Richard's Online Journal
[04/05/08] Tony Stark Makes Stuff: The Movie
Just back from seeing Iron Man; a character I couldn’t give two hoots about, but one of the best superhero films ever made. It’s not that it’s a historical bit of celluloid, or wrapped in themes geared towards deep critical analysis. It’s simply fun. Remember fun? It’s what you get when tedious, melodramatic toss like the Spider-Man trilogy isn’t held up as the One True Way. Honestly, if those films were any more boring, you could stick them on the end of a drill and put them to use punishing unsold copies of Daredevil.
Right when the world needed him, Stark had a great idea for a nuclear-powered Dustbuster. It wasn’t a good day for the forces of SHIELD.
While my loathing of origin-movies is pretty well documented - hint: I hate them - I’m willing to give Iron Man a pass, simply because it means more time for Tony Stark to crack wise, delivering perfectly timed zingers, and building fictional robot-suits in such loving detail, it practically counts as porn. It’s refreshingly clear of doomed love interests or obstructive authority figures, and never gets to the point where it can’t release the tension with a quick pratfall or hiss of plot-gas. The stripper pole in Stark’s private yet. The Wile E. Coyote fall as he realises a core problem with his design several hundred feet in the air. And of course, that fantastic final line of dialogue that completely severs much of the superhero movie crap right out of the sequel.
This stuff is so much fun that the actual action sequences can’t help but be incredibly dull by comparison, with unemotional robots clanging the PG rated crap out of each other, without the slightest hint of drama. Spoiler: Stark wins.
It’s not the best superhero movie ever made; that prize still goes to The Incredibles if you’re into quality, or Batman Begins if you’ve got to see the genre taken ‘seriously’ between now and Watchmen coming out. (That one’s going to be good, right?). But it’s fun. Surprisingly good fun. Just hope that the inevitable sequel focuses more on Stark’s drinking problem than his superpowered enemies, because this really isn’t a series that wants to turn into an ever-escalating brawler.
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Especially since the one quite obvious problem - even discounting how vulnerable the suits might be to damage, or just flash-frying anyone inside - is “Stane, you’ve got to eat sometime.”
Posted by Richard on Sunday 4th May
Watchmen coming out. (That one’s going to be good, right?)
I’ve not got terribly high hopes, to be honest; I thought 300 was awful, but then I’d never read the comic so I don’t know how accurate it was.
Posted by aniki21 on Monday 5th May
I don’t think Watchmen will translate to film well at all. It might work better as a miniseries, but really half the point of it felt like subverting the use of the medium it was in (the comic-sorry graphic novel.. within a comic aspects and so forth).
Er, anyway, I am glad to hear this about Iron man, I thought it looke quite good from the first trailer I saw way back and I like RDJ. Never really liked Iron man much though.
Posted by Nick on Monday 5th May
I don’t know how much that matters though. It’ll lose the comic-specific deconstruction, but the themes of what it really means to be a costumed hero, and the overall plot, should carry pretty well.
Posted by Richard on Monday 5th May
True, the core theme should carry ok, especially in the current climate of superhero movies.. I just worry that it will be hard to compress it into “feature length”. I’ll still probably go and see it if only for the shots of Rorschach wandering the streets that they have shown stills of.
Posted by Nick on Monday 5th May
Watchmen’s plot is extremely lame, and easily the weakest thing about the original book. But HOW it unfolds, and detailed characterisation that binds it together, is simply wonderful.
I’m not sure they’ll be able to keep the same elements of structure and not turn it into goodie vs baddie… with a tacked on Hollywood ending.
Anyways, forgetting all that for a moment, and remaining hopeful that I’m completely wrong, Iron Man was chuffing brilliant.
Posted by Johnny W on Monday 5th May
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The big thing about Iron Man, though, is that he doesn’t really have a wide collection of his own supervillians in the way that a lot of others do. Oh, sure, he’s got a coupple of his own, but you’d be hard pressed to name one if you’re not a big fan. So the stories have always been more about Tony than anything else, and thankfully the movie reflected that, with Iron Monger only coming in at the very end, and even that was a (mostly, I didn’t like that Stane suddenly seemed to turn into your standard cackling villian all of a sudden) natural development of the story.
Posted by Cradok on Sunday 4th May