Jerenisugly

August 4, 2010 1:50 am Picked this up for 12$ at SDCC after Josh's recommendation. Finished yesterday, it really is an amazing book. It's personal, but instead of isolating the audience, it drew me in. Thanks to Josh for the recommend, and I will definitely recommend it to others.

May 7, 2010 8:44 pm I really love the first Iron Man film. The comic was updated to make it topical, Robert Downey Jr. had an incredible performance ranging from perfect comic timing to emotional depth. The scene in which he realizes that his entire life's work has been the cause of needless violence and war is powerful and embodies an overzealous American ideal/fault and he overcomes that by becoming a super hero to set things right. “There is nothing else. There is only the next mission.” This exchange between Tony and Pepper is very emotional and was topical at the time and is just as much so today. In Iron Man, Pepper is the dutiful assistant to Tony Stark, but instead of being subservient, she proves her value throughout the film and starts the first scene by turning the tables on the overly confident Brown reporter when Pepper responds to her snide remarks and notes that, “She does all of the tasks that Mr. Stark requires, including, sometimes, taking out the trash,” as she leads the trash to the door. Perfect character moment, sharply funny, fresh, and one of the many great moments in the film. Her back and forth with Tony is very much back and forth and many times she manages to put even Tony in his place. Obadiah Stane has a very personal relationship with the Starks and Stark industries, the opening montage in the film chronicles his rise after Howards Starks death and then his return obsolescence when the prodigal son returns. Jeff Bridges plays the part perfectly with just the right changes needed in attitude when being revealed as the villain. His motivations are clear, yet complex. He’s jealous of Tony Stark’s power, lifestyle, youth, and technical prowess, he is greedy for power and money and wants to reestablish his presence in the field that Tony Stark has dominated for himself. He does this by using his position in the Stark Company and at first tries to go about removing Tony from Stark Industries through legal processes, but is caught, and resorts to making a suit to battle Tony mono y mono and of course fails. (Sort of, I still don’t know how Iron Man survives the explosion of the Arc Reactor from the first, but hell the rest of it is good enough.)

Now on to Iron Man 2. It’s fairly irrelevant as far as topicality. The largest threat in the story is not the overcoming of a flawed ideology, but simply that Tony needs to figure out some tech before his current tech kills him. Big whoop. In fact, he can’t even figure it out himself, he needs guidance from Nick Fury. The emotions Tony displays in the film are slim to none, he never seems to get too upset by his circumstance and confronts his problems by ignoring them and mocking them by being even more self-destructive. But does he realize the errors of his ways? No. Instead, he is led to a technological solution by someone else which picks him up from his own destruction and he learns nothing. Pepper, instead of being likable and strong in the first film is shown to not be able to run the company only because Tony keeps messing things up, and she resigns as CEO and submits to Tony’s desire. Everything we come to admire about her in the first is thrown completely out the window. Pepper and Tony’s banter in this film is not clever and witty as it was in the first, it’s just them arguing and talking over each other, and it really has no value or appeal for the characters or the film. There are far more failed attempts at humor in the second film. Mrs. Reporter from Brown is again slammed by Pepper’s wit when she points out that she did “a big spread on Tony last year.” Great line, she puts it perfectly, but then Tony ruins it by pointing out the obvious joke, “She also wrote a story about me.” Yes. We get it. No need to point this out. The comic timing of the first joke is lost, instead the moment is taken to hand feed the audience the joke. It’s a real shame. Nick Fury, with his patch looks at Tony and says," I’ll be keeping my eye on you." This is obvious enough for any idiot, so the moment is held as if it’s necessary to let the audience laugh. It ended up being an uncomfortable moment in the theatre. Quite literally, Iron Man 2 uses two villains to cover that ground that one villain did in the first. Still even together they never threaten anything but Tony Stark and we know how that is going to end. When Obadiah in the first film says to the temporarily paralyzed Tony, “I wish you hadn’t brought Pepper into this, I really would’ve preferred she lived.” The moment becomes so much more powerful to the audience and to Tony who now really feels something at stake. The two villans are also simply treading the same issues that Obadiah does in the first, except without the betrayal. Weak Sauce.

I think this has been enough reasoning as to why the first Iron Man puts its sequel to shame. I need not point out the miscasting of the brilliant Sam Rockwell as Hammer, the utterly unnecessary bird gag, the portrayal of Rhodes as a humorless tightwad by Cheadle, instead of Terrance Howard who actually seemed like he might be a friend of playboy Tony Stark, the plot hole involving a last minute decision by Tony Stark to race at Monoco and falling right into the hands of Whiplash, who planned to get in as an employee on the track, Whiplashe's seemingly magical power over the keyboard, or Tony Stark’s now ludicrous technology he creates and has on hand at any time,(despite his lack of a saw horse, which only happened to exploit a once subtle nerd nuance involving Captain America’s shield,) which borders on self parody more than the simple stretching of the possibilities as the first one did.
There are worse movies than Iron Man 2, and despite my endless gripes, I was entertained by the film. The action was awesome, filmed incredibly, the special effects were seamless, and it was nice to revisit these characters. It just doesn’t even compare to the quality of the first film, and is a HUGE disappointment and sometimes that’s much worse than simply sitting through a bad movie.

December 11, 2009 1:58 am Number two definitely seems like a bridge in the story. Some interesting ideas seem to be coming to the surface. Still great art, and am looking forward to the rest.

November 10, 2009 6:04 am Thank Goodness! I hate to admit it, but that show keeps me reading comics, a weekly reminder of how awesome the industry is. I just don't read enough comics to stay in the know with the PotW show. Can't wait! Hope you enjoyed your break!

September 16, 2009 11:57 pm Very Happy for you guys, I guess I'll have to listen to the audio show...Which is fine, but it's always considerably longer, and doesn't do as much for me if I haven't heard of the comic. At least in video there's a visual reference.  Enjoy your time off, I look forward to having you back soon!

September 9, 2009 3:59 am As a worried FOB fan, I was afraid this was going to be pretty bad. However, I was rather impressed, the idea of a robot feeling love, cliche perhaps, but I feel this was and more importantly will be handled uniquely. Looking forward to issue two.