The past few Marvel movies have been a total miss for me. Yes, even Spider-Man 3. I just couldn't stand the "That 70's Show" guy as Venom. And the scenes with "emo Peter Parker" were a complete failure....after the whole sequence in SM3 that seemed straight out of a Broadway musical, well....that was the last straw. Tobey Maguire is NOT Peter Parker as I remember him from the comic books. I also thought there was too much melodrama and not enough superhero-spectacle.
So today we watched Iron Man. With a bit of hesitation, actually, considering I thought that the trailer was just OK and I had a feeling this was going to be like Ghost Rider all over again.
That said, I came out of the theater very satisfied. :D Robert Downey Jr. did a great job as Tony Stark and I thought he made the character interesting and unique from other superhero alter egos. Gwyneth Paltrow as the love interest surprisingly did well too; normally the female leads in superhero movies are forgettable and shallow. I thought her acting was well done for this movie; she doesn't do anything terribly annoying or come off as a useless damsel-in-distress.
I don't really overanalyze superhero movies; the only thing I don't like is when they pull something like a deus-ex-machina (where out of nowhere the solution to a problem comes along, or where a character suddenly changes character for no apparent or believable reason). I do enjoy seeing great action and nicely done special effects---in this film's case, the big winner is that Iron Man suit, which remarkably resembles the suit from the comic books! The render for the suit is just fantastic! And every minute that suit is onscreen is just golden.
Simply put, the Iron Man suit in the Iron Man movie, kicks ass.
For others watching the movie sometime soon, don't forget to wait through the entire credits....there's a nice surprise at the end of the film which hints at the future of these Marvel superhero franchises.
*****
So today we watched Iron Man. With a bit of hesitation, actually, considering I thought that the trailer was just OK and I had a feeling this was going to be like Ghost Rider all over again.
That said, I came out of the theater very satisfied. :D Robert Downey Jr. did a great job as Tony Stark and I thought he made the character interesting and unique from other superhero alter egos. Gwyneth Paltrow as the love interest surprisingly did well too; normally the female leads in superhero movies are forgettable and shallow. I thought her acting was well done for this movie; she doesn't do anything terribly annoying or come off as a useless damsel-in-distress.
I don't really overanalyze superhero movies; the only thing I don't like is when they pull something like a deus-ex-machina (where out of nowhere the solution to a problem comes along, or where a character suddenly changes character for no apparent or believable reason). I do enjoy seeing great action and nicely done special effects---in this film's case, the big winner is that Iron Man suit, which remarkably resembles the suit from the comic books! The render for the suit is just fantastic! And every minute that suit is onscreen is just golden.
Simply put, the Iron Man suit in the Iron Man movie, kicks ass.
For others watching the movie sometime soon, don't forget to wait through the entire credits....there's a nice surprise at the end of the film which hints at the future of these Marvel superhero franchises.
*****
After writing this blog post, I found this well-written IRON MAN review by Moriarty of Ain't It Cool News [I find myself agreeing with this guy's movie reviews most of the time]: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/36560