I caught a later showing of Iron Man last night at the AMC in Emeryville, and left the theater with dry contacts, an Icee-filled gut, and a re-enlivened desire to examine the comic book universe.
First impressions of the movie as a whole: Memorable, and of "I-would-buy-that-as-soon-as-it-releases-on-DVD" caliber. The movie successfully adapts the comic book to the big screen as the film is able to give a sense of realness to the fantastic story.
Iron Man succeeds in drawing the audience into the story from the beginning as the opening scene gets viewers to ask themselves, "How did it get to this point?" The cause of the initial problem is cleverly revealed and the loop is closed, creating a segweigh(sp?) into another conflict that is able to come full circle, itself--the movie does a good job at tying up ends that are opened up, and is as mindful as possible to real world limitations and possibilities.
The effects are incredible. Industrial Light & Magic maintain their reputation of producing, might as well be pissing, excellence and are able to make the cutting edge technology within the movie's world come to life. Forget about the explosions, the more subtle effects that involve Tony Stark's use of design tools elicit just as many "aw, shit" moments, if not more.
Besides the effects, the use of pretty people, exotic cars, and the latest gadgetry keep the audience clinging on to their seat with one hand, and wiping the drool off the sides of their mouths with the other. I found myself practically raping Tony Stark's workspace with my eyes; Stark dabbled (at least, the movie made Stark's work seem like play) with his projects in a designer/engineer's wet-dream of workspaces: artificially intelligent bots and computer programs that aid Stark's implementation and troubleshooting, seemingly limitless amounts of the highest quality materials, and the sweetest 3D drafting process ever (!!!!!!!!).
Iron Man even tickles the comic book savvy viewers pink with a couple lines that hint at possibilities of future film developments from the Marvel Universe.
Iron Man is worth your time and a non-matinée price. It is engaging (my Icee was doomed to last no longer than 2 minutes, I was so engaged)and entertaining (so much so that I probably didn't blink often enough to keep my contacts adequately lubricated), and will probably have you sifting through your old comic books wishing you could have that much more Iron Man in your life.
1 comment:
amen to that
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