Iron Man: an alternative view

Sexy, smouldering and steel-like, Robert Downey Jr. is the ultimate Tony Stark/Iron Man (and as a disclaimer, please note that my bias stems from my utter obsession with the actor). This rough cross between Batman Begins, Transformers & Lord of War offers a fun couple of hours, but perhaps not nearly as action-packed as some of the maler species would would like. That being said, the well-cast actors create a solid alloy which carries the movie along; everyone from RDJ and the cute-ified Gwyneth Paltrow right down to Stark's robotic companions mesh well. Despite its formulaic comic book story-line, Iron Man manages to touch upon current events, shaky foreign relations and moral/ethical dilemmas, making it time-sensetive but, in a way similar to the anti-Soviet Bond storylines of the 90s, unlikely to make it into the books as a timeless classic. The 'lab' scenes are entertaining and the cars and women ogle-worthy. This movie is the quintissential summer blockbuster, and a bit of an hors d'oeuvre to the 'coming-soon-to-a-theatre-near-you' man in the batsuit.

Score: 3 "American Cheeseburgers" out of 5. But with extra cheese.

Metal Mouth:

"What is going on here?"
"Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."

Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges flew, fought and fluttered their eyelashes. Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby ironed out the details and Jon Favreau materialised the marvelous machination.

Speed Racer

A surreal visual effects movie with a terrific sense of speed.

A lot has been said of Speed Racer and most of it has not been good so I'm going to start off by simply saying that I thoroughly enjoyed it. On the other hand I can understand that this movie has a particular audience that does not include the majority of serious movie critics.

The movie is beautiful. It may take the first 15 to 20 minutes to get over the childlike quality. After that you'll see that this movie could not (and should not) have been done any other way. The vision is very coherent; nothing looks out of place regardless of how strange. Even the actual sets that blend perfectly with the rest of the Computer Generated scenery.

The music and sound are great as well and really contribute to the frantic pace of the races.

That being said, I'll get to the bad. If for some reason you do not enjoy the look of the movie then you're in for about two hours and fifteen minutes of torture. The movie is a little bit long (unless you are enjoying it) and has very little beyond its visuals to keep you going.

The story, though interesting and fitting to the visuals, is very simple and not enough to captivate. The acting is sub-par which does add to the effect but again the effect may not be for everyone.

The pacing is very awkward. The races are intercut with the bulk of the story but once out of the race it slows down significantly.

A beautiful piece of eye candy that has not much more to offer beyond that.

Score: (this one is tough because I know that you'll either love it or hate it, but this is my personal score) Mach 4 out of Mach 5

A Fast Flurry of Fervent Flattery:

"He's going to be very good."
"No, he's going to be the best... if they don't destroy him first."

Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Matthew Fox stood in front of the green screen. Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski turned the green screen into magic.

Iron Man

An notable addition to the ever growing comic-to-movie library.

Iron Man is an impressive comic book origin movie that falls comfortably in between the very dark Batman Begins and the very light Spider-Man. Actually, it tends to lean a little bit closer the light the side while (occasionally) dealing in more dark material.

I was not very familiar with the character of Tony Stark before hearing about this movie. I must say I wasn't disappointed. There were a lot of liberties taken with how good he is at just about everything but he does have enough flaws to make him believable.

The acting is strong, though obviously not as high as it should be with said cast but it is a comic book movie so what should you expect? Most notable though would be RDJ as Tony Stark.

The visuals are amazing and quite seamlessly blend with the rest of the surroundings. The directing is solid by Bodyguard Jon Favreau.

The downfall is that being an origin movie and trying to stay grounded in reality, the villain in this movie is not as fleshed out as he should be and is not as supernatural as they ultimately will have to be. I would hate to just end up watching sequel after sequel of Iron Man beating up bigger and bigger mechanical foes.

All in all a very entertaining comic origin movie that could have a long and prosperous string of sequels if handled with as much care as this.

Score: 3 and a half Ark Reactors (out of 5)

A Mechanical Melange Message:

"Hey Tony."
"I'm sorry. This is the fun-vee. The hum-drum-vee is back there."

Jon Favreau took it off the page. Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow jumped off the page.