Let’s get one thing straight, I fucking hate summer blockbusters. I fucking hate epic movies. I hated transformers & spider-man 3.
I really enjoyed Iron Man.
Sure, it’s the traditional comic movie that took elements from all random Marvel universes and mashed them together, but the fact is that they did it tastefully.
They had a very good character buildup of Tony Stark, because lets face it Iron Man is not a commercially known property like Parker, Wayne & Kent. So the new viewer is introduced to the eccentric ka-gillionaire and his company in an acceptable fashion.
The movie does it’s research and puts alot of comic continuity into the film. His origin has been changed to fit modern times, but no grave injustices have been committed to make me jump out of my seat in protest.
They kept the fact that he had a helper (Yinsen, his name in the book as well) captured with him AND the helper sacrificed himself to buy Tony some more time.
The terrorist team that kidnapped Tony Stark in the Middle East paid homage to early Iron Man villain the Mandarin by naming themselves “Followers of the Ten Rings” Which is very cool because the Mandarin uses ten rings of alien origin to give him his powers.
The movie establishes Tony Stark as not only a keen businessman, but a profound inventor by obviously having him construct the Mark I suit out of scraps, but as Flounder said having him “tinkering around” with random things. It’s very important to show this to the viewing audience. Tony Stark is not just some mega rich dude with a vendetta like Bruce Wayne/Batman, he himself invents many of the things his Iron Man suit uses and what Stark Enterprises sells.
Tony Stark has been a raging alcoholic in the comics and it is hinted to in the movie, although the director (Jon Faverou) wants to hold off on any alcoholism storylines until the next film.
The main villain Obadiah Stane was written well. The film version did many things that the comic version did. Stane tried to lockout Stark from his company in the film, while in the comic he actually succeeded for awhile. Obadiah found the plans for the Iron Man suit in the comic and made “Iron Monger.” In the film, Stane was provided the plans by the terrorist group that captured Tony Stark.
Starks best friend and bodyguard James Rhodes was also portrayed in the film. Rhodey also becomes Iron Man in the comics when Tony Stark is too inebriated to fight, which then leads to his own armor suit “War Machine” In the film Rhodes finds the “Mark II” armor and says “Next time pal” which is a blatant set up for a heavy War Machine storyline in the next movie.
S.H.I.E.L.D. also makes an appearance in the movie. An agent from Shield pesters Pepper Potts and Tony Stark continuously throughout the length of the film and then they pay tribute to the Marvel Ultimates line and cast Sam Jackson as Nick Fury! While it was only a quick cameo after the credits, Fury ALSO sets up the proposed Avengers movie by asking Stark to be apart of the new “Avengers Initiative.” Hopefully, Marvel will go through with that movie, but they said it would only happen if they could get all of the original actors that portrayed the Avengers back in for the collective effort.
My main gripe was that loyal Tony Stark butler Jarvis (recently revealed as a Skrull in comics) has been turned into an A.I. computer program!
On a side note they even played a version of the theme song from the old Iron Man cartoon show from the 1960′s! Watch the intro to the show here.
All in all, I respected the film for bringing in enough comic references to keep me happy and had some great humor and action scenes to boot. I’m glad that the movie actually focused more on the science and building aspects than the “blow some shit up” trend that has been going on lately in epic movies. But I’m sure because it didn’t have all of the action that was in other mindless films it wont be received well by casual movie goers and non comic fans.
As an avid fan, I do recommend this over:
Spider-Man 3
Fantastic Four 1,2 & 1994 version
Transformers 2007 version
Superman 3,4 & 2006
The Hulk
all of the Batman movies that are NOT the two Burton films and Begins
and a bunch of others that I can’t think of
-XenoJive
Dixi Finis!
Tony Stark, makes you feel, he’s a cool exec with a heart of steel…
Since I don’t think we need a third Iron Man review as a main post, I’ll just tack on some extra thoughts to Xeno’s since it’s in line with my thinking.
-The entire Mk.3 suit is made out of the same alloy as the higlight parts of my watch, fucking awesome!!!
-Not only does the terrorist group have the whole ten rings thing, but the leader guy had a HUGE ring on, and one of the Mandarin’s techniques is to give one of his rings to an underling. I was constantly waiting for another shot of it being gone after he died, but no so luck.
-The human body in the Marvel Universe is remarkably durable since repulsors which can easily shift 2 tons of automobile don’t simply turn people to jelly (fyi. that’s my main gripe, and like Xeno’s it has little effect on the quality of the movie.)
-Bonus treat for me, great new Dark Knight and Indy4 trailers, the latter of which actually (finally!) got me interested in the new Indy flick.
As next week’s big release is Speed Racer aka F-Zero the Movie aka Tripper’s Paradise, I’m thinking a repeat of Iron Man might be in order.
Iron Man sounds interesting. I’m glad it’s not just another summer blockbuster.
Indy 4 would kick so much bawls if Shia LaDouche wasn’t in it
Why is he going to be the guy who ruins all of my movies?
He ruined Transformers, he will ruin Indy and finally he will ruin “Y the Last Man” (if they go through with his casting)
Next, I’m sure Joe Quesada will have “Guy Blow LaDouche” cast as Captain America or some shit to make sure he ruins another character.
Good job on the Ryan Reynolds cast for Deadpool (for the Wolvie solo flick) though…good God, that should actually be nice.
If Lucas hadn’t shit all over the Darabont script (that Spielberg was thrilled about) and gone to his pet monkeys instead, I’d have higher hopes for it. But the latest trailer was enough for me to think that Spielberg is actually trying and not simply going through the motions (re: Jurassic Park 2) to pay off some favor to Lucas.
Though I don’t understand the Shia hate. He’s a smarmy little shit, but he tends to be cast as such and generally nails it. If yer looking for some depth from a young male lead you go to Emile Hirsch or Joseph Gordon-Leavitt. Though with Speed Racer and GI Joe on their respective slates, their stock may be dropping precipitously.
I love the movie and I’m looking forward to the sequel.
Now the IJ movies looks like a lot of fun and I can’t wait to check that out.
If you stayed past the credit you met the head of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Big question is: was this just a little fun for the Fans, or would it mean something. Well, After a $200 million worldwide opening, Marvel Studios released some info for their future endeavors that should clarify things.
Iron Man 2
April 30, 2010
Thor
June 4, 2010
The First Avenger: Captain America (working title)
May 6, 2011
The Avengers
July 2011
Joseph Gordon-Leavitt would be my choice for Yorick Brown in the Y the Last Man movie
I hear that they want Thor to be an unknown actor, kudos.
It’s funny, the things I really want to see most in the new Wolverine movie are the cameos…Cap & Magneto (WWII era), Deadpool, Kitty Pride(?)
what I can’t understand, is that if awesome comic writers like Jeph Loeb, Brian K Vaghaun & Mark Millar are ALSO screenwriters why can’t they get them to pen some fucking comic movies?!?
I can’t wait until the Wanted movie comes out, so I can totally NOT see it.
Matter of fact, I think I’ll write an article and bitch about it.
Brian K Vaughan is busy writing me episodes of Lost.