Yeah, yeah. It's not directly related to the Church, but I have to mix things up every once and a while. Besides, comic books are probably the most advanced theological treatises out there considering that all the wacky problems posed by theologians really don't get played out in any other genre on such a regular basis.
I was convinced this movie would suck and that much of the suckage would be due to the casting.
I was wrong. This movie was very good and much of it was due to the casting. Downey played Stark quite well (though Tony was never this big an a-hole till he got hooked on the booze). I must also give a huge tip of the hat to Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane. This is the second Bridges movie that I have actually enjoyed. The first, of course, was Starman, but that was during Carpenter's infallible streak, so it's tough to know how much credit Bridges deserved there.
Favreau managed the dialogue here in marvelous fashion. Just when I thought it was about to veer into full-blown Swingers territory, he pulled back and reset things back into actual plot.
A few items: There were many very nice homages and revamps in this. The Mandarin and the "Ten Rings" were innovative takes I thought. The initial suit served as a nice shout out to Ultron fans, and we even got a tease for Rhodey's future out of it.
Jarvis- what a neat concept.
The story was a good meshing of the real origin, Stane's play for Stark International, and a bit of the Armor Wars thrown in for good measure. I thought the post-credits bit was freaking awesome. While I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, there is at least one gaping plot hole that I won't mention but just made the movie look sloppy at a rather crucial juncture.
I am very disappointed that my kids will have to wait for the DVD so that I can "edit" a couple of scenes. The stuff with the reporter and the stewardesses was completely uncalled for and seemed an almost deliberate insertion to prevent it from being too "kid-friendly." If you want to show that Stark is a womanizer, take the Batman Begins route and just show him out with some women and acting like a jerk. There was no need for those scenes in Iron Man.
Finally, my recommendations. The best run on Iron Man was that of Micheline and Layton, which includes the above-mentioned Armor Wars story. Go buy it now and enjoy. It is very much an insight into Tony's personality and why his hunger for redemption never really goes away. I will admit that I've always like Tony more in a team setting (Avengers) because it really drives home the Pelagian/Semi-Pelagian aspects of his book and character. He'll never be perfected like, say, Steve because Tony has attempted to reach that perfection by his own efforts and therefore is bound up in his ego and need to be self-reliant and in control. Steve is the opposite. He is who he is because of a gift (ironically granted by the sacrifice of his creator's life) and, as a result, he is not susceptible to the flaws I just mentioned.
Anyways, both the movie and the book are worth checking out.
I was convinced this movie would suck and that much of the suckage would be due to the casting.
I was wrong. This movie was very good and much of it was due to the casting. Downey played Stark quite well (though Tony was never this big an a-hole till he got hooked on the booze). I must also give a huge tip of the hat to Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane. This is the second Bridges movie that I have actually enjoyed. The first, of course, was Starman, but that was during Carpenter's infallible streak, so it's tough to know how much credit Bridges deserved there.
Favreau managed the dialogue here in marvelous fashion. Just when I thought it was about to veer into full-blown Swingers territory, he pulled back and reset things back into actual plot.
A few items: There were many very nice homages and revamps in this. The Mandarin and the "Ten Rings" were innovative takes I thought. The initial suit served as a nice shout out to Ultron fans, and we even got a tease for Rhodey's future out of it.
Jarvis- what a neat concept.
The story was a good meshing of the real origin, Stane's play for Stark International, and a bit of the Armor Wars thrown in for good measure. I thought the post-credits bit was freaking awesome. While I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, there is at least one gaping plot hole that I won't mention but just made the movie look sloppy at a rather crucial juncture.
I am very disappointed that my kids will have to wait for the DVD so that I can "edit" a couple of scenes. The stuff with the reporter and the stewardesses was completely uncalled for and seemed an almost deliberate insertion to prevent it from being too "kid-friendly." If you want to show that Stark is a womanizer, take the Batman Begins route and just show him out with some women and acting like a jerk. There was no need for those scenes in Iron Man.
Finally, my recommendations. The best run on Iron Man was that of Micheline and Layton, which includes the above-mentioned Armor Wars story. Go buy it now and enjoy. It is very much an insight into Tony's personality and why his hunger for redemption never really goes away. I will admit that I've always like Tony more in a team setting (Avengers) because it really drives home the Pelagian/Semi-Pelagian aspects of his book and character. He'll never be perfected like, say, Steve because Tony has attempted to reach that perfection by his own efforts and therefore is bound up in his ego and need to be self-reliant and in control. Steve is the opposite. He is who he is because of a gift (ironically granted by the sacrifice of his creator's life) and, as a result, he is not susceptible to the flaws I just mentioned.
Anyways, both the movie and the book are worth checking out.
1 comment:
i think this would be a perfect time to resurrect (ding!) your previous discussion on superheroes and what denominations they would probably be.
well done on the art and ads, btw. coming along quickly, now!
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