Mark Liebrecht
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03:52:59 pm on May 10, 2008 | # |
I managed to catch a preview screening of Iron Man on my birthday, and then I saw it again this past Thursday. Considering this is Marvel’s first foray into film making, I have to say that I am very impressed.
When the first Spider-Man movie came out, I thought that we’d never see a superhero based movie that good ever again.Then the sequel came out, and topped it. Once again, I thought there was no way to top it, but where X-Men 3, Spider-Man 3, and the Fantastic Four sequel dropped the ball, Iron Man came in and ran with it….all the way to the bank.
In recent years, the Iron Man character from the comics, a lot of us fans have come to hate after the whole Civil War series, but this movie totally redeems the character in my eyes, and gives me hope that the character will redeem himself in the comics, during this Skrull Invasion storyline.
As for the movie, I figure the reason it does so well, is because it’s doing what the comics did. In fact, it’s doing almost the exact same thing. The only difference is, it takes place in the present, as opposed to the Silver Age of comics. It followed everything perfectly, with a modernized twist. Favreau flawlessly combined not only the origin of the character, but also the Iron Monger storyline as well as the evolution of the armor, which you can probably expect to see upgraded in the sequel.
Some of the highlights of the movie for me were the following:
- Robert Downey JR as Tony Stark: This man was born to play the part! The look alike, he channels the character effortlessly, and both have struggled with their fair share of demons.
- Paltrow as Pepper Potts and Favreau as Happy Hogan(Stark’s chauffer/body guard): They played the parts well. Expect these two to hook up in one of the sequels.
- The 10 Rings: A real tip of the hat to the Iron Man villain “The Mandarin” who is rumored to be in the sequel, along with quite possibly Thor.
- SHIELD: I loved how they played them up as a real men in black style government organization, as opposed to the S & M leather wearing agents from the Nick Fury comics. Having the SHIELD agents in this movie were a made my little fanboy heart swell with joy.
- Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury. I won’t comment much on this for a couple of months, but I URGE you to stick around until after the credits. This scene alone is worth the price of admission. Especially if you’ve ever read the Marvel series “The Ultimates.” Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. It paves the way nicely to the rumored scene at the end of next month’s Hulk movie.
- Terrence Howard: Most of his scenes were cut, but they promise to give him a larger role in the sequel. My favorite part is when he looks at the Mark 2 armor and says “Next time!”, as a nice little tease that he will become War Machine in the next movie…Which he has confirmed in interviews, is what is going to happen, along with a change in personality…
This movie is a good sign of things to come for the superhero genre. The problem with a lot of the movies lately, is they’ve been going away from the standards set by the source material, and now that Marvel is doing most of their movies in house…with the exception of Spider-Man and the upcoming Wolverine movie….you can expect these movies to be done right. They’ve putting an awful lot of money into these movies to please both the long time fans, as well as those who have never even read a comic in their lives. I have to applaud Marvel for this one. Not only do I have a new favorite movie, I feel optimistic about what they have on the horizon…. *cough*Avengers!*cough*
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mayhemgolgotha 5:00 pm on May 10, 2008 | #
War Machine! War Machine! WAR MACHINE!
i haven’t seen the movie yet so i don’t know much about the plot. i’m a bit skeptical about the Avengers movie … almost sounds cliche-ish with X-Men. i was a die-hard fan of the Avengers back when Walt Simonson, Chris Claremont and Michael Golden took the helm for it back in the day.
as for the film itself (Iron Man) does the Ring story follow along the lines of the animated flick? = that blew choad, btw.
Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury? WTF? total miscasting here or Jackson was kissng ass to be in a blockbuster film like he did in the Star Wars prequels. what a douchebag.
have you ever notice that the popular titles get top billing and seldom disappoint the fans? its cuz the fans are the ones that stay loyal to the comicbooks themselves. i guess Hollywood learned their lessons from flops of the Daredevil and Electra shitstains.
i was watching one of my other favorites of my childhood days, a lesser known Marvel title, “Swamp Thing” and an independent film maker just totally bastardized that title. no wonder it went straight to dvd
Chinky 5:11 pm on May 10, 2008 | #
Okay. I’m convinced. I think I may end up watching this movie at the theatre alone. No one in my current gang likes Marvel/DC enough…
mayhemgolgotha 5:14 pm on May 10, 2008 | #
in a strange way, the Mark 1 suit reminds me of Disney’s (?) “Iron Giant” fare o_O
Mark 5:15 pm on May 10, 2008 | #
Seriously, you have to read the Ultimates. They redid Nick Fury and based him on Samuel L Jackson, so it’s perfect casting that way.
I never saw the animated flick. I’ve been avoiding the animated Marvel movies….the old fox cartoons left a really bad taste in my mouth….
The way things are looking, it would appear as though they’re going to be using the stars of all the major Marvel movies over the next few years, do make the Avengers movie in 2011/2012. So far the only movie that doesn’t have a release date yet is the Antman (with the Wasp?) movie. Hulk is next month, the Ironman sequel with a possible appearance by Thor is slated for 2010, Captain America for early 2011. It looks like they’re assembling the original Avengers lineup… no pun intended…
Mark 5:17 pm on May 10, 2008 | #
Vik: See it! Whether your friend are comic fans or not, they’ll love it.
Alain: I agree. There is most definitely a similarity there. Yeah, I heard that someone made a Manthing movie as well….I don’t think it did very well either…straight to DVD…
mayhemgolgotha 5:18 pm on May 10, 2008 | #
Avengers Assemble! hahahaha
Mark 5:27 pm on May 10, 2008 | #
Indubitably!
arunmochleibh 8:31 pm on May 10, 2008 | #
Oooh. Til then end of the blog entry I wasn’t sure, as a non-comic book fan reader type, if the movie might be wasted on me.
But ooh. Someone wanted to see that, I think I may go now.
This year shall be a busy cinema year (by my standards at least, lolol)
Thank you, Mr. Mark
Mark 1:32 am on May 11, 2008 | #
Anytime yo!
emperorpartin 2:06 am on May 11, 2008 | #
Dude, the animated movies kick ass.
mayhemgolgotha 4:10 am on May 11, 2008 | #
yeah i forgot: Manthing = Marvel / Swamp Thing = DC, but Swamp Thing was a mediocre hit in the 80s and didn’t have the dark themed depth and substance as when Steven Bisette wrote it. the movie was more camp than anything
Mark 4:53 pm on May 11, 2008 | #
Yeah, I haven’t seen Swamp Thing, but from what I hear, all of the Swamp Thing was a real B movie, in the spirit of The Toxic Avenger.
kimblurry 11:06 pm on May 11, 2008 | #
Edgar Wright is directing Ant-Man. I have complete faith in him. He is awesome.
Mark 2:15 pm on May 13, 2008 | #
Groovy!