I’ve never read a comic book in my life, so why did I go see Iron Man? Easy – Tuesday is movie night for us, my local movie theater had 3 movies available, and it only cost $3 for both of us to see one. The choices were What Happens in Vegas, which I wasn’t going to touch with a ten foot pole. I don’t like Ashton Kutcher, I’m not a big fan of Cameron Diaz, and I heard a reviewer say something about the audience being tortured, not to mention that the premise itself sounded terrible – more like a Saturday Night Live skit than a movie. Another choice was Prince Caspian, which I was somewhat open-minded about watching since I did read the first of the Narnia books way way back when, but my husband wasn’t interested in seeing that one at all, and the 2 hour and 20 minute running time kinda turned us away also. So Iron Man it was.
The movie started out interesting enough – it was never boring, so don’t let the fact that I fell asleep fool you. That’s just what I do when I don’t have time to nap during the day and I see a movie too early before I’ve gotten my second wind that carries me through the evening. So I would say that there was too much of a backstory given, even for people like us who had never really heard of Iron Man before and especially didn’t know his backstory. The backstory seemed to go on and on, but my husband liked that, and since I was sleeping through most of it, I can’t really fairly say that it was too long. Super hero movies are not even close to being my favorite kind of movie, but I did enjoy this one. It had the perfect amount of action (too much action makes my mind wander), cool special effects, and an interesting story line. The acting wasn’t horrible or even bad, but what do you expect with veterans like Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow? They had good chemistry; the love story wasn’t too cheesy, and I liked the ending of the movie. I really enjoyed seeing all the technology as Robert Downey Jr. was working in his “cave” and whatnot, and the huge enemy suit was really fun to watch in the showdown between good and evil. The people behind us came close to ruining things though, since it was a grown woman exclaiming things like, “Cool! That’s awesome! I wish I could do that!” I’m glad she was enjoying herself, but it was distracting to the rest of us.
Since I’m not a comic book fan, I will pose a question to those who are. What percentage of superheros are filthy rich tech geeks who develop their weapons in reclusive mansions? This seems to be a common theme, but maybe it’s just in the superhero movies I’ve seen. But anyway, I liked the movie; it tempted me to possibly check out Dark Knight this summer, unless I’m too busy like, having a baby or something. Iron Man was well worth our $3. I don’t think I would have said the same for What Happens in Vegas.
And now that I’m looking it up on imdb.com, I see that one of the plot keywords is ‘surprise after end credits’ – we didn’t stick around to find out, so what was the surprise? Also, why is Jack Black in the photos for the movie?
Well… I know where I will be Thursday at some point. It looks like Iron Man will be one of the movies I miss seeing until it is released on video, BUT NOTHING will stop me from being in the movie house sometime Thursday… and no rehearsal so that is good.
Hmmm, Rich super heroes? I can think of a few, Green Arrow, Green Hornet, Batman, Ironman, the Shadow, Electra, The Phantom. I can’t think of any others at the moment, but I’ll think on it.
Iron man does sound interesting. I vaguely remember reading the comics when I was a kid. I will probably see Prince Caspian with my small group, or if not when it comes out on video.
I just got through watching The Seeker on DVD, a time-travel, good vs. evil, fantasy. There were no special features- zero, zip, none. I couldn’t believe it. Next up: The Office, British style.
We gave the British Office a try, but couldn’t muddle through their heavy accents. Too bad, it’d be fun to see the British equivalent of Michael Scott and co. Might be worth another try later this summer when the regular Office withdrawl gets too bad!
I’m not sure the extra at the end would mean much to someone who doesn’t know the comics, but here goes. Samuel L Jackson is Nick Fury, head of SHIELD. He says to Stark, “what did you think, you’re the only super hero around?”
It means more than you’d think because when I imdb’d the movie, they talked about Samuel L Jackson being in it, and I was like, what? I didn’t see him? So that part does make sense.
I just started watching The Office UK and I found I had to turn the subtitles on- you’re right about the accents. I just had to turn off the third episode though, too heavy on the adult content what with a giant blow-up male sex organ and “Pam” and “Jim” having fun with “Dwight” with a gay suggestive dialog that goes right over “Dwight’s” head. Note I used the names of our Office characters though the names are different in the UK version. The main character personalities are pretty much the same in both series.
Should have warned you – Chris had heard that about the British version – they are a bit less censored over there. European people on imdb are always saying that Americans are uptight about that kind of thing, but sometimes it’s just not funny! Didn’t think of using subtitles. I’m glad the american version doesn’t have to resort to cheap or disgusting humor to be funny.
Well………. There was that sexual harassment episode, but that was the only one so far I had a problem with.