Yesterday kept the unpleasant up with the chilly (though still ABOVE zero!) and weather. In this case rain.
Meaning there was only one thing to do. Go to the movies!
Especially with my #2 most anticipated movie of the year hitting theatres this week. Iron Man.
Now as most of you know I'm a "bit" of a comic fan. At the same time I don't read a lot of "mainstream" Marvel, and haven't really read any classic line Iron Man. However the comic that single handily got me buying and collecting comic was the Ultimates, Marvel's relaunch and retooling of the in my opinion dated and cheesy Avengers. One of my favourite characters of this cast was Ultimate Tony Stark who of course is the man inside the Iron Man armour.
So with what I knew of the character from his revamped version, and the stuff Mike's told me about regular Iron Man how did the movie hold up.
In a word (Olav's word to be specific) TA-Awesome!
Robert Downey Jr makes Tony Stark such a memorable, entertaining, charismatic, and most important intelligent character. Downey's amazing performance is backed up by the equally amazing dialogue his character is given. Stark is portrayed very close to his Ultimates version (before the stupidity that Orson Scott Card plugged into the Ulti verse anyway) of being so intelligent and capable that he is detached from the world, and it is the realization of the consequences of his actions that bring him back into the world.
Jeff Bridges (aka the Dude... I just can't separate him from The Big Lebowski) as the Iron Mongol another awesome casting call giving the movie a strong villain. Sort of. The thing about Iron Man I liked was the varied and grey nature of the good versus evil conflict, and how there was an ever diversifying range of villains and antagonists. The Iron Man vs. F22 battle being a highlight example of this.
My other favourite character was fire extinguisher bot. Without ruining the film for you I'll just say go see it for the extinguisher bot, I was rolling in the isles at its antics.
The movies plot was spot on. Tony fights the consequences of his actions. It also manages to incorporate, from what I've gathered from Mike, the Iron Mongol perfectly, and aspects of the cool sounding Armour Wars (which I DO want to read one of these days).
My only complaint about the movie, which is a tiny one, is the lack of a major SHIELD presence. Sure they were in the movie, but I was looking for a Nick Fury appearance the whole movie (however not knowing when I heard they'd cast Samuel Jackson to play ULTIMATE Nick Fury that the Hulk movie was this year too I'd thought Fury was going to be in Iron Man).
The soundtrack was negligible, and apart from a fairly simple theme for Tony building the suits of armour the music didn't leave any sort of an impression at all. Which is sad. I want my superhero movies to have really memorable scores...
I obviously haven't seen Iron Man a second time, but I'm next to certain that unlike say Transformers this movie will stand up to multiple viewings. Not being too long, drawn out, or slow in building up.
I'm not a pro reviewer, and would rather go write my own stuff (Traumador specifically) than waste more time writing about theirs so just go see the movie okay ;p
5 comments:
Iron Man was awesome. Downey Jr. was great.
I only read a couple of issues of the Ultimate Universe, but I remember the Armour Wars storyline back in the day, and it was also fantastic, with trademark long-reaching ramifications for Marvel. After taking back and destroying all the armour of the Guardsmen who protected the Vault, a jail for super-villains, the villains got out almost right away, leading to a massive crossover where the heroes all fought each other's arch-villains.
I liked the reference to long-time Iron Man villain the Mandarin, with the terrorist group known as the "10 Rings".
I think you and I both missed the ending after the credits, Craig. More SHIELD!
Yeah Armour Wars sounds like a fun read.
I missed the Mandarin reference. It makes sense why people point it out with the rings and all. He never showed up in the (good run of the) Ultimates, and thus hasn't made my extreme nerdar.
I did catch the War Machine ref though.
As for Ultimate Nick Fury showing up that really grinds my gears! Fortunently I found it on Youtube, and I called it to the line almost, but annouys me that they stick it at the END of the credits. I liked the way Transformers stuck their stuff at the beginning of the credits.
Iron Man's music wasn't worth the credits ;p I'm a bit of a movie music buff, and am known for sticking out the credits of a good scored film... after which I run to the store to try and get a copy...
Thanks for stopping by Glendon. I loved that Astham/Flying post again.
Thanks Craig.
I know this is the wrong thread, but congrats to you on your anniversary!
No thank you Glendon ;p
For me the former "dateless wonder", a year is still kinda surreal. Hopefully I can keep it going a bit longer LOL
I never realized that ultimate ironman looks like a dicynodon.
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