Iron Man

[Josh]

I'm getting pumped. Had plans for a midnight show on Thursday night, actually, but that didn't work out, so it looks like it'll be Saturday night.

Anyone else?

[Aaron]

Yes.

[enemy anemone]

I probably won't be seeing this anytime soon, but I just read a tip to stay for an after-credits thing. thought I'd post here in case you guys hadn't heard already.

[Josh]

Thanks, Schil! I did see a mention of that, but the same article was also talking about plans that are already in the works for a sequel in 2010, so I decided to boycott that article. 

[Vlad!]

I've heard lots of good things about this movie. Between Iron Man and Prince Freaking Caspian (yes, that is his official title) and the new Indiana Jones movie, May 08 is definitely trying to get me to break my usual extreme dislike of seeing movies in the theater.

[AldaForPresident]

Saw it. Loved it. Wish I had known about the after-credits thing.

[NewDimension]

Saw it. Loved it. Wish I had known about the after-credits thing.

Always read the credits......you never know what you'll discover.

[valleycat]

I saw it! It was great.

[Brenden]

Loved it! And I wasn't even an Iron Man fan going in.

[Vlad!]

Always read the credits......you never know what you'll discover.

The problem with that is the credits for a blockbuster film with computerized effects can be a full ten minutes long, and if the people you're seeing it with aren't as interested in waiting through them as you are, sometimes you have to choose between staying in the theater by yourself for only possible reward or joining in the post-movie discussion outside.

[Josh]

Saw it, liked it a lot. In fact, as a fan of the Iron Man character, I think the movie was about as good as one could hope for an Iron Man feature film. The film's many virtues include a smart, snarky Tony Stark in Robert Downer, Jr.; a smart, sexy Pepper Potts in Gwyneth Paltrow; a totally rad robotic suit; and, because it's an origins story, plenty of explanation of how Stark becomes Iron Man and builds the suit. In a sense, that's the film's greatest weakness-- it takes a bit too long for the movie to become something more than set-up for a franchise-- but what it does, it does very well, and the whole thing is funny and action-packed and tremendously well-crafted. I especially love that it creates its own universe of moral and social questions and sticks to them, so that the final showdown is a matter of corporate greed versus social responsibility-- in keeping with the rest of the movie-- rather than a generic good-vs.-evil duel.

[NinjaRob17]

Loved it! And I wasn't even an Iron Man fan going in.

Same here.

[Vlad!]

This was a great movie experience.

First of all, I have to give props to the theater, which was hands-down the nicest one I've been to. It had stadium seating sloped such that even a tall guy like me doesn't obstruct the view of people behind. The seats were nice--I think they're basically the same seats you get when you fly first-class, but with a higher back--and were spaced such that I didn't feel very cramped. Still not enough leg room, but when you're six five, you learn to live without lots of leg room. I normally hate the theater experience, but this one was certainly tolerable.

As for the movie itself, well, it was pretty darn good. I was passingly familiar with the storyline going into it--it's one of my favorite origin stories--and with one notable exception the film did a good job with it. There was a good balance of action and story, and unlike Josh, I feel that the build-up of the Iron Man backstory was absolutely not drawn out, but rather was the primarily interesting part of the film.

My second-biggest complaint is the film's occasional technological and physical lapses. The scene at the beginning was kind of funny (from the glimpses I saw it looked like it was random uncompiled C code flying by the background of the computer screen as the progress bar was being displayed, which makes no sense), but the occasional blatant disregard for the laws of physics were less so. I'm fairly certain that Stark would have been cooked alive in his Mark I suit long before he escaped the prison camp. When he was falling from high altitude during his icing debacle, the force exerted to stop a metal suit falling a terminal velocity would have caused Stark to black out. Breaking the sound barrier with his head in that position would break his neck (though that one could be explained away by saying that the suit has the ability to hold his head rigid in flight). And how is it that someone who can program a sophisticated AI that understands irony and sarcasm can't create a robot that accurately detects when it needs to activate a fire extinguisher?

That said, those are nitpicks at a film that was superbly witty and wonderfully crafted. I was very impressed at how every bit of it was like an intricate puzzle piece that can be referred to down the line. Even though I wouldn't call Iron Man subtle, I would say that the attention to detail certainly makes up for the lack of subtlety imposed by the genre.

As mentioned above, the casting is quite excellent. Leslie Bibb's character is fairly underused, though she could easily turn into a Rachel Dawes clone so I don't know if it's maybe a good thing.

The following paragraph contains an ending spoiler

My biggest complaint about the movie was the very end. What is up with Tony Stark declaring that he is Iron Man? The part of the Iron Man story that I find compelling is how the suit is really the superhero, not Stark. In the suit he is practically invincible; outside it, he is a weak man on life support. Incredibly advanced life support that allows him to live as a normal human, but as the film itself attests, he is very vulnerable outside his armor. So for him to announce himself as Iron Man both violates canon and makes little sense. I can sympathize with the desire to buck the alter-ego masked superhero tradition, but I just don't think it was a good call.

End spoilers

I think the movie overall was quite good. It was hard to jive the pacifistic "superhuman with a heart of gold" du jour with the superhero movie schtick of Blowing Shit Up, and I think it will only get harder from here on out. The comic book way to do this is to feature lots of cityscape destruction but imply that nobody was killed (or if people were killed, it was the fault of the Bad Guys) (also see Batman Begins and The Big O for precedence in superhero movies/TV series). But I think that Iron Man is a great addition to the genre, and I'm excited to see where the trilogy will take us.

[Josh]

Vlad!, with regard to your Biggest Complaint, I will note that, if nothing else, it IS true to the comics! 

[Vlad!]

Spoilers


I looked it up on the Internet just now to confirm, and yes, while Stark does reveal that he is Iron Man (which turns out to be a big mistake), he does not do so until almost two decades after the original comics were released. His cover story for a long time is that Iron Man is his bodyguard.

[bloop]

I haven't watched "Iron Man" and, like most things, I probably won't until a DVD release, but I know for Batman, a significant part of the character's personal code is that he will not kill.

As I understand it, almost all the Marvel superheroes were made to reveal their identities, and a war broke out between them (the most famous consequence of the war being the death of Capt. America).  I don't believe I'm almost 31 and still halfway follow this shit.

[Vlad!]

I haven't watched "Iron Man" and, like most things, I probably won't until a DVD release, but I know for Batman, a significant part of the character's personal code is that he will not kill.

Right, I understand that. But that didn't apparently keep him from causing a whole lot of property damage.

My problem is that Tony Stark talks about ending deathmongering, but then he doesn't seem to have a problem with killing the Bad Guys.

As I understand it, almost all the Marvel superheroes were made to reveal their identities, and a war broke out between them (the most famous consequence of the war being the death of Capt. America).

Well sure, but a lot of times this was a result of the writers needing some drama to inject into the series. If I remember correctly, the US government actually forced superheroes to reveal their identities (like Marvel's Mutant Registration Act for the X-Men).

[Josh]

My problem is that Tony Stark talks about ending deathmongering, but then he doesn't seem to have a problem with killing the Bad Guys.

Maybe that's one of the ethical issues that the film raises-- is it okay to kill one man-- a Bad Guy-- if that one man would have killed hundreds more? Is ending one life to save many justifiable? Stark, apparently, would say yes, and while we can probably debate the rightness or wrongness of that answer, I don't think it's a compromise of his character per se.