I Am Iron Man
E and I recently snuck away to a weekday matinee, the first movie we've seen in a theatre since a certain baby girl took over our lives. And while it was a fun little getaway (thanks, Opa!) it reminded me why I'm loathe to go to the theatre. Granted, it was a Silver City megaplex, but by the time all was said and done it cost us about fifty bucks! If Hollywood wants to lure people back from their home entertainment systems I'd suggest that they start by lobbying theatre chains to reduce the prices at the concession stand. We were even in a mood to splurge. But come on, $4.99 for a small popcorn, (49 cents extra if you want real butter), and $3.69 for a Diet Coke?! The film of choice begged for big-screen viewing though, so we sucked it up.
Anyway. After sitting through six or eight commercials, the previews finally came up, and half an hour after the posted start time we were finally treated to the opening credits.
What did we see? Iron Man. Which was awesome. Seriously. Good enough to salvage the afternoon of consumer gluttony and have us leaving the parking lot with smiles on our faces. It's been getting good reviews, and I've always loved Robert Downey Jr.'s acting (his performance alone worth the price of admission) and Jon Favreau's direction. But it was surprising to see both of their work in a summer, tent-pole blockbuster like this.
On the heels of its $100 million opening weekend, Marvel Studios, fresh from having pissed all over itself, announced the sequel for April 2010.
Oh, and the song over the closing credits, even though the lyrics have no relevance whatsoever to the plot of the movie? Black Sabbath's Iron Man, natch.
Anyway. After sitting through six or eight commercials, the previews finally came up, and half an hour after the posted start time we were finally treated to the opening credits.
What did we see? Iron Man. Which was awesome. Seriously. Good enough to salvage the afternoon of consumer gluttony and have us leaving the parking lot with smiles on our faces. It's been getting good reviews, and I've always loved Robert Downey Jr.'s acting (his performance alone worth the price of admission) and Jon Favreau's direction. But it was surprising to see both of their work in a summer, tent-pole blockbuster like this.
On the heels of its $100 million opening weekend, Marvel Studios, fresh from having pissed all over itself, announced the sequel for April 2010.
Oh, and the song over the closing credits, even though the lyrics have no relevance whatsoever to the plot of the movie? Black Sabbath's Iron Man, natch.
3 Comments:
Loved it too. If I had to nitpick, I'd say the actual action sequences and fight scenes probably fell short of what I've grown accustomed to, but the bar was raised so much higher everywhere else that it didn't matter.
The part that has me reaching for sharp objects will be the obvious Hollywood reaction - more comic book movies! How about more good movies? Iron Man impresses because of the great acting, snappy dialogue, and a plot that makes the audience take leaps of faith without insulting our intelligence or leaving huge holes unanswered, or over-reliance on CGI ala Spiderman 3.
We don't need another Elektra, Daredevil, Punisher (Dolph Lundgren), Punisher (Thomas Jane), etc. There are 40 years of stories available in most cases, already written by someone else - just pick a good one and don't screw it up.
Plett
Agreed, Plett. An IMDb search reveals that every known title in the comic book universe, even ones that clearly do not merit any kind of feature-film adaptation, are under option to one studio or another. I would've loved to be a fly on the wall for the Catwoman meetings. "Think Halle Berry... in leather!"
And apparently the Incredible Hulk sequel is shouldering its way into theatres this summer in spite of the fact that the first one bombed. The early reviews have been derisive, and the atrocious trailer only highlights the fact that they still haven't figured out how to make the Hulk anything more than a soulless CGI contruct. Peter Jackson proved that CGI characters can convey all the necessary emotions back in 2001 with Gollum and even more convincingly with King Kong. Go figure.
It's almost as if the prevailing logic of the producers (and writer/director/Bruce Banner stand in Edward Norton) is, "But it's such a great comic book - look how many copies it sold! It's just gotta make a great movie, right?!"
Um, not sure why I thought Ed Norton directed the upcoming Hulk movie. He was responsible for rewrites though, and has threatened not to participate in publicity if he's not satisfied with the final cut. Harbingers of box-office doom.
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