Iron Man, (just) another Marvel Hero

We just watched Iron Man a couple of hours ago.  I was quite intrigued, having read the good tweets and buzz about the film.  Well, it really wasn’t the greatest push I got to get myself eager enough to watch it.  There a couple of good reasons though.

There are several good movies that was worth the wait for this year, 2008.  One of them is Iron Man.  The trailer is really good (see it here).  That made me wanna wait that long to see this one;  I also like watching super hero movies (Superman, Spiderman, Batman, the Xmen, etc.), and for one, I believe in our current culture, its already a good escape to get to see and fantasize that there are such heroes. ;)

My honey loves to read a lot of comics (I believe I’m the only one who weren’t so into those stuffs when I was young.. which reminds me.. what did I do with my time?? :P ), ergo, he loves to see those comic characters into live big screen.  It was his weakness and strength at the same time.

Well, finally, I get to sneak out of the usual workaholic rush to get a good watch of Iron man.  Okay, and here is what I think of it so far.. (warning, quite a spoiler coming up!)

At first, I didn’t really appreciate that there were folks running around the cinema and creepily complaining that the video quality of the film that SM North was showing.  It never really occurred to me that the sound or the video was faulty at all.. it was perfectly viewable. :) We came in about 5-7 minutes late (or maybe the show started a little early), so we missed the opening.  One thing good about this though is that we managed to get the "rewind" portion of the introductory plot.

What’s so good about having an introduction for your plot is that you get to instill a big "WHY??" in the head of your audience.. and that serves as the perfect time for you to inject your idea–just when the mind is open for new complexities. :) What I didn’t like about this though, is that the topic came out of nowhere!  It was the perfect excuse for starting a movie.

Tony Spark’s character was the most appealing aspect of Iron Man the movie, for me.  I liked his whimsical lifestyle; yet I envied his talent for technology and electronics.  I wondered how one that is "incapable of being responsible" came to be a super hero, and yet still be a living genius at the same time!  I’ve always thought that discipline, responsibility and diligence is what comprises a hero.. let alone a genius.  Ahh, but well, there is always Albert Einstein who had always been a flunker of Math!  How I really loved and hated Tony Spark’s character! :)

I was drawn into the movie by the tons of technologies and intricacies of the design and process of creating the Iron Man suit.  I think, by far, I was more amazed in how he created his suit than in the actual conflict that he had with his business partner Obadiah Stane!  He actually had only two conflicts in the movie that involved a fair fight display (one at the Afgan based, and one in the US).  I think that though the movie was greatly inspired by the success of Transformers, it wasn’t able to reach that level of success.

The "hero" acts done were also not enough screenplay, imho.  How he gets from one place to another via flying was one highlight.  His fighting skills were not at all that bad, well, just because he never really had to fight since his iron suit was invincible, and he had lots of weapons built in that suit.  I won’t forget how he kinda (CTRL+SHIFT+SELECT)ed his enemies, only to eliminate them all at once!!!  I also loved his play with the jets as was shown in the trailer.  It was cool.. he even was able to answer a phone call thru that suit! hahaha.. that suit is amazing.. :)

Gwyneth Paltrow is the lead actress of the movie, which ironically, she wasn’t able to shine very well with her role.  At first, it was even hard to figure out that the assistant of Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, was indeed Gwyneth!  I even thought that they would be putting a silly love twist in the story, but I was quite disappointed.  There were many stuffs quite disappointing.  There was even the reason how "Iron Man" survived after that huge electronic blast of high voltaged electromagnetic surge, which was never explained at all in the end.

Hmm.. oh well, a movie is just yet a movie.  Some parts disappointing, some good parts will always remain.  The irony of "the iron man having a heart is good", and that the meaning and source of the red suit was given interpretation in the movie but, its just that, for me, Iron Man will be just another Marvel Hero (well, unless part 2 will be better.. hehehe)..