3 posts tagged “iron man”
One of the things that I've hated about a lot of other superhero films and the pre-Bale Batman films was the multiple villains. Starting with Batman Returns it seemed like every superhero movie had to have multiple villains in it. Even Spider-Man 3 had Venom and Sandman for no real reason. While having Ra's al Ghul and the Scarecrow in Batman Begins worked fairly well I was worried when I saw pictures of Two-Face. I didn't think having the Joker and Two-Face in the same film was needed. I was really surprised when not only they but the Scarecrow appears and the film actually works. I liked it better than Batman Begins.
The reason why it works is that a) the Scarcrow is barely in it and b) the Joker is tied directly into Two-Face. The two of them just don't happen to show up. There is a reason why both Two-Face and the Joker are in this. In fact, there's a pretty good reason why all this stuff had to be in it. Now, as I said, some of it could have been done differently and more quickly, but it all had its reason to be there.
The storyline is the best part of the film. The direction, on the other hand, isn't all that great. I've seen Memento and Batman Begins and I've never been impressed with his actual direction. He is a good writer. he might get good performances from the actors. When it comes to cinematography and camera shots, however, he is wholly uninteresting. He has no visual flair. If a director with some real style and energy had been behind the camera this really would have been over the top. As it is the film is just better than average. The death of Heath Ledger casts a shadow over the film and he might be award worthy. It isn't worthy of any non-technical awards though.
three thumbs up
Better than Begins
It ain't no Iron Man, though
Nor is it The Hulk.
There's some entertaining bits here but really there aren't any surprises or anything that you didn't expect to see. The trailer shows us the Abomination. We know that Betty Ross is in it. We know that there will be smashing.
The only real entertaining bits of the film come from the fact that Marvel is trying to create a cohesive movie universe here. That means that for the comic book geeks every time a character gets a couple lines or especially if they get their first and last name mentioned you get to play "who is that?" There are no characters in the Hulk who get any significant screen time that aren't cameos by people like Lou Ferrigno, Stan Lee, and even the dead Bill Bixby gets some screen time when a clip from The Courtship of Eddie's Father is show. There are also, as one of the trailers spoils, appearances by Tony Stark, Samuel Sterns, and Dr. Leonard Samson among others.
Other than that, there isn't all that much to recommend The Incredible Hulk.
two thumbs up
very credible
just not incredibly good
an A for effort.
Before I begin this, I want to mention something that I just found out. A while ago I reviewed the movie Next. It was an OK movie about a guy who can see two minutes into the future. Around that same time I bought a collection of some of Phillip K. Dick's short stories. I've been reading them a little bit at a time. One of the stories is called "The Golden Man" which is about a world where mutants are hunted down and killed. One mutant manages to survive to be a teenager. He isn't like the X-Men though. He is hairless and golden. He is also a wild child. It turns out that he can see into the future and he is also very fertile. If not contained he will pretty much make every woman he can get near pregnant effectively out breeding humanity.
Well guess what? Next is "based" on "The Golden Man." I know, right? I just found that out and I was totally amazed. Odd how the rewrite process works in Hollywood.
Now believe it or not this is actually kind of relevant to Iron Man in that this film is very tightly plotted and undoubtedly underwent some really serious rewriting. That isn't to say that it is bad. In fact, it is really really good. It kicks the ass of Spider-Man, that is for sure. However, it is one of those movies where every single thing that is said mentioned or done in the first half of the film becomes essential to the plot in the second half. On one hand I really admire that kind of writing. I could never do that. On the other hand, I find it kind of irritating because it makes everything so artificial and precalculated that it sucks some of the believability out of it.
If you know anything about the character or have seen the trailers you know pretty much the plot. Stark makes weapons. Stark gets captured by bad guys and makes an iron suit to escape. Someone makes a great big iron suit and Stark has to beat the great big iron suit. There really aren't any surprises but it is well done. It works really well.
five thumbs up
stay until the end
to see the special surprise
you motherfuckers
