Sunday, May 4, 2008

Iron Man

I should preface this by noting that I haven't read an Iron Man (or any other for that matter) comic since I was 14 years old or there abouts. And when I did read them, they weren't objects of deep study. All that said, I am impressed with how well this movie rings true to those more-than-a-little fuzzy memories of the comic book character. The technology isn't remotely similar, but doesn't suffer from the modernisation either.

I'm not quite sure what movie this guy saw, but I suggest he leave his political agenda at home next time he goes out for some action/adventure movie entertainment. Tony Stark discovers during his ordeal in Afghanistan that his company's weapons are being delivered to our country's enemies. Added to this, a certain amount of psychic and emotional upheaval is only to be expected following such a traumatic ordeal. Finally, the writer needed to present the audience with a source of conflict as motivation for Tony to make such a drastic adjustment from his previous, and obviously very acceptable to himself, lifestyle. Rejection of previous beliefs and business objectives, followed by a gradual process of accommodation to life's realities, is a perfectly plausible mechanism to use to achieve this crisis of confidence for Tony to confront and eventually overcome.

Unlike everyone else in the theater, I sat through the closing credits. "I'm Nick Fury, head of SHIELD..." Can you spell sequel? Maybe I'll have adjusted to Gwenyth Paltrow as a redhead by then. :)

Like almost everyone else, I think this is an excellent movie and suggest you go see it in the theater. The visual effects aren't going to be nearly as impressive on a smaller screen.

UPDATE: Judging by this report we might see a sequel released as early as this time next year. $200+ million from just the opening weekend? Wow! A lot of that timing will depend less upon the principal actor's scheduled commitments then it will on the availability of the computer graphics talent I suspect.

Link via James Hudnall who also links to this topical YouTube video.

1 comment:

al fin said...

Thanks for the review, Will. I had read Stephen Gordon's review at Speculist on the one side, and the review at PJMedia on the other, so I was a bit uncertain.

Your opinion swings the pendulum.