Iron Man
I didn’t expect this from the trailer, but Iron Man turned out to be the best superhero movie I’ve seen since Batman Begins. Beside it just being a well-made action movie with Robert Downey, Jr., I appreciated not knowing anything about the character before entering the theater. I also realized during the film that I prefer superhero movies which don’t rely on “magical powers,” like Superman, the X-men, and Spiderman all do. I recognize that those films attempt to make scientific explanations, but it’s much easier for me to get invested in a character like Batman or Iron Man who underneath the costume is just a regular human. Sure, both Batman and Iron Man have unrealistic strength and engineering abilities, but it crosses the movie-plausibility threshold for me.
See my posts on The Illusionist vs. The Prestige for a similar distinction.
Comments (12)
I'm with you as to the real versus unreal powers. The magic powers always lead to a question of "why can't they just hit everyone with lightning bolts and be done with it?" When your characters are too strong, it seems stupid that they should ever fail (see, for example, Matrix 2 and Matrix 3... why did Neo ever even bother to fight people while in the Matrix?).
I too thought the trailer made this look horrible, but I went to see if after every single reviewer on the planet gave it a good review. This was a good movie, though I thought the last action sequence was a little tedious. Also, they never actually played the Iron Man song, except for an instrumental version over the credits. The key to the whole thing is that Robert Downey Jr. is very funny; without him, I don't know that it works.
Also, funny robots.
I was very suspect about this and was not going to see it, but now I will. Thanks Crazy Monk!
Upon analysis, I think I find the opposite to be true. The more I am asked to suspend my disbelief the more I will. I'll buy most stuff in a super-hero movie. However in regular action movies, I'll often find myself doubting that an ordinary human can survive some of the simplest stuff.
On a related note, I remember reading one silly news piece on action movies that said that most actual fights only lasted one punch. I wonder if I could find that article again. Or rather I wonder if an action movie that stayed completely grounded in reality (i.e. guy gets punched once and decides to stop fighting or on the other hand, car crashes yet doesn't explode) would be entertaining.
As a teen I wanted to make a movie that began as a normal action movie. About a 1/4 of the way into the movie there is a huge action sequence where a uniform cop played by a no name actor is killed. The focus then shifts to follow his family and the hell they go through after his death. I think Austin Powers briefly riffed on that.
What? Fights don't last one punch, they last an interminably long time and are usually based on trying to force the other person to wear your sunglasses. At least, that has been my experience. Here's just one of many, many examples of such fights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqKFadyJxwg
Is it noir-ish like Batman Begins? That would light a fire under my butt.
No, not at all. But it's entertaining.
RD, I think you're confusing fantasy with reality.
I was kind of confused by Iron Man's rejection of violence... through extreme violence. The moral grounding was a little bit unclear to me.
Iron Man used really humane weapons like flamethrowers.
And angry mobs... the humanest of all weapons.
After seeing the movie, I joked with LAA that there was a deleted scene wherein that angry mob ripped that guy to bits with their bare hands.
Man, I wish THAT had been the scene at the end of the trailers. SLJ was ok, but there's no justice like angry mob justice.