Film Review: Isn't it Ironic?

There aren't a lot of comic book movies that I would go so far as to call "good movies". Right now, I could probably name most of them off the top of my head: Batman Begins, Hellboy, Sin City, Ghost World, American Splendor, V for Vendetta, and I guess X2 wasn't bad (I still need to see Persepolis). So that's seven by my count, unless I'm forgetting any (EDIT: Eight. I forgot A History of Violence).

Well, you can add Iron Man to the list. In fact, you can probably put it right near the top.

I'm going to try to write a coherent review and not just type "IloveitIloveitIloveit" repeatedly, but to be honest the notion is kind of tempting. Because god damn, I loved it.

To start, the acting is great. I was happy that just about everyone opted for "acting" and not "comic book acting" (see: Willem Dafoe). Robert Downey Jr nailed Tony Stark (the role, that is), although I don't think that was ever in much doubt. More surprising is Gwyneth Paltrow's incredibly entertaining Pepper Potts. Maybe it's because female supporting characters in comic book movies unfortunately tend to be underwhelming at best (see: Katie Holmes, Kirsten Dunst, Jessica Alba, Jennifer Garner, and whatserface who played Lois Lane), but seeing her character portrayed as witty, warm, and, more importantly, competent, was something of a welcome shock. Jeff Bridges played Obadiah Stane straight, which again was a smart move, making him considerably more sympathetic a character than one would expect. Finally, Terence Howard rounds out the cast as Jim Rhodes, and while he had a bit less to do than the other characters, he wasn't without a few great moments (at least one of which had the crowd cheering).

One of the many reasons that past Superhero movies seem to have failed, in my opinion, is that they fail to deal with the extravagant nature of Superheroes in a way that is appropriate for live action. I mean, people who run around in costumes punching other people who run around in costumes may seem fine in illustration, or even animated, but in the real world it's easy to look ridiculous. A lot of Superhero movies, then, either take themselves far more seriously than they should (Daredevil), or revel in the ridiculous so much that the audience feels like they're watching a parody of what a film should be (Spider-Man 3).

Iron Man, not so much. It manages to hit the right balance of camp fun without being ridiculous, and that's probably largely due to the fact that this movie begins fairly grounded in reality. To say that this movie could happen in the news is a bit much, but by starting your film in Iraq, you already know you're dealing with a much more sober film (the irony of using the word sober while reviewing Iron Man is not lost on me). Also, Iron Man is less of a guy wearing a costume who fights crime and more of a guy who fights crime whose weapon of choice happens to look really cool. Like with Batman Begins, when Iron Man dons his suit for the first time, it seems perfectly natural. This is probably due to the fact that both films actually try to put some thought into the why of the suit. They're not just wearing costumes because it looks cool and that's what Super Heroes do. They're wearing the costumes because they have a very specific function.

Everything I've said so far is well and good, but I think I'm failing to touch up on the main thing: how unbelievably cool everything is. Iron Man as a character has always been awesome, pushing human technology to the absolute limits of suspended disbelief, and that tradition continues here. It occurred to me as I was watching Iron Man suit up that this may be one of the rare Superheroes that actually has more potential on screen than on the page. As cool as it is seeing him launch weapons in a comic book, there's so much to be said for the fluidity of everything on the big screen (even the computer he uses to design the suit is jaw-droppingly sweet). The CGI in this movie is some of the best I've ever seen - enough to make me believe that Iron Man was meant for film. As a comic book fanatic, that's saying a lot.

Finally, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not staying past the credits. I don't want to hype it up too much, but the fortyish second clip after the credits might have been the greatest theatrical experience I've had since watching Kill Bill volume 1 in theatres.

So, bottom line: I guess I kind of recommend this movie.

10 out of 10

Trailer Trash

Last week I was lounging around on campus with a friend while she was on the computer. She was reading the celebrity gossip blog PerezHilton and as I glanced at her computer, a post about Angelina Jolie caught my eye.

Me: What's that?

Her: Oh, just a post about Angelina Jolie.

Me: What about her?

Her: Nothing really, just that there's a new trailer for her upcoming movie.

Me: Oh. Beowulf?

Her: No... (looks at post again) something called Wanted.

Me: (pause) What did you say?

Her: Some movie called Wanted.

Me: ...and the trailer's out?

Her: Apparently.

Me: Let me use your computer.

Her: Uh, what fo-

Me: LET ME USE YOUR FUCKING COMPUTER!

um... Perhaps some context is needed. Wanted was a 6-issue comic miniseries written by Mark Millar that ran from 2003-2004. The London Sunday Times allegedly dubbed it "the Watchmen for super-villains" and while I wouldn't necessarily go that far, I can certainly agree that it was one of my favorite books at the time. It was about a young loser who is pulled out of his mundane life of obscurity and obedience when he finds out that his father was the greatest super-villain of all time.

The story was clever, tense, humorous, and had amazing art by J.G. Jones. What's more, Wanted was unique, with interesting characters - each a rift on archetypal super-villains (like Catwoman and The Joker), only approached in new and colorful ways. It was through these characters that the book truly shined.

Which only made me more confused when I saw this garbage trailer:



"Where are the costumes?" I asked my friend, who was beginning to get a little scared. "Where are the colorful characters? The witty dialog? Hell, where's anything that would have me believe this isn't just a generic shoot-em-up piece of crap?"

They certainly aren't in this trailer, I told myself. I nodded.

A few days later I went and saw American Gangster with my comic-loving friend Michael and this trailer started playing. I turned to him and asked him if he knew what the trailer was for. He replied that it looked like the sequel to Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which was, let's face it, a generic piece of crap to begin with.

As much as I want to see Mr. Tumnus running around shooting people (not at all), I don't think I will be catching this one in theaters. I know the term "Hollywood-ized" gets thrown around a lot (at least, I think it does), but this is perfect example of Hollywoodization. It's like if they made a Batman movie, only he didn't wear a costume and instead went around shooting bad guys, and every time he shot someone he'd say some cheesy one-liner, like "Paper or Plastic?"

Wait, that's an awesome idea.

-A

Next up: Enough about comic book movies. Aaron's Pick of the Week.

Edit: In a rare turn of events, myspace appears to have actually done something cool. Thanks to them you can now download the entire first issue of Wanted here. How about that?

Get a WIFF of this (if you Cannes)....

People who visit this site will probably know that I've blogged about comic book movies a few times in the past, rarely with anything particularly good to say about them as a whole. However, as I've also mentioned, the poor quality of your typical adaptation never stops me from getting excited about the upcoming movies anyway. This time, though, I'm pretty sure I'm not just gearing up for another suckfest.

This weekend, Windsor will be having its 3rd annual International Film Festival (lovingly referred to as WIFF). Of all the films being shown this year, the one I am most eager to see is Persepolis, an animated feature based on Marjane Satrapi's critically-acclaimed graphic novels.


The movie has played at several film festivals, including Cannes, where it won the Jury Prize (I don't know what that means, but I bet it's a good thing). Like many foreign movies, it hasn't seen widespread release. You can probably imagine my excitement, then, when I heard it was playing in my town.

You can probably also imagine my frustration when I heard I would be out of said town when the movie plays.

Don't make the same mistake I did. For those of you living in Windsor who aren't busy this Saturday, take my advice: go see this movie. Let me live vicariously through you. Please?

Persepolis is playing this Saturday, November 10, at 5:00pm at the Windsor Armouries. Tickets are 10 dollars. For more info on the WIFF, you can read Erica W's post or check out the official site.

image taken from Sony's official Persepolis site (linked in text).

P.S. I know I keep coming back to the topic of comic book movies, but I thought it important to talk about Persepolis for this post, both because of its impending screening as well as what its doing for comic book movies (ie, allowing the public to see them as Art-with-a-capital-A). If the next few comic book movies are as mature as this one appears to be, and are received with as high acclaim, I can see only good things for the genre.

Next up: I look at the piece of shit trailer for Wanted.

Set Your Watches

Every time I hear that a comic book is to be adapted into a motion picture, I go through the same routine:

1: Vague interest upon the initial announcement
2: Mass excitement after seeing the first trailer
3: Total hysteria while waiting in line hours before the movie's release
4: Slight confusion during opening credits
5: Second-hand embarrassment halfway through the movie, (often exacerbated in the event of a Stan Lee cameo)
6: Post-traumatic stress disorder when leaving the theater

With a few exceptions (Sin City, Batman Begins, and Hellboy come to mind), any widely-released adaptation of a comic book turns out to be at best, mediocre, and at worst, Daredevil. And then, when a new comic book movie is announced, I foolishly think to myself that maybe this time will be different, that maybe the director will get it right. Of course, I'm always wrong.

But maybe this time will be different.

I am referring to the upcoming adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' groundbreaking maxi-series The Watchmen. Often considered one of the best, if not the best, graphic novels of all time, The Watchmen has had a long history of bad breakups with the film industry (a 1989 version of the adapted screenplay can be found here). Only now, it's finally happening.

The movie has been announced for quite a while now, but I am writing about it now because a few days ago, according to my Wizard magazine, the first poster has been unveiled, drawn by original Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons.



I'm not sure how I feel about it in terms of it working as a movie poster, but what I do get from it is this: director Zack Snyder is telling the world that he's not fucking around. He's not making just another shitty comic book adaptation. He's making the Watchmen (this is especially evident if you are familiar with how the covers to the individual comics looked. Essentially, this poster looks like it could be a hypothetical issue 0).

For more information on the poster, read the Wizard article online here.


Also, whenever I look at the release date I think of the lyrics to "Three is a Magic Number." Whether this is intentional or not is anybody's guess.