Iron Man: My Thoughts
First off, let me just say that Robert Downey, Jr. might as well actually be Tony Stark. There, now that we got that out of the way, let’s begin.
Going into this flick, I absolutely had a positive POV on what it was going to be like, how “big” it might present itself, and about Downey’s presentation of the Tony Stark character. After having seen the movie, I’ll also say that I was never a big fan of Gwyneth Paltrow because she doesn’t tend to be in the movies I’m into, but I actually liked her in the role of Pepper Potts. Terrence Howard’s Jim Rhodes also landed exactly where I had hoped it would, given my knowledge of the character from comic books.
Having obviously been inundated with marketing for Iron Man for the last year, it was pretty clear that a lot of the movie had already been teased, something that’s failed in other examples, and we all walked in knowing full what to expect. That being said, sometimes those of us who “participate” very heavily in social media have a completely different perspective on who knows what when it comes to a movie premiere. I knew, having heard from Chris Thilk (and later on a number of movie blogs) that I shouldn’t leave the theater before watching the entire credits, but probably 75 or 80% of the people in there left before they were anywhere near complete. In fact, a number of people who did sit through the credits appeared to be the people who always sit through the credits just to do, and I actually heard people be surprised when a “surprise” scene came up at the close.
What does all this mean? Well, it means that influencers are definitely being reached, but by no means is that a perfect science and making its way into the overall audience for any given thing. All that said, this was an engaged group from the moment the first trailer was shown (the new Dark Knight one), plus one for The Happening, another for the Indiana Jones flick, and one more for Mike Myers’ new comedy. Thankfully, the marketing of scenes such as Stark telling a young soldier “I don’t want to see this on your MySpace page” didn’t take the fun out of them, with laughter abound and the full context of the scene making it worthwhile.
I’m with James Rocchi, however, in saying that the movie got right into the “familiar plotline of the superhero origin film,” which was definitely a good thing. Just the way you were immediately thrown into the “bad” situation that Tony Stark was in, and then flashed back to what led up to that exact moment was a great way to start the movie. For one thing, it got the “gang signs” scene out of the way, as we’ve already seen it a million times, and it also put you on the edge of your seat right out of the box. Not only does it allow you to be quickly introduced to all the characters of interest, but it makes you “like” Tony Stark as a person.
As we got into the origin of the “Mark I,” (the first Iron Man suit, for non-fans), it wasn’t done in such a way where the building of it was breezed through while the world went on around it, very quickly. While it turned out to have been three months of time that Stark had spent in a cave, I can see how people would suggest that some of the scenes were “slow,” but this film unfortunately has a lot of people comparing it to Transformers, which was so completely different in structure and “feel” and “fanpandering” that’s a completely unfair judgement. Was it just as dramatic, majestic and, to borrow a word, “awesome?” Absolutely - but it stands on its own two feet. In fact, when comparing it to some of the other superhero flicks out there, I actually found myself liking Tony Stark the man far, far more than I like Peter Parker in the Spider-Man series, which surprised me, as I’m such a fan of both Parker and the webslinger.
Moving into the overall effects and styleized violence, I actually mentioned to Thilk this morning that there were a few times that, after something was completely blown up, I was like “wow, how’d they pull that one off?” I also enjoyed the melding of humor and technology, whether it be Stark’s robot helpers (the names are awesome, I won’t ruin it), or the “downfall” of weighing something as heavy as his suit is, and his not realizing it until it’s too late. The one scene that we’re all familiar with from the commercial, where he launches a rocket from his wrist at a tank, then walks directly at you, the viewer as the tank explodes just slightly out of focus, could almost sum up what Stark “is” when he’s Iron Man - serious, and yet just slightly ADD. It’s almost as if they took his penchant for fancy cars and women and built a little bit of what makes him dig those things and applied it to his attention - or lack of it - when it comes to being a full-on war machine.
Before rounding up a few things that might be considered spoilers, I’ll throw out there that this is one of the best movies I’ve seen in quite some time. It’s as advertised, I wasn’t jilted by any of the casting moves as sometimes happen with “fan”-followed characters, and has just the right mix of rock-em-sock-em with actual movie content to make me happy. I’ll give it two “effing awesomes,” and note that there’s a good chance that I’ll end up seeing it again this weekend as a houseguest on the way into town wants to see it. So take my extra $10 and add that to the pile.
Make sure and enjoy the following clip with your volume slightly lower than it is now (thanks, Chris!) as it’s kind of a curious way to throw the fanboys into a tizzy.
Random thoughts and stuff I liked:
- I actually asked at one point whether Jeff Bridges shaved his head to play the part of Obadiah Stone? He did.
- How well would a guy who probably has a new woman in his bed every night come off in a movie that a ton of kids are going to want to see? Pretty good, actually, and it was just goofy enough to have come from a comic book hero.
- LOVED the teaser post-credits. You’ll be happy to have sat through the credits, trust me.
- A lot less “useless” violence than I would have thought. The major “fight” scenes don’t really feature the deaths and injuries to innocents and people in the surrounding areas. Was kind of neat, considering the highway destruction we’ve seen in the second Matrix movie and Transformers, etc.
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