Comments on: Iron Man (2008)

By: Brian McDonough

Brian McDonough — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:29:04 +0000

Glad you liked the film. Good review there, yourself. And on the easter egg — the studio stripped it out of press screenings, so I haven’t seen it, either. I’ll have to rent or buy the DVD, I suppose …

By: delidel

delidel — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:23:01 +0000

and the authority would be great in capable hands–let’s just see how watchmen comes out and pray there’s a reliable team there to take on authority

By: delidel

delidel — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:19:46 +0000

apologies are in order, i misread what looked like praise for the fantastic four movies while stark criticism for the spider-man movies, batman begins, and x-men. consider this my foot-in-mouth apology.

having said that, i retract all doubts i had about iron man. it was fully accesible for a non-reader, the dialogue was witty and non-kitsch (unlike that horrible line in the first x-men between storm and toad), the cg meshed well with the story-telling (not terribly cumbersome like the ff movies or the putrid hulk), and hey they even nailed interesting character dynamics between stark, potts, stane, and rhodes! the story revises typical idealistic (i.e. boring) heroism and in a more socially relevant move takes on the villian(s) of the military industrial complex. i would say the only weakness is gravity—not tony’s hilarious attempts at engineering stable flight–but rather the heavy handed third act build toward stark vs. stane. the scene where pepper potts confronts tony about his crusade marks the beginning of a clunky thread where the clunk monsters clunk it out for the sake of satisfying clunk-head spectators.

i’m glad your review goaded me into seeing for myself. overall one of the most entertaining films i’ve seen in the last 6 months. the only other unfortunate thing was that i walked out on the credits and missed the easter egg scene

By: Brian McDonough

Brian McDonough — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:57:54 +0000

Delidel — You’ve got me wrong. I liked Batman Begins a lot, and said so. The FF films were mediocre, not as good as the X-flicks, but not as unbearably sucky as Daredevil or Superman Returns, nor as legendarily unwatchable as Catwoman or Elektra.

Iron Man is faster and more fun than Batman Begins, but the latter is still a very well-done movie, and I’m very much looking forward to the sequel.

So far, I don’t know anyone who’s not crazily impressed with Iron Man …

I cannot imagine Hollywood making a watchable film out of The Authority, though … wouldn’t it be great if they did?

By: John Marcotte

John Marcotte — Sat, 03 May 2008 07:36:50 +0000

I think you need to read closer. He noted that Batman Begins was well-directed, written and acted; and that the Spider-Man films were “delightful” and “excellent” and called the FF movies “middling.”

By: delidel

delidel — Sat, 03 May 2008 06:50:51 +0000

interesting review, though i find your iron man gushing suspect after reading your disdain for batman begins & spidey while giving fantastic four the thumbs up. from my own viewing experience comic-to-film adaptations are much more interesting when they latch onto something in the ethos of the source that is convincing and alluring on the big screen. the spideys took a few story arcs from 40 years of print spidey, and made them iconic peter parker identity dramas. tim burton’s batman took the hokeyness of the ages old batman-joker cat and mouse game and made it into a neurotic carnival. sin city and 300 were noir eye-candy, ghost world was quirky and banal. but what was interesting about either of the fantastic fours? i would easily pass them up for a campy lost in space remake–oh wait there was one of those wasn’t there? i was never an avid reader of iron man, but it looks like robert downey jr. is the right man to play up the jerky humor. i guess i’ll find out tonight as i finally get a chance to sit in a theater sans comic shop goobers and teenage boys.

someone should do David Lapham’s Stray Bullets, Warren Ellis’ The Authority, or Brian Michael Bendis’ Powers. I can see good cinema coming out of those in the vein of Road to Perdition or History of Violence.