

An armorless Iron Man may sound like a huge drag, but it allowed the film to go back to Tony’s roots as an inventor. Watching him buy practically everything at a hardware store, and then proceed to MacGyver an array of handmade weapons was a lot more satisfying than I originally thought it would be.

Unfortunately…this is where the “Before Mandarin” part of the movie ends, and the movie quickly goes downhill.

May I just say that, if you’re reading this review, you probably already know about how this movie treats The Mandarin. So let me just be perfectly clear: I have never, in my life, been more disappointed about a character reveal in any form of fiction than I was about The Mandarin’s. When it happened on-screen, I was slackjawed, and not in a good way. The entire tone of the film was literally ripped out from underneath me like a rug, and I kept thinking “There’s no way they’re doing this.” But they were. And it was horrible. Again, let me reiterate: I have never been more disappointed with anything in any film than I was with The Mandarin’s “true identity” reveal.

After that, I’m not joking, it felt like a different movie. Like the screenwriters, directors, and producers said “Look, we’re tired after making the first half of this movie so mind-blowingly good. Let’s just bullshit the rest of it.” And that’s exactly what they did. Plot lines that started off interested and mysterious quickly dived into “ridiculous” territory, characters like Killian and Hensen became either too ridiculous or completely forgotten about, and Iron Patriot (played by Don Cheadle at his best) was tragically underused.

The last half was a lot of explosions and silly action sequences, granted with every actor doing their best. Even through the ridiculousness of it all, I never felt like Downey Jr., Cheadle, or Pearce were ever about to turn around and wink at the camera. They were all playing it straight, which helped a bit. Unfortunately, not even the talented actors could save a crippled script.

The awesome footage of the Iron Legion coming to aid Tony and Rhodey that we all drooled over earlier? Yeah, I wish that had better context. It seemed like a very deus ex machina, “We need something epic to outdo The Avengers” thing thrown in to sell more action figures. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to summon those armors, especially when Tony made such a big deal about not having a suit to wear in the first half of the movie. Why didn’t he just summon one of these armors if he needed one to replace the dead Mark 42 so badly?

Not to say that the climax was terrible. The choreography was amazing, with Tony jumping in and out of suits, flying in every direction, and then ejecting from those suits, etc. It gets really busy, and it won’t be for everyone, but I certainly thought that it was fun. The very last bit with Pepper was also pretty cool.

The ending itself is sure to be one that everyone talks about. It had a sort of Dark Knight Rises feeling to it in the sense of finality. Will Robert Downey Jr. be coming back to the Marvel Universe? Or, more importantly, will Iron Man be back for Avengers 2? We’ll have to wait and see, but it certainly doesn’t look like it, which is a bit of a shame.

Ultimately, it felt like I was watching two different films last night, each only about an hour and a half long. The first film was awesome, capturing everything we wanted not just from a new Iron Man film, but from an action/sci-fi film, as well. The threat was real and terrifying, the characters were relateable and fun, and the story seemed to be going in a fantastic and suspenseful direction. The second movie was the exact opposite of those things. So if you’re OK with that, check out Iron Man 3.

At the time of this writing, I literally just got home from The Avengers. I’m still kinda shaking, but I’m going to try to keep the inner fanboy at bay while I write this review. It’s gonna be hard.

This is a spoiler-free review! However since the definition of the word “spoiler” is different to some people, I’m putting my entire review after the break:

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Day 3 of Avengers Week! Getting sick of me yet? Too bad, because we’re talking about Iron Man 2!

A lot of people give this movie a ton of hate. Frankly, I’m not 100% sure why. I enjoyed it almost as much as the first one. Robert Downey Jr. still plays a hilariously badass Tony Stark, the relationship between Tony and Pepper is still really fun to watch, and adding Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, and Scarlett Johansson to the cast was a real treat.

Of course, you can’t talk about Iron Man 2 without bringing up the Don Cheadle fiasco. I really like that they handled the obvious casting change within Rhodey’s first lines (“I’m here, it’s me, let’s just get on with this.”), but…I’ll admit, I missed Terrance Howard. Cheadle had a likability about him, but he lacked a lot of what made Howard so perfect. Terrance had a very mature, yet laid back demeanor about him that I thought was missing in Cheadle’s performance, and I also thought Cheadle’s chemistry with Downey Jr. wasn’t as comfortable or fun to watch.

However, I did really enjoy Rourke’s Ivan Vanko/Whiplash. He was a very multi-layered villain who seemed to always be one-step ahead of everyone else. He has only two things he can trust: his bird and his brains. And watching him one-up everyone in the film was really satisfying. Seeing Mickey Rourke and Robert Downey Jr. share a multiple scenes together was a real treat, especially since they both recently bounced back from big career pitfalls. Plus, you could really see the fun Rourke was having on-screen.

I’ll never be able to say enough about Sam Rockwell. The man is one of the most tragically-underappreciated actors working today. He can play serious and dramatic roles, like Moon, and then jump right into a hilarious comedy like Galaxy Quest. Anything and everything I’ve seen him in has been amazing, and watching him play the kinda/sorta villain Justin Hammer was a blast.

Scarlett Johansson has red hair in this movie, and kicks ass wearing a skintight leather suit. Um…nuff said.

There are two huge scenes in this film that I simply drool over every time I watch them: the battle on the racetrack and the Iron Man/War Machine team-up. They are the pinnacle of what CGI and special effects are capable of these days, and I think watching Tony put on the Mark V “Suitcase Armor” is one of the most jaw-dropping and entertaining things I’ve seen in a superhero film in a long time.

This movie takes what was great about the first Iron Man flick and adds in some Avengers prequel goodness to expand on the Universe. Is it as good as the first one? No, but very few superhero movies are! I still think that Iron Man 2 is a phenomenal sequel to a nearly-flawless superhero movie.

Did I mention Scarlett Johansson was in it?

Welcome to Day 1 of Avengers Week. Are you excited? So am I.

Today, I’m going to be reviewing the blockbuster sensation that started it all: the 2008 superhero classic: Iron Man.

Guys, Iron Man is one of my favorite superheroes, and has been for a while. I remember freaking out, worrying that they wouldn’t get his origin right. Little did I know that the insane success of this film would turn little old Iron Man into a household name and become as popular with audiences as Spider-Man and Batman.

This movie hits all of the right bases, starting with the cast. I think it’s positively impossible to ignore the suave and hilarious performance from Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. His sense of timing, improvisation, and nonchalance is what brings this character to life. It’s really Downey Jr. who is the catalyst in this movie, giving every other actor in it someone amazing to react to and bounce off of.

Gwyneth Paltrow has never really been a favorite actress of mine. Not that she’s bad by any means, simply that’s she’s ultimately forgettable. However, her portrayal of Petter Potts is easily my favorite in terms of “super hero love interests.” Her relationship with Tony is raw and real, and their dialogue is quick, natural, and fun to listen to.

I’ll be the one to say it: I loved Terrence Howard as Rhodey. I thought he had a very natural screen presence the likes of which Don Cheadle sort of lacked. You believed that he was actually interacting with an old friend of his, occasionally laughing with him, occasionally rolling his eyes, and occasionally getting frustrated and cross. Their chemistry was spot-on and I enjoyed every second of it.

Then there’s the fourth member of this dynamic cast: the always-watchable Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane. Honestly, though, I can watch Jeff Bridges set a VCR and still be immensely entertained. He brings to the table a very likeable villain, someone who you legitimately want to trust until, you know, you discover he’s working with terrorists.

The relationship Tony has with Yinsen is also insanely heartfelt, especially for a movie that, up until that point, starred a complete douchebag. His death hits the audience hard, even though he’s only onscreen for about fifteen minutes. Tony’s reaction is palpable, and you really understand that this is the first time in a long time he actually cared for someone. It’s just a great opening to a movie. Dark, real, and shakes the audience to their core.

The CGI is pretty damn flawless. There are only two shots in the entire film where the suit looks a little fake, and they’re only with the Mark I suit. The Marks II and III each look 100% real, which is an incredibly rare thing in film these days. Seriously, watch Iron Man and tell me which Mark III suits are real and which are CGI. Trust me, it’s hard.

The script is insanely tight, with wonderful one-liners thrown throughout, ones that aren’t there simply for the sake of being one-liners. The entire tone of the film is just perfect, in my opinion, for a superhero movie. It’s bright, flashy, and fun, but it’s also dark and occasionally frightening. There is plenty at stake, but at the end of the day, you know it’s all just good fun.

Ultimately, Iron Man is just an absolute blast, and easily the best of the Avengers prequels. It’s a superhero movie that isn’t trying to be cool; it just is cool! There’s literally something for everyone in it, and it’s appeal is enormous.

Would the movie be as successful or entertaining without the phenomenal performance from Robert Downey Jr.? Probably not…but Downey Jr. is in it, so that hardly matters. It’s the definition of a fun movie, and easily one of the best superhero movies of all time.