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Iron Man
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I'd have to disagree on Paltrow. Her portrayal of Pepper Potts was one of my favorite parts, watching her and Tony testing whether his changes are going to
change their relationship for better or worse and, in the end, realising that no, it doesn't. D for Drakensis You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
As for the continuity, the movie holds relatively close to the comics, or at least for sufficiently retconned values of 'comics'. They'd already
changed Stark's story from commies in Vietnam to Afghan terrorists in the comics, so that's covered. The part that gets me is this whole 'arc reactor' BS^H^H handwave. Miniaturizing an experimental power source for the first time, in a cave, while being monitored by terrorists? That didn't work for me- the whole 'magnetic chestplate' angle from the original comics was better. They could've even had him replace it with the current setup when he escaped and keep most of the late movie the same. As for the whole 'CEO making a weapons demonstration' thing, I think it's part of the Howard Hughes personality that they tried for. Hughes was known as a talented aviator, and set many records in his time by flying his creations personally. The ego issue handily solves the question of Stane keeping the evidence- we see that Stane is just as egotistical as Stark is at the beginning, what with his smugness at the takeover of the company, rubbing his armor's superiority in Stark's face, and many other events. He wasn't going to be caught, so why not keep some trophies? I liked it, from start to finish, and cannot wait for the next one. My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours. I've been writing a bit.
Wow.
Like Spider man (and unlike the Fantastic Four) they kept the mythology intact, while updating the details. There was a lot of love for the source material on the screen. I will admit to grinning like an idiot when Stark takes his first full-suit flight. That felt like a superhero movie. Easily among the best movies in the superhero genre. (And I really want to hit the spoiler and say something about aircraft, oedipus, and reptiles. 
Something I found out only after watching: the name of that terrorist group that kidnapped Tony and Yinsen.
The Ten Rings. ^.^ --Sam "I'm starting to like the cut of this man's gibberish."
Yeah, I caught that too, Lurker.
![[Image: glasses.gif]](http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/glasses.gif) ___________________________ "I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin Quote: Evil Midnight Lurker wrote: I dont get it... There is no coincidence, only necessity.... - Clow Reed 
Iron Man's greatest enemy is The Mandarin, a Chinese warlord who draws power from a set of ten rings.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead 
Anyone going a second time (I did yesterday), look for:
Something visible in the background under Tony's right arm in the armor-removal scene, just before Pepper walks in and Tony delivers the "Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've ever caught me doing" line (which was gutbustinly ROTFL-worthy, BTW). The name of the town Yinsen mentions he's from -- it goes by kind of fast, but it's worth catching. And it *matters.* The pole aboard Tony's private plane during the "dancing flight attendants" scene -- judging by the hull diameter, I'm not sure there's *room* for that thing. Body language: this isn't a spoiler or easter egg, but I found myself admiring all over again they way they handled the use of the palm repulsors as flight aids -- they *don't* forget in any scenes, as far as I could tell. It's true that this isn't part of the comic canon (The original suits never used repulsors for propulsion, but rather mini-turbines in the boots), but it *works,* and the way it's handled adds an extra layer of reality to the scenes of the armor in motion. The sacks that Yinsen is lying on during his death scene: reality intrudes on the movies, eh? :/ The backgammon boards: there's one on the table in Tony's living room, I think (goes by fast), open but never used on-screen. A nod to the Tony/Yinsen scene using nuts and washers (on an incongruously new-looking backgammon board, oddly enough). Any of Jeff Bridges' scenes, especially with RDJ -- RDJ pulls off Tony *very* well, but JB almost manages to steal their joint scenes. The man has *chops.* The thing that saves those scenes is that both actors pull off the Tony/Obie interpersonal dynamic (very close to father/son) almost flawlessly; you *buy into* it, it's that real. As an aside: this movie really is all about the *little* things: it's actually kind of short on explosions and major @$$kicking for a superhero movie. The whole film is just *packed* with little elements that flow by quickly but realistically, rendering the emotional and interpersonal landscape with a higher resolution than you usually see in films in this sub-genre. Quote:Second time through and I still missed whatever that may have been ![[Image: frown.gif]](http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/frown.gif) --Sam "Well, let's go beat up that hedge then."
Some people think that they can see a certain star-spangled shield on the table in that scene. As I don't do the multiple viewings while it's still in
the theatre thing, and the bootlegged images that I've seen were too unclear to evaluate, I can't comment on whether they're right or not. Chris Davies. 
On the shield thing, check out http://toysrevil.blogspot.com/2008/05/c ... -iron.html]this page. There's something there, whether or not it is actually the shield is unclear -- but it appears to have been deliberately added to the shot after the trailers were released.
-- Bob --------- Then the horns kicked in... ...and my shoes began to squeak.
The fact that it was added late, much like Tony's meeting with Nick Fury (which didn't get added to the version shown to reviewers, quite annoying some
of them) is suggestive.
So, over in the Legendary forum, Logan said...
Quote:Post in the Iron Man thread on the general board when you come back, okay? And so here I am. There was a lot of good stuff in there, but I ended up leaving the theatre feeling a bit unsatisfied. Almost all of the best parts were at the beginning and the middle, and the only bits that grated on me were at the end. Tony winning through being smarter than the other guy was a part I liked, but it still doesn't have the same sort of tension, feels like things are winding down much too early. And the calm and collected Pepper that I liked from earlier in the movie... seemed a bit too not-calm and not-collected at the end. Now, according to lj user tennin-kun, via Edwin from irc... Quote:The last third was rather buggered about with - angelo felt it a bit off, and it turns out people who shouldn't have, fiddled with the script. (jeff bridges' character isn't supposed to be That Obvious that early.) So, maybe there's someone I can pin blame on for what I didn't like! `.` And I'm sounding more negative than I really intended. But I don't really have that much to *say* about the stuff I liked. I wish it'd been a bit less frontloaded, but I still liked it and would like to see a sequel. (And wanting to see a sequel I consider to be high praise.) (As for the list of things to look for in repeat viewing, I think I'll wait until the dvd comes out. I might go and see it again, because hey, $3 tickets if I go to the 4pm showing, and I don't feel compelled to buy popcorn for repeats. Especially if the popcorn wasn't very good the first time. But I probably wouldn't *remember* the things I was supposed to watch for. And I could never catch what Yinsen was saying when he said the name of his village.) -Morgan. Time to go buy alcohol for my parents? (That's interesting.) |
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