Cool Exec With A Heart Of Steel
April 30th, 2008 by Woody!
I’ve lapsed in my movie-going ways as time has gone on, but I’m actually going to the theater this weekend to see the Iron Man movie. I’ve been getting increasingly interested as publicity for the movie fired up and there’s already good reviews online. Ol’ Shellhead was never one of my faves growing up but I’ve found him more interesting as time has gone on. When I was a kid, I enjoyed the adventures of a guy in armor beating up lame villains. But, after Armor Wars, I didn’t really feel the draw to the character. Kurt Busiek got me back on board when he played up the jet-setting adventuring playboy aspects of Stark’s life, but even that passed once he moved on. But with the recent emphasis on Tony as a power player during Civil War and even before that, I’m really digging what some recent writers have done with him.
Tony Stark is a guy who just might be more powerful outside of his armor than in it. He’s a billionaire industrialist. In the comics, he’s gone on to become Secretary of Defense and head of the international spy agency, S.H.I.E.L.D. As you can imagine, those kind of positions carry a decent amount of clout. Which means, every time he’s gallivanting around in his armor, he’s letting down thousands of people, if not millions. Let’s face it, if Clark Kent or Peter Parker don’t show up for work it’s not lie multi-million dollar business deals fall through or the company is ripe for a hostile takeover or thousands of soldiers or spies aren’t getting the support they need to stay alive. But that’s not the case for Tony Stark.
Thousands of lives are dependent upon him bringing the hammer to the business world. If he’s not in the boardroom or in the lab working on his next Start Industries product, people could be out of work. If he’s not on the bridge of the SHIELD Hellicarrier, the world’s best defense against aliens and super-terrorism won’t be as effective. So, when he’s armored up, he’s letting one group of people down. When he’s not, he doesn’t have the firepower to stop certain threats. Interesting dichotomy. I wonder how much of that will get played up in his movie as he takes responsibility for the weapons of destruction that spring from his mind.
Anybody else getting excited about this movie?
“I don’t care how much you evolve, that’s still damn funny.”
April 30th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Oh yeah, big time excited about this one. Would be interested in any sort of Iron Man movie but when I started seeing trailors for this I got real excited. I really like the pick of Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, Stark isn’t the normal type of hero character and I think Downey can bring that out. Unlike Bruce Wayne who poses as an playboy industrialist Stark is the genuine article. He drinks, sleeps around, and in general enjoys all the trappings of wealth & fame, but also risks his life to protect people from the weapons he created.
Kara was warned months ago that we’d be seeing this one on opening weekend and, fortunately, she thinks it looks good as well so I’m free to enjoy. Now I just need to not geek out to much in front of her because we still have Batman and Hellboy this summer.
April 30th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I’m excited and I like you was not a Iron Man fan pretty much at all. This movie looks awesome though. I saw a few TV reviews this past weekend and I”m more excited. They where a bit worried that kids might not get into the movie because there isn’t as much action as something like Transformers (Bay sux anyway) and there is alot of plot development before any action really gets moving. He’s also not in the “traditional” Iron Man suit until the very last part of the movie. Also the the main bad guy at the end really wasn’t a worthy opponent for him as well. We’ll see though, this is coming from a “professional” move reviewer.
But hell, if it’s got 2 minutes more plot then Transformers it will be a better movie.
April 30th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I am looking forward to seeing this too. I am not much of an Iron man and I don’t really like Robert Downey Jr, but the effects and story looks pretty good.
Am I the first one to jump on this sock point? MST3K - Crow
May 1st, 2008 at 12:57 am
We’re frantically looking for a babysitter so we can see this too. Or maybe we’ll just take Jack. 2-year-olds have movie-length attention spans, right?
May 1st, 2008 at 3:51 pm
i was not a big iron man fan when i was younger. i cannot wait to see it though. i have my tickets for 230 tomarrow.
as for summer movies this is going to be a great summer! speed racer, indiana jones, hellboy 2, hulk, dark knight, get smart, x files, step brother, pineapple express, and tropic thunder. what a dream movie season!