It's never too early to anticipate IRON MAN

It looks like they are taking cues from that Iron Man storyline I forget the name of, the one written by Ellis/Carnivale dudes. I is excited.

I hope it's not new school Iron Man because I read a couple of New Avengers issues to read on the train home yesterday evening and they were completely utterly terrible

Updated origin story, which I actually really liked in comic form. If I could remember the name of the title it was in I would really recommend it.

It was a pre-Civil War thing so, yeah, not as bad as current New Avengers.

and I mean he is being played by Robert Downey, Jr. so hopefully Tony will be the drunkiest drunk that ever drank.

I am kinda meh about the Mandarin being the villain.

tales of suspense #39

I want a scene where Iron Man gets hammered and stumbles around in the suit all "I'M MOTHERFUCKIN IRON MAN GIVE ME ANOTHER BEER"

I hope everyone realizes I am perfectly content discussing Iron Man with myself frequently enough to keep this thread at the top of the page.

ban jessie

pix plz

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3e/Forging_Iron_Man.jpg

I am hoping this chest thing means we are going to get the Iron Man where the suit is actually HELPING TO KEEP HIM ALIVE that is my favorite Iron Man.

Oh man, that picture assuaged all my fears about this. The suit should be essential for life support, agreed.

I do not understand how people can be worried about a movie starring ROBERT DOWNEY, JR.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-07/31431050.jpg

man, robert downey jr. was so so so so bad in Richard III. Iron Man is more his style.

And more fun:

Robert Downey Jr. will be there too. An actor's actor by all accounts, Downey will don a super-power suit of armor to bring Marvel Comics character "Iron Man" to the screen next year in a Jon Favreau film that also features Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard — a cast that proves that hero movies are now winning the hearts and minds of respected actors.

For Downey, the choice to take flight in hero-franchise came after a bit of peer envy.

"I came up with Johnny Depp, right, we were right there and there was always respect and I watched him and his choices, which have been wonderful. And then I see Johnny Depp do 'Pirates [of the Caribbean]' and then suddenly Depp is on a Slurpee cup. And the movies are good. And he's great in them. And I think: If Depp is on a Slurpee, I want to be on a Slurpee."

hahahaha

this may be good, I have friends working on it, but I have lingering skepticism (mostly about Favreau who is, by all accounts, as much of an asshole as you would imagine)

oh Robert Downey Jr., I will preserve your Slurpee cup and use it only to drink the most quality of booze.

I want a scene where Iron Man gets hammered and stumbles around in the suit all "I'M MOTHERFUCKIN IRON MAN GIVE ME ANOTHER BEER"

-- jessie monster, Monday, June 4, 2007 10:46 AM (Monday, June 4, 2007 10:46 AM) Bookmark Link

I still want this to happen.

This looks terrible, just like everything else!

you look terrible.

=D

but will there be any ghostface on the sdtk

seriously, I work too hard to ever waste my money going to see ANY more superhero movies! with rare exceptions!

even if this is bad it will still probably be better than the Watchmen movie.

that's not saying much

it is a RACKET. Don't you SEE?!?!

I hope they're taking their cues from the early Eighties alkie storyline that included that immortal Bob Layton DEMON IN A BOTTLE! cover.

Agreed that the armor/life support thing is totally essential.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-07/31431050.jpg

give me a fucking break

http://imdb.com/title/tt0371746/fullcredits#cast

This lists Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury

Hillary Swank is in this and DOESN'T get top billing? wtf

I mean I hate her but she's won two oscars

http://littlestuffedbull.com/images/comics/irondowney.jpg

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/5671/picironmanarmorforblogvu9.jpg

i will see this, tho i never really read the comics.

http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/paramount_pictures/iron_man/robert_downey_jr_/ironman1.jpg

I would love it if they stupidly use the sabbath tune thinking it will make the audience cheer. Because then I will jeer!

yay metroid/anime

http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/ironmanhugebig.jpg

I predict they will use "Iron Man" but only in the cover version by The Cardigans.

fuck, i wish superheroes was real

> If Depp is on a Slurpee, I want to be on a Slurpee.

Where's the thread where we say what our name would be if we could still change our name?

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-07/31431050.jpg

OK wait, is he in the kitchen in this scene? Because that's like a fridge full of Perrier on the left and an espresso machine on the right. WTF is going on here? Is he making popcorn with that thing?

Looks like an office kitchen. There are airplane models there too, so maybe some kind of, I don't know, airplane company?

Close. Remember, Stark Industries is a defense contractor.

"I command my latte to RISE."

I'm going to see this. Fuck, I went and saw Fantastic Four II and Spiderman III. The LEAST I can do is go see a really good actor in a superhero movie.

OK the clip they played at Comic-Con made me go from not really anticipating this at all to being super psyched about it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxFESpmMRzo

Hillary Swank is in this and DOESN'T get top billing? wtf

-- Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, July 26, 2007 9:15 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Link

I mean I hate her but she's won two oscars

-- Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, July 26, 2007 9:15 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Link

You do realize that actors are usually billed roughly in order of most screen time to least, right? Pretty sure Paltrow is the female lead in this. Plus there are like 5 other actors in this who have at least been nominated for Oscars and are as famous as/more famous than Swank.

lol iron man

My brother spent yesterday with Neil Gaiman at Comic Con (he may be named to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund or something?), but he was way more excited about seeing the Iron Man footage.

Swank has two Oscars + U Gonna Get Reaped + The Black Dahlia. She doesn't get top billing over ANYONE in a just world.

"named to the board of the CBLDF" - which I guess is like the ACLU for nerds

I like his car.

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2007/07/stark1.jpg

Characterization looks good, effects look great but whatever. I just hope this thing isn't written like shit.

the teaser's not bad. but rdjr. would've been a better dr. strange.

Actors prepare (according to Wikipedia):

Downey was a big fan of the comic book, and described his challenge as portraying "a wealthy, establishment, weapons manufacturing, hard drinking, womanising prick into someone who is likeable and a hero."[17] Downey set up an office next to Favreau, discussing his role and becoming highly involved in pre-production.[1] Terrence Howard prepared for the role by visiting Nellis Air Force Base on March 16, 2007, where he observed HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters and F-22 Raptors.[18] Gwyneth Paltrow went to the source material, reading many comic books lent by her husband, Chris Martin.[19]

"Honey, when you're not creating the world's most boring music, can I borrow your comic books?"

"Guys, all my dreams have come true."

the teaser's not bad. but rdjr. would've been a better dr. strange.

That role would be pwned by Edward Norton.

Edward Norton currently starring as the Incredible Hulk, you all know, right?

Huh, that's news to me. Oh well.

no no no Dr. Strange movie must star George Clooney

That would be okay too, once I got over the laffs at him with the mustache.

I am pretty fucking stoked for Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stone and Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury.

"named to the board of the CBLDF" - which I guess is like the ACLU for nerds

Exactly correct.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/ironman/

Can't see trailer, but this image:
http://www.newsaramablog.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_iron-man-teaser.jpg

has got me stoked.

: )

What you doin' on our turf, punk?
Got a message for Smokey.
Give it.
You Smokey, man?
Give it!
If you ain't Smokey, it ain't yo' motherfuckin' message
Motherfucker, I said gimme the message!
It's from Willie, in the slam.
Nigga, you been busted?
Yeah, the man picked me up.
Well, I ain't got no fuckin' time to play witchu! Now gimme the message.
Willie's in Warwick, doin' 1-3. Told me to tell y'all motherfuckers to
keep cool. He be out one way or another. Quick. Maybe I could stick
around for awhile.
Naw, that's out, man. You know? What can we, The Lords, do with a punk like
you?
Kiss my ass, motherfucker! (Burn 'em) Just me and you, motherfucker, just
me and you. I put trademarks around your fuckin' eye!

That trailer is SO AWESOME until "Iron Man" starts playing.

otm

But apparently the movie is 50% RDJ being an asshole and for that I am thrilled.

OK this actually looks pretty awesome.

ridiculous awesome trailer, dude is filling the nic cage role for smug smirky dude in big budget blockbuster shit which is cool with me

cage perfected the art of smiling contemptuously for the real-world first half of the trailer and looking determined while shit blows up in the second half

cage perfected the art of smiling contemptuously for the real-world first half of the trailer and looking determined while shit blows up beating up women in the second half

fixed

haha whoever put that trailer together deserves either extreme kudos or a death sentence, or maybe both

I also pictured RDJ playing this as more of a detached intellectual sort, but the elitist jerk angle works pretty well

I would love it if they stupidly use the sabbath tune thinking it will make the audience cheer. Because then I will jeer!

-- dean ge, Thursday, July 26, 2007 4:18 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

so obvious, so predicted by everyone!

Trailers for movies 8 months before the fact should result in mass executions of marketing departments.

ie TOO EARLY

thx for explaining that.

also: gwyneth paltrow's hair = UH.

The "no gang signs -- no, that's okay" line kills me. I assume RDJ improvised a lot of that kind of stuff or developed it in rehearsals.

I will watch this.

the "I am Iron Man!" in the trailer = 10/10.

I hope this is two hours of Robert Downey wise-cracking and like five minutes of action tops.

I personally hope that, somehow, someway, Ghostface makes it into the final cut.

I hope he reprises his washed-up drunk scenes from Zodiac.

For a second I was like "Ghostface was in Zodiac?!"

I am anticipating Iron Man.

For a second I was like "Ghostface was in Zodiac?!"

Haha, same here!

ditto.

I hope that Favreau has the sense to know that if we are giving him $10, it's so we can watch sassy alcoholic Robert Downey, Jr. and not Robocop in a more flattering color scheme.

I'd hope that Marvel are on-the-ball enough to know that what we actually want to watch is a couple of hours of sassy, alcoholic RDJ generally being a dick to all and sundry, interspersed with lotsa shit blowing up. And would then actually allow Favreau to make that film.

Otherwise, what's the point?

i want it all

Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.[19]

^ still psyched!!!

When did we enter this parallel universe where people actually enjoy the work of Robert Downey, Jr.?

# Weird Science (1985) (as Robert Downey) .... Ian

23 years ago

it was the elton john video that did it, adam

New trailer with juicy bits on LOST tonight.

http://gizmodo.com/362195/iron-man-new-full-trailer-shows-why-its-going-to-be-the-best-hi+tech-superhero-movie-ever

Who is playing Jim Rhodes? This looks cool but an Iron Man vs. War Machine angle seems kinda blah

When did we enter this parallel universe where people actually enjoy the work of Robert Downey, Jr.?

I thought he was really good in Zodiac, which I finally saw last night.

# Weird Science (1985) (as Robert Downey) .... Ian

23 years ago

s1ocki OTM

Who is playing Jim Rhodes? This looks cool but an Iron Man vs. War Machine angle seems kinda blah

I was hoping for Modok personally
http://www.darkever.com/Images/modok.gif

When did we enter this parallel universe where people actually enjoy the work of Robert Downey, Jr.?

rongest thing i've read today.

According to IMDb Ghostface appears in this. Not a surprise, I guess.

Ghostface Killah ... Dubai Tycoon

^^^good Wu alias, no?

Finally almost here.

(Though I'm seeing more Prince Caspian posters around here instead. Then again this is OC.)

the orange caspian.

i can't believe indiana jones is in like a month.

just missed going to a preview of this tonight :(

the voice liked this a lot!

very excited for 21+ screening tomorrow

going tonight. excited : )

very excited for 21+ screening tomorrow

Oh right, the X-rated cut.

Wait, you're sayingthey're turning that awesome Iron Man trailer into a full-length movie? Hope that doesn't ruin it for me.

seeing tonight.

please report back thanks

it was good. very... solid. good cast, some good LOLs, suit looked cool. it didn't blow my mind or anything but all-around, sure, thumbs up. downey was awes, terrence howard total scene stealer, liked gwyneth, bald beardo bridges was a good look. kinda racist i guess.

kinda racist i guess.

Carefully phrased.

well in the whole the-bad-guys-are-afghans-in-caves kinda way. and the way they try to make up for that is kinda pathetic.

afghans in caves are pretty much total bad guys though. ask a soviet.

RDJ finally got his wish, at least; he's finally on a slurpee cup. And a series of straws, if the last visit to 7-11 was any indication.

if you know what i mean ;-)

hollywood elsewhere seems to take a few hundred words to say the same thing as you s1ocki, but I prefer your version.

TAKE THAT WELLS.

surprised to see this get 3.5 stars in the Chicago Trib

everyone's going to see this though.

i thought it was great. had a great "comic book" feel to me, a solidly made film without straining for seriousness as much as batman begins did (which i also liked), it for the most part seemed really assured and light on its feet.

like slocki mentioned, i laughed a lot during this, but it was cheesy yukkity yuk setups like they tried in fantastic four, just really nice line deliveries and comic timing by downey and paltrow (who i usually don't like at all but here she seemed really sassy and charming, honestly i think this is her best performance in a film ever)....bridges was super badass...the CG was good without seeming intrusive, very transparent...

yeah overall a good summer flick in the best sense, good pacing, good action but didn't seem frantic or soulless like a lot of recent action flicks like transformers or the last two pirates flicks.

downey is a really great actor.

denby made a pretty good point that it was somewhat enraging to see a movie where afghans waterboard us citizens. talk about projection...

downey is a really great actor.

He is. Lots of nuance and emotion, without being cartoonishly over-the-top. He's very underrated, too, maybe because he's a former comedian (SNL alumni, I think) and because of his personal troubles.

so favreau pulled it off, all right. i'm pumped to see this now.

On Robert Downey, Jr

i think downey's stock has shot up like 1000% over the past couple years; i dont see him as underrated anymore really.

denby made a pretty good point that it was somewhat enraging to see a movie where afghans waterboard us citizens. talk about projection...

-- s1ocki, Thursday, 1 May 2008 16:07 (23 minutes ago) Link

i havent seen the movie or the denby piece but this just sounds like a somewhat cheap political statement, if anything? or a somewhat cheap attempt at making up for the potentially racist overtones you were talking about

no the cheap attempt at making up for it is the fuckin weeping grateful afghan villagers stuff which is roooooough.

this movie was a very great first act

also, hello snakes in a motherfuckin iron man /blog

He's very underrated, too, maybe because he's a former comedian (SNL alumni, I think) and because of his personal troubles

ugh (ugh, i think) ugh

this movie was fucking great

lmao this was tyte, fuk anyone who disagrees

i am pretty racist so i approved of all the racialist stuff too i guess

jeff bridges was totally jesse ventura (cf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm2weLS5gJ4 )

hell ya dude

also i like that they used the mandarin without calling him that... i kept hoping for fin fang foom :(

denby's whole paragraph concerning the war setting is some vile tripe to be honest. I mean sure his audience is fucking New Yorker subscribers but jesus christ

The war in Vietnam was heating up, and Stark brought his newly invented supertransistors to the battlefield, only to get captured and enslaved by Wong-Chu—a chubby Commie tyrant. One might blush at this memory of sinister Orientalist Cold War pop, but the updating of the material for “Iron Man” hasn’t made it any smarter... Stark is now showing off his advanced missiles to American forces in Afghanistan. He gets ambushed by a mysterious group of burning-eyed men who hang out in caves and scream in foreign tongues. They are never identified, though their leader, Raza (Faran Tahir), says that they want to conquer the world. In any case, the freelance fanatics, or whatever they are, waterboard Tony Stark, which, considering what some American interrogators and their surrogates have done to suspects recently, is enraging to watch. Such are the ways of pop: we cast our sins onto others. The complaint sounds a little wan, but it’s worth noting that, possibly, more Americans will see this dunderheaded fantasia on its opening weekend than have seen all the features and documentaries that have labored to show what’s happening in Iraq and on the home front.

oh really dave? good thing you're better than everyone, good for you

It's amazing that this will be a huge hit despite the casting of two middle-aged actors best known for awesome character performances. I couldn't believe there were kids in the audience listening to one of RDJ's patented verbal riffs (and not laughing too loudly either)

Not since True Lies have I seen a movie in which brown-skinned people in turbans die horrible deaths for no reason; but, wow, I could watch a six-hour movie with Jeff Bridges and RBJ trying to outdo each other in the weird smart-ass department.

also i like that they used the mandarin without calling him that...

OH SHIT I totally missed that!

oh my GODDD btw, i saw the trailer for the new hulk movie too... that shit is heinous lookin, some made-for-tnt straight to cable ass shit

also i loved the jim kramer cameo, and the stan lee cameo was the only good one thus far~

I enjoyed this, and enjoyed the little details, and all the sequel set-ups(shield, war machine, the mandarin, etc)

You can tell that gearheads worked on this movie. He has machine tools, the tank in his shop is properly secured, and his heart connects to whatever in his chest with three heavy gauge wires: one red, one black, and one white. Jarvis as english house computer.

Also, Rhodey's a colonel, right? Why's he sporting a major's rank insignia, then?

I missed Ghostface's cameo. I knew about the after-credits stinger, but not about the dialogue uttered.

Did anybody mention that Tom Morello did guitar work on this?

I really liked gwyneth paltrow in this. She's nice as a freckled ginger.

Jon Favreau did an okay job at direction. The only bit i couldn't follow was some of the later fight scenes, since we were sitting in the 2nd row and the handheld camera was thrashing around way too much to properly track.

Blue LEDS = futuristic technology. Just think, dude had a miniaturized version of Cyberman headsets.

This movie overused two of my least favorite action movie cliches: people frantically waiting for a computer loading bar to finish loading before x happens (this happened twice, I think) and the dreaded "talking villain" syndrome, which happened like five times.

I had a really hard time with the Afghanistan sequence. When it comes to film adaptations the DC universe has the advantage of being in a fictional setting (Gotham, Metropolis, etc) - the way this movie used real-life issues (war on terror, arms manufacturing, etc) and tried to solve them all with a "bigger stick" kind of bothered me. I know it's a fucking comic book and is not supposed to correlate with reality, but I definitely get Denby's point.

Downey and Bridges were great, Platrow was decent, but Howard looked bored a lot of the time.

Also, Rhodey's a colonel, right? Why's he sporting a major's rank insignia, then?

YOU SUCK AT LIFE. LTC.
WE SOMETIMES REFER TO THEM AS "TELEPHONE COLONELS"
whatever

i am pretty racist so i approved of all the racialist stuff too i guess

What a weird thing to admit to. Are you really racist or do you just act out on the internet to get attention?

Bridges will always be the dude to me - no mater what he's blowing up.

WE SOMETIMES REFER TO THEM AS "TELEPHONE COLONELS"

Well you learn something new every day then. lots of telephone bits for him to do this time, wasn't there, so it fits.

This film was a bit disappointing. I liked the opening acts, they captured Tony well as the playboy. The escape was good and building the first suit were good too.

There were some funny bits, and Downey was good, even Paltrow wasn't so bad.

However, once Tony was back in the USA, it just got boring, some guy tinkering with his armour, moral quandary blah blah. A not very thrilling thriller plot. Bog-standard end-of-level boss battle. It was too long.

They should have:

Used SHIELD properly, why not have Nick Fury in it? Get a proper villian, not just some bigger Iron Man, they did that in the first Hulk film, and that sucked.

Tron flashbacks with Bridges falling into the reactor thing and a huge blue-white light/power beam shooting up to the sky.

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ironman.htm

Already made US$200M worldwide in its first weekend alone, i would expect 2 sequels.

Good. Give Rhodey, SHIELD, and the Mandarin more to do next time.

Get a proper villian

iron man doesnt have any 'proper' villains! his most devastating enemies are;

i) heart disease
ii) alcoholism
iii) a dragon wearing pants

blaow

I do like that the first shot of Tony we see is a whiskey glass.

Bridges will always be the dude to me - no mater what he's blowing up.

Yeah, I had trouble buying him because of this too. Although it became increasingly funny to keep picturing him as the dude.

Where was ghost? I missed that entirely :(

"this movie was fucking great"

My husband said to picture the worst action movie I had seen and then multiply its crappiness by 10.

why did he say that

I don't trust people who don't speak american or at very least britishes

Who are you going to believe, your beloved ILX family or some guy you married?

I liked it a lot, though Batman Begins and The Incredibles still top it as far as superhero movies. RJD overcame a lot of my little disagreements through sheer charisma.

Just saw this, thought it was overall an excellent superhero movie. RDJ really carries the whole thing.

Used SHIELD properly, why not have Nick Fury in it?

heheheh

ending better be a setup for what will be involved in the sequel, or i'll be pissed.

So how many stayed for the end-credits sequel-set-up scene? (I did - though it was hadly worth it, though these things never are)(except in Ferris Beuller)

"why did he say that"

maybe not to make me feel bad cause i stayed home? ;-)

totally worth it

xpost

I am dumb so I still don't understand who the guy in the cave that built Stark's magnet-heart was. Was he actually just a fellow captive who decides to give his life to save Stark, or was there some backstory there and I missed a line? I know the guy mentioned having met Stark years earlier.

I think if this was 90 minutes it would have been totally awesome. But I felt like the building of the suit (twice!) took forever. It was still fun, though.

I liked the Stan Lee cameo.

Also, apparently Ghostface Killah cameoed in a scene where Stark briefly stays in Dubai while returning to Afghanistan, but it was cut for pacing reasons

what happened after the credits

I think if this was 90 minutes it would have been totally awesome. But I felt like the building of the suit (twice!) took forever. It was still fun, though.

agreed. bit too much of a slow burn.

shield director nick fury (played by sam jackson) waiting for tony stark in his house, bein all like "we want to talk to you about the avengers initiative"

Yeah, despite wanting to be ZOMG SO GREBT about this, I find myself more in line w/ s1ocki's cautious enjoyment. Maybe because of the final fight scene, and the come-down after the first 30 minutes of Tony Stark, Wise-Ass Playboy. But even w/ that in mind, I really enjoyed the flick, and am pulling for HYDRA / SHIELD nonsense galore (w/ more Clark Gregg, plz) in the sequel (tho if they do something like write in Dum Dum Dugan and get a gingerfied Jack Black to play him, I will attend under protest).

http://underworld.fortunecity.com/blood/201/marvel/mandarin004.JPG

Wow -- a link to a FortuneCity pic that doesn't work! That's a new one!

http://i25.tinypic.com/1zc1tf5.jpg

Wait, who was the Mandarin (in the movie, I mean)? My mostly-dc-reading ass missed that part.

I'm gonna guess "the Chinese guy" (haven't seen the movie yet)

so is the Black Sabbath song about this comic book I never heard of?

no

Every few years we get a massively overrated superhero movie. This summer, we might get four of them. Joy!

Oops, my apologies, that was meant for the gayz thread.

I don't remember a 'chinese guy.' The origin story was moved from indochina to afghanistan, so I don't see how the name could make much sense. On the other hand, I thought the same thing about 'The Manchurian Candidate' remake and...okay, the name didn't make much sense there either.

There was no "chinese guy" and no explicit mention of The Mandarin -- IIRC, the Afghan terrorist group that captured Stark was one of "ten rings" running around harassing families and torturing millionaires. I'm hoping they eschew the whole SUPER POWERED ALIEN RING shit if they do decide to make something of all that, tho I'm hoping they leave any possible Mandarin thing well enough alone.

Anyone desperate for a true Mandarin cinematic fix shd just rescreen Big Trouble In Little China.

OIC

Thanks, David. That (obviously) slipped by me. I don't know what I was expecting on that front. A guy with tiny orange superpowers maybe?

this movie was a very great first act
Yeh, this is my take as well. There was so much backstory, and such a little amount of story. I now expect the sequel to be the film I'd been hoping for. More whooshing about in suit, less building of suit pls.

I have to see it again and wait for the end of the end credits, damn!

Film two = Ultron and alcoholism.

WHY DO I NEVER LEARN JESUS GODFATHER 2 WAS SHORTER THAN THIS AT THE END I WAS NEARLY SCREAMING SHUT UP SHUT UP AT PALTROW

Someone needs a handjob.

And how.

Not bad. I love RDJ. But you know what this movie needed more of? FUCKING IRON MAN. It's the first movie I've seen for a while that I wish had had more action sequences than less.

I love RDJ.

Goddammit am I the only one who keeps reading those initials and imagining the Aphex Twin flying through the air with an insane grin on the helmet's face?

Actually I liked the suit-building and testing sequences far more than the final, too-obviously CGI mandatory boss battle. Especially the origin building the robot in the cave, which was my favorite part of the comics origin too ('cause god knows Iron Man's comic history/origin is already kinda weak, which they hilariously allude to several times in the movie).

But yeah, Downey is totally awesome in this, he makes it work. Fun movie, it's no SM2 or X2 but it gets the job done, entertainment-wise.

Ned- me too.

Boss Battle was pretty lame, but I don't know how a superhero franchise should handle that. Duh, superhero gonna live.

Would have liked Downey to spend even more time wisecracking.

I would have actually liked more building/developing/training montage bits, which is always the more interesting parts of these movies. Tony Stark drinking and fucking up various experiments in his lab while keeping up a continual stream of wisecracks is fun.

Iron Man 2 has a release date.

Was that Tom Morello? As one of the 'insurgents'? Did someone already mention that?

I really liked this movie!

NYT reports a Thor, Cap America, Ant Man(?!?!?) and Avengers movie in the next three years.

Was that Tom Morello? As one of the 'insurgents'? Did someone already mention that?

Dunno if they did but yep, that's him.

I went alone, so I had no one to mouth "Fuck yeah!" to. Not about Tom Morello, but the cool parts.

Fun movie, it's no SM2

I totally agree. Nothing beats SUPERMAN II.

Newsweek cover "Stark takes reigns at 21"!

All those credits and no room for a sub.

Lady: i saw iron man last night. amazing
me: i heart alky superheroes
Lady: it was very well done i thought
me: I'll likely see it soon.
Lady: i heart alkaline superheroes
me: AC/DC
Lady: black sabbath
me: "Now... I WILL PLUG INTO YOU IRON MAN"
Lady: hee
me: is there a lot of ironing in the movie?
Lady: tons
me: or did they leave that out?
because it's very important in the comic
Lady: what?
for reals?
me: yeah, he's constantly dry cleaning stuff
Lady: shut up
me: "It's my archenemy... TOO MUCH STARCH MAN"
"Fabric Softener Lad, save me!"
"can you escape... THE STEAMER?"
That's about all I got here.
Lady: have you run out of steam?
me: I C what U did there
it's like a lemon party
Lady: i know what you did last summer
a lemon party full of dumb puns?
me: no no.
just a lemon party, check it out
you'll love it
Lady: cool cool
me: it's your thing
Lady: ewwwwwwwwwwwwww
me: hahahaha
be thankful i didn't push you to tubgirl
and trust me, don't.
Lady: cant find it easily...
me: You're a tenacious woman; I'll certainly grant you that.

yeah thanks for sharing that forks

Zach Braff's gotta get his ideas from SOMEWHERE, a.w.

zach braff x william renkin

as always 'and what', your opinion and insight are very important to me.

lol sarcasm! go tell "Lady" about it, dog

lol petty obnoxiousness! Please get hardman on the ironman thread 'and what'; it'll make for extra laffs.

you need to learn to laugh off the zings, forksclovetofu. every time you protest a zing it zings you even deeper.

Sounds like a Minnie Ripperton song.

Simple Zings

"iron man," like "shit," is one of the few things I can think of that sounds wussier in german than in english

Ich Bin Eisenmensch na-na-na-na-na-na-na-naaa-naaa-naaaaaa!

or something

Folks, you haven't seen Black Sabbath in German until you've seen this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOAzuqngOYo

isn't there a german version of "wot" by captain sensible floating around somewhere

There is indeed. Can send it to you tonight if you need it.

Ah no, better yet:

http://berlinbattery.blogspot.com/2008/02/willem-wat-on-captain-sensible-wot.html

Assuming the link is still valid.

Yes, the song makes sense. He speaks as a worker at an airport that meets E.T. He can't believe it but it seems to be true. E.T. himself just wants one thing: phoning with his home...

Lady: i saw iron man last night. amazing
me: i heart alky superheroes
Lady: it was very well done i thought
me: I'll likely see it soon.
Lady: i heart alkaline superheroes
me: AC/DC
Lady: black sabbath
me: "Now... I WILL PLUG INTO YOU IRON MAN"
Lady: hee
me: is there a lot of ironing in the movie?
Lady: tons
me: or did they leave that out?
because it's very important in the comic
Lady: what?
for reals?
me: yeah, he's constantly dry cleaning stuff
Lady: shut up
me: "It's my archenemy... TOO MUCH STARCH MAN"
"Fabric Softener Lad, save me!"
"can you escape... THE STEAMER?"
That's about all I got here.
Lady: have you run out of steam?
me: I C what U did there
it's like a lemon party
Lady: i know what you did last summer
a lemon party full of dumb puns?
me: no no.
just a lemon party, check it out
you'll love it
Lady: cool cool
me: it's your thing
Lady: ewwwwwwwwwwwwww
me: hahahaha
be thankful i didn't push you to tubgirl
and trust me, don't.
Lady: cant find it easily...
me: You're a tenacious woman; I'll certainly grant you that.

http://www.popentertainment.com/dharmagreg.jpg

hahahaha

btw this movie rocked balls

can't have a lemon party without old dick...

Saw this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Perhaps, but only perhaps, a little long, but given all the ground that needed covering that's understandable. Downey Jr. MUCH better at the devil-may-care billionaire playboy charmer than Christian Bale as Batman, BUT Tony Stark is a much more genuine hedonist than Bruce Wayne.

dude! the missles from iron mans hands totally didnt go from front left thx speaker to far right thx (the audience is listening) speaker. i totally thought of you during that part! luv u xoxoXO

enjoyed this! but yeah, seemed like big-bad-guy plot and climactic battle got a bit short-shrifted for suit-testing. Which I didn't mind at all really since it was 90% RDJ bantering with robots. and i love that he apparently improvised the press conference on the floor scene.

Downey Jr. MUCH better at the devil-may-care billionaire playboy charmer than Christian Bale as Batman

in defense of bale, one of the things i really liked about the batman reboot is that it implies that 'playboy bruce' is much less comfortable character for wayne him than 'batman'

Saw it a week or so ago - lots of fun. Nonsensical to the point of stupidity in lots of easily-avoided ways, but that didn't bother me at all. Neither did the relative dearth of action scenes. Downey Jr. was wonderful in the part, clearly having a blast, an I was happy just to watch him, Paltrow & Bridges. Best cast ever in a superhero flick? Well, this side of Burton's 2nd Batman flick, anyway...

Did remind me that music is a terrible, terrible thing.

in defense of bale, one of the things i really liked about the batman reboot is that it implies that 'playboy bruce' is much less comfortable character for wayne him than 'batman'

OTM! Downey's Tony Stark is a charming louse, but Bale's Bruce Wayne is a superficial obnoxious jerk. My favorite scene in Begins is the party where he pretends to be drunk and annoy all of his partygoers out of the mansion, excellent use of the character.

Saw this last night. I think it was pretty enjoyable, though it probably would've been much worse with some other actor than Robert Downey Jr., who fit the role perfectly. Gwyneth Paltrow was surprisingly good too, I liked how the Mandatory Love Interest part wad given a bit of a twist. The biggest problem was, like some others have mentioned, that this film basically just the First Act or the Origin Story, and nothing more. We got to see the proper Iron Man in action only two times. And the final battle was nothing special, just a bigger robot for him to fight against.

Like in the Spider-Man movies there seemed to be a weird need to unmask the hero and his opponent for the final round, as if that would make it more dramatic (also, maybe the actors want their faces to show for that last important exchange of words). I thought Bridges and Downey just looked silly with their faces sticking out of the armor, just like Tobey McGuire looked silly with the Spider-Man suit on but no mask. Also, can someone explain why Iron Man didn't die when the reactor blew up, even though it destroyed Bridges' armor? One moment the Paltrow character was shouting "You're gonna die!" to Stark, but then she pressed the button anyway, and for some reason that killed only Bridges but not Stark. And what was the point of Stark revealing his identity in the end? It felt like the whole thing was just a setup for a joke, so he could say his last line and then the Black Sabbath song starts playing.

Anyway, like I said the movie was enjoyable, but it also showed the biggest weakness of adapting superhero comics for the big screen. Because in a comic book you can tell the origin story in one issue and then continue the character's adventures next month... But now that we had the origin story, we have to wait two years for a sequel, so the feeling I had after the movie ended was mostly like, "Was that all?". I guess me wanting more meant the movie was well made, but it also emphasized the problem of adapting superheroes with decades of continuity to a set of movies made once in two or three years.

is it public knowledge that stark is iron man in the comics?

I don't think so, though I haven't read them in ages.

As I understand it, the public believes Iron Man is Starks' bodyguard & something of a mascot for Starks Industries.

I tihnk it is right now, thanks to the Superhuman Registration Act.

he revealed his identity around 2002 but the writers managed to undo this shortly afterward. same thing happened with spider-man last year.

Yeah after the movie I found myself wondering if Starks Industries would just play it off as "lol Tony be crazy, such a joker that guy."

btw i hope you guys stayed for the post-credits scene

Man, I really enjoyed this movie but the climactic battle wasn't even as good as the one in Robocop 2.

that's just nitpicking though.

Speaking of RoboCop, IronMonger's voice reminded me a lot of ED-209, especially on the "Your services are no longer required" line (what with the gatling gun arm and all).

Downey Jr. MUCH better at the devil-may-care billionaire playboy charmer than Christian Bale as Batman

in defense of bale, one of the things i really liked about the batman reboot is that it implies that 'playboy bruce' is much less comfortable character for wayne him than 'batman'

OTM! Downey's Tony Stark is a charming louse, but Bale's Bruce Wayne is a superficial obnoxious jerk. My favorite scene in Begins is the party where he pretends to be drunk and annoy all of his partygoers out of the mansion, excellent use of the character.

Oh I wasn't criticising Bale at all! I didn't phrase that very well at all. Wayne's playboyishness is total smokescreen and does work well for the character; he and Stark are completely different. I think each actor is a perfect fit for the type of playboy the character is meant to be.

Agree with Tuomas re; having to wait for the next installment - I'm by no means a comic afficionado, but I do know the origins of most of the characters who've had films made of them over the last few years, and knowing that the first film in each franchise is basically going to be exposition is annoying a little.

LOVED THIS

anyone who read the cloverfield thread probably knows shit like this isn't my thing but every scene of him in his workroom was the coolest fucking thing ever

i don't know the history of the comic or anything, but if they strayed from the story w/ the war angle or the angle of this partner trying to kill him, then kudos to them for not turning it solely into a movie about robert downey saving america from his own weapons and shit

They stayed pretty true to the origin story I think, but telegraphed quite a bit of it - his partner going mental happened ages later in the comics, I think? And he was originally captured in Vietnam (pre Vietnam war, wasn't it?).

Iron Man debuted in 1963, when USA already had a major influence in the Vietnam war. It's been ages since I read the origin story, but if I remember correctly Stark was in Vietnam as part of the US military effort to test his weapons, so in that sense the movie is quite faithful to the comic origin.

hm ok

in any event this was pushed over the top (in a good way) for me for one because all the workroom scenes were just completely dazzling and secondly because everything seemed so real. the suit seemed nailed and bolted together instead of a slick cgi think. totally believable-- i guess this was helped by the fact that there were so many scenes of him building the thing piece by piece, but either way the realness of the whole thing was rly striking

also this movie was hilarious

I think Starks' conversion from a gun monger to a more pacifist type of fellow was more emphasized in the movie than in the original comic. In the comic the major character arc was that before Starks was a smug, selfish playboy, but getting captured in Vietnam, becoming permanently dependent on his Iron Man chest piece, and watching Yinsen sacrifice himself for him taught Starks some humility. Which of course is a big theme in the movie as well.

Jon Favreau, activist:

One Hollywood player who has taken up the cause is Favreau, the "Swingers" star whose stock as a director has soared now that "Iron Man" has pulled in more than $570 million worldwide. The 41-year-old actor-filmmaker, who is now developing an "Iron Man" sequel for a 2010 release, said that he has never envisioned himself as a political creature but that changed because this issue, literally, hits too close to home.

Favreau said that when he was about to shoot 2003's "Elf" for New Line Cinema, the studio decided at the last minute to move the production up to Vancouver, Canada. Favreau, who had a 1-year-old son with wife Joya and another baby on the way, was given the choice of packing his bags and heading up to British Columbia or losing the project he had been developing for two years. The move to Vancouver was prompted by government incentives there. Favreau has since added a clause to his contract that says his films will be shot in L.A., but he wants to go beyond that and work to keep other productions from leaving the state.

"When it's cheaper to film in Manhattan than here, it's pretty obvious it's reached a point where people who have resisted this should question some of their preconceptions," Favreau said. "For me, it's thinking about what's happening to this industry and also its historic importance here. When stars and filmmakers are looking at the real estate listings in New Mexico, you have to wonder why we are letting this happen. . . . Some people view these as handouts, but maybe it's time to look at the very simple, no-brainer logic of potential benefit to the California economy."

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-08/41706564.jpg

Downey more worthy of Best Actor consideration than some I could name (tho I really can't picture him as a sybaritic billionaire unless he's doing supermodels of both sexes). Scene with Paltrow doing his heart transplant is the best.

> Scene with Paltrow doing his heart transplant is the best.

Absolutely!

My thoughts at the time.

action sequences are just more alienating CGI-cartoon stuff, of course

I love this movie so much that I would buy RDJ a biscotti.

scene with bald Jeff Bridges on a Segway a close second

It's mean to do a teaser after a 7-minute end credit roll that promises nothing but Samuel goddamn Jackson, though.

it promises S.H.I.E.L.D.!

As a comic-book nerd who digs the better comic-book movies, I gotta let the world know I believe the rumored superteam movies (Avengers, Justice League) are point-missingly terrible ideas.

I'm amped about Avengers! But I've never read any Kirby....

Common ... Green Lantern / John Stewart (rumored)

If the Avengers build-up really results in the ridiculousness that is sure to come from the Kenneth Branagh-directed "Thor," I am all over it.

justice league would be really hard to pull off.

the Kenneth Branagh-directed "Thor,"

Wait, you're kidding. I hope.

Thor (2010) More at IMDbPro »
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Director:Kenneth Branagh

Writers:Jack Kirby (characters)
Stan Lee (characters)
more
Release Date:16 July 2010 (USA) more

I don't know if this or the Edgar Wright-helmed "Ant Man" is going to be better. In any case, I think we're ALL winners!

I honestly can't figure whether that'll be better or worse than his Frankenstein.

hmm I would be kinda curious to see Branagh do Thor, but as a huge Kirby fan I can't really see how it would succeed no matter who does it. As for the Avengers, they're not as Kirby-centric as, say, Fantastic Four or Thor or New Gods or whatever - there could be a whole bunch of ways to approach that.

It will still probably suck though.

I thought Iron Man was okay - RDJ was great, but as Morbz points out the action sequences were video-game snore inducers.

i would pay 10.00 to see that movie xp

the action sequences were video-game snore inducers

do you say this about all comic book hero adaptations?

lolz hardly

action sequences in the first two X-Men movies are fantastic, for example. I like the Nolan Batmans as well. And the (pre-CGI) Superman movies. And Batman Returns. Most of the rest have been fairly terrible (Spiderman, the Hulk, Daredevil, the FF movies, etc)

Ock kidnapping MJ was pretty good, as I recall.

Also Nu-Gobz ambushing Spidey (although that was surely the only redeeming moment in that morass.)

But the dancing.

lol the dancing

I love Gene Kelly as much as the next straight dude, but Spiderboogie=fuck this shit.

Ock kidnapping MJ was pretty good, as I recall

I'll grant that's a good scene. On the whole, I didn't really like any of the Spiderman movies though. Have always felt Toby Maguire was terrible casting.

This was really great, on track to be the best superhero movie ever, until they had to start fighting, and then it got incredibly boring and stupid. Stane just didn't work at all as a threat or as a villain - was super interesting twenty minutes earlier. A big disappointment because other than that I thought the tone was really interesting. The thing was really well-done too, just in terms of sets, colors, all of that pretty stuff.

On the more troubling end of things...I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this (might even be on old posts on this thread, I am sleepy and lazy), but it struck me that there's a kind of Rambo-esque effort here to re-script the Iraq war as something people can feel good about. Despite all the "our weapons are being used to kill our soldiers" stuff, in the end Iron Man gets to turn the tables, swoop in, and save the delighted Iraqi people who greet him as a liberator. Note that unlike the actual Iraq war, he prompts the locals to start killing each other AND THEN LEAVES IMMEDIATELY, ensuring that the continuing cycle of violence is something the audience doesn't have to worry about.

yeah, looks like it got covered! Good ol' ILX.

Rambo-esque effort here to re-script the Iraq war as something people can feel good about. Despite all the "our weapons are being used to kill our soldiers" stuff, in the end Iron Man gets to turn the tables, swoop in, and save the delighted Iraqi people who greet him as a liberator.

yeah this really REALLY bothered me

That was Afghanistan, not Iraq.

sometimes a pencil is not just a pencil, Dan

xp: anticipated Obama re-quagmire

But sometimes a movie is just a movie, no matter how little attention you pay to it while whipping yourself up into a frenzy over something imaginary.

"something imaginary" is too far, probably, but still if you can't handle summer blockbusters based on comic books giving glossed-over presentations of complicated, real-life situations, you should probably avoid them

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/mengblom/commie/03_electro.jpg

If comic book adaptations are dealing with complicated, real-life situations, then they shouldn't be half-assed about the politics.

Dark Knight did a pretty good job of dealing with its political implications (so did the first two X-Men movies) - I think it is possible within the confines of the genre.

It absolutely is but it is not a requirement; not every story has to be "deep" or "correct".

Whatever Jon Favreau's strengths I do not expect him to bring incisive ideological clarity to the table.

(and for the record I like all 3 of the movies Shakey mentioned more than I like "Iron Man", largely because of the follow-through he's talking about)

Having an arms dealer who 'reforms' as your hero implies either ambitions for depth or a cheap pass at significance.

btw great last line, somewhat ruined by Sam Jackson epilogue.

if you can't deal with people interpreting a movie as reflecting the culture it was created in, maybe you shouldn't read message boards!

Oddly, though I thought The Dark Knight's politics were confused to the extent they weren't appalling, nothing bothered me about Iron Man's treatment of the Iraq war. I get what Dr. Casino is saying, but the "liberation" element seemed trivial, a momentary distraction in a film that mostly concerned itself with the hypocrisy and secrecy of the military-industrial complex. Not that this was a political film in any substantial sense (I'd say DK was).

Still prefer Iron Man to The Dark Nought.

i thought that iron man was really really weak in that respect actually, like who were the bad guys, really? beyond a bunch of arabs who just wanted to blow everything up? i felt like it wanted to have the significance of real-world implications but didn't have the balls to be any more specific than "arab bad guys"

i see what you did there alfred - clever

Having an arms dealer who 'reforms' as your hero implies either ambitions for depth or a cheap pass at significance.

Or it implies that you read and understood the basic concept behind the source material...?

i thought that iron man was really really weak in that respect actually, like who were the bad guys, really? beyond a bunch of arabs who just wanted to blow everything up? i felt like it wanted to have the significance of real-world implications but didn't have the balls to be any more specific than "arab bad guys"

I thought that was the point of the movie; the bad guys weren't so much the people using the weapons as the people making them.

ya, for sure, but i still had of a bit of a hard time getting past the generic arab baddies

i wish dark knight was 1 hr shorter :(

Yeah from Iron Man I got this icky sense of MORALLY CONFLICTED AMERICA vs. NIHILISTIC BROWN MEN & THEIR WHITE ENABLERS

Never trust a man with a Biblical first name.

ya that was the other thing - they didn't even have any agency... it was weird

Like honestly I walked away from the movie thinking it was a DLC Wet Dream

oversimplolfying but u kno

lol of all movies out there I think this is one where it's okay to oversimplify

Exploitation of Arab baddies was troubling, but again, they seemed to go out of their way to make them apolitical, non-denominational "international criminal" types. I.e., indicting the culture of arms merchantry rather than any particular groop of end users. That's a half-hearted defense, though. Treatement of Arabic peoples was wishy-washy at best. Still didn't bug me much. Dunno why. Perhaps it was just that the film was so good-naturedly trivial overall.

god, Iron Man really is some kind of magic eye poster that fans project whatever they want to see onto

ART CAN BE INTERPRETED

NEWS AT 11

"I Am...Sasha Man?: Agency and Reinterpretability in the Context of Beyonce's 'Stark' Reclamation of a Sound."

Having an arms dealer who 'reforms' as your hero implies either ambitions for depth or a cheap pass at significance.

Or it implies that you read and understood the basic concept behind the source material...?

lol zing Dan OTM

OTM for geeks amirite (never heard of the comic)

I am much more than reasonably certain that more than just geeks have heard of Iron Man, Captain Caveman.

Shakey OTM. Given that Iron Man is about an arms manufacturer, and America is a nation at way, and there's no way around any of that, I thought the film did a fairly decent job of engaging with and even critiquing the premise without sabotaging it.

"at war"

OTM for geeks amirite (never heard of the comic)

OK what? I mean, Iron Man is hardly some obscure indie publisher comic title. It's been around for, what, 40 years?

since '63. Dan hasn't seen Double Indemnity, you know.

I did know it existed!

well, I might've heard of the comic if I didn't seal myself in my room to watch Bergman films at 13.

"watch Bergman films"

on your Beta player?

New Jersey public TV, toots

(1 Corinthians 13:11)

yeah I don't watch Bergman anymore either

Still prefer Iron Man to The Dark Nought.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, January 9, 2009 12:24 PM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

its actually "the dark knight"

it is?

alfred's trying to get into the morbius tribute thread

Don't think this has been mentioned?
Mickey Rourke sizes up 'Iron Man 2'

had a really strong desire for a whopper after watching this

followed by a couple of hours playing the avengers arcade game

AMERICA STILL NEEDS YOUR HELP!
---> > > INSERT COIN < < <---

This was good. not *amazing* but good. As much as I do not like RDJ, his performance (and some nice, tight directing choices) made the film. Otherwise, it had some extremely generic elements, touched off with a little flair that relly elevated the movie. I like how they got around the problem of having RDJ encased in Iron by having those shots of him inside the suit, but what a deeply strange way to shoot a movie star! I was certainly never bored. Thanks ILX, now I will report back on the other action movies you told me to see.

figured this revive would be you alright