But maybe it's The Island.
Oy.
Iron Man is better than the Mark Steven Johnson comic book movies… but I’m pretty sure that comes under the category of Damning With Faint Praise.
And to answer a number of people who seem to have a problem with Jon Favreau directing this film, the troubles with the movie don’t have much to do with the directing. (Why he needs an extended cameo in the movie, however, is beyond me.)
The problem with Iron Man is the script… or the utter lack thereof.
But the suit is really, really, really cool.
Downey is Downey… forever entertaining, but as so often is the case, left here to improvise what the screenwriters couldn’t deliver… and which too many people at the love-in clearly mistook for brilliance.
The truly desperate performances here belong to Jeff Bridges, who is too good an actor to chew this much scenery and not look like he’s slumming, and Terrence Howard, who took the money to be The Black Best Friend and got a role that wasn’t even that complex. Ms. Paltrow is better off, since her skirts, like the other great costume in the film, gets to do most of the acting for her.
The use of Middle Easterners/Northern Africans as Colorform villains and victims is actually close to offensive if you spend more than a second to think about it. Really, we are at the “wog” level, which I do not forgive in the name of similarly beige people being victimized as well. Obviously, the reference is to the current war, but the flagrant disinterest in these people being anything other than cardboard cutouts is kind of sad… particularly when you get to the third act and realize that it was all a gimmick.
Do we really think the use of the remembered imagery of American businessmen and journalists beheaded by dark skinned men in headdresses is already the kind of kitsch you throw into a comic book movie? I don’t. And I will say, the same kind of imagery used in comic books has not bothered me… because the books seem to actually be trying to use it as more than a stunt.
But hey… I’m just being a nasty old f***, judging a comic book movie like it was actually supposed to work as a regular movie.
Then, I have a hard time… because when you see this film, you will know how closely they followed Batman Begins and X-Men templates (not to mention its pale imitations of the brilliantly satiric RoboCop). So they know you can make an entertaining comic book film with a little edge. The problem is that Batman’s training, via the efforts of David Goyer and Christopher Nolan, actually did feel profound and meaningful, at least on a movie-movie level. A big part of that is that Bruce Wayne was challenged by the people from whom he learned to reach a part of himself that is greater than his personal anger. Here, Tony Stark only learns from Tony Stark’s pain… apparently the first pain in his life. (His dead father is an issue only in the most perfunctory way.) And even when he claims to be turning the corner to The Good, his good actions remain selfish, thoughtless, and without account for anyone else. (This is where his Best Black Friend is supposed to come in… but his main use is to “clear the sky.”)
But the suit is really, really, really cool.
So let’s just look only at the Comic Book Movie of it all…
Five action sequences strung together by talktalktalktalktalktalktalktalk signifying nothing. 1) The dessert attack, 2) The first suit, 3) Building and testing the second suit, 4) Middle East revenge, and 5) the big finale against the bad guy. (Note: I am avoiding any real spoilers here.)
1) Okay… seen this before, done a lot better.
2) Fairly cool, though parts of it are just not thought out, including “what was the good plan for guy without a suit?”
3) Probably the best sequence, though nothing original and not within a mile of “first experience” sequences in Spider-Man, Superman, or any of the non-Schumacher Batman movies.
4) Seems like it will be special, but we spend a lot more time than expected looking as something flashing across the sky that we can’t really make out.
5) A mess on pretty much every level, especially when you realize how the film chooses to be derivative of parts of other, better films that didn’t work.
Of course, geeks will cream over the many inside references in the film. Really, how many times can a movie set up an acronym joke and still get a laugh? 3 or 4 in the room where I saw the film. And still, when the inevitable came, the people who didn’t know the joke when they walked into the room didn’t see the humor when it landed… because the only thing amusing about it is that you know its coming… like Dane Cook.
And geeks will likely LOVE the movie. Five action sequences, three different suits, Downey clowning, Gwynnie’s legs, and lots of cool CG close-ups should do the job.
Not for me.
And not, I suspect, for any category outside of the geeks. There is nothing here for non-geek adults, which there was in the coming-of-age Spider-Man films, the serious-minded Batman films, and the romantic-tinged Superman films. There is nothing here for women, unless they are suckers for the woman-who-obsessively-care-for-the-selfish man schtick. And it really is too dark for the little tykes.
But the suit is really, really, really cool.
All appearances suggest that the film will open to $60m-$70m, which would be a second-best ever record for a non-sequel in this slot in the summer. And somewhere between $175 million and $210 million is likely for the film… more likely on the low end… though if Speed Racer doesn’t pick up a bit, it could be on the higher end. Either way, the movie has 3 weekends, max.
Finally, what will probably cause the most consternation… This appears to be the Pass movie of the early summer for critics. Is it because of Downey or the middle-aged hero or talk about a huge opening or the use of the Middle East and the half-ass political arguments of the film that play out hypocritically but pay active lip service to liberals… I don’t know.
All I do know is that when film critics are the ones identifying with your superhero, you may be being successful with the wrong demo for mega-bucks... which is all the film producers wanted in the first place.
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2008/04/iron_man.html