And it seems that the summer months are all about entertainment, which may or may not be a good thing. When I sit and see movies like “Transformers 2,” it seems like the decline of Western civilization is right in our faces. We have the same characters, explosions, thin waistlines (I don’t know many who look like my movies stars, really, outside of my own husOtter who poses like a soap actor when he sleeps…but that’s for the other blog), and noise. The concept of ‘entertain’ is piled high without real thought about the audience and it becomes something of a mess. The result? Earaches and a feeling like you’ve just eaten a bowl of rice: full for now but wanting more in an hour or two more.
Paramount rushed the summer gates with the first Iron Man movie, releasing it bright and early in May. This gave me the sense that they weren’t sure what to do with the movie. They knew the fanboys would flock to get a front row seat, but weren’t sure about the non-comic book crowd. DC’s comic book universe has been around so long it’s been absorbed into popular consciousness. Everyone knows Batman’s Bruce Wayne and Superman’s Clark Kent like they know Las Vegas is in Nevada and that Washington is full of idiots. But Iron Man?
Not so much.
The movie burst onto the screen and began something very new in the superhero worlds—a movie that had marvelous actors actually doing something. The writing was quick and direct, the special effects were appropriate. It even worked on the enlightenment issue, showing us that technology is now at such a level that it can help us but also limits us. We’ve been on a kick these days, celebrating every iPad and Windows 7 we can get our hands on.
But what happens when the power goes off? And the movie tagged that idea, by making a movie that anyone could watch.
It was heady stuff for what many see as a kiddie movie. There’s still this thought that comic books are the stuff of teenagers. Perhaps there is a truth to that. But the fact is, the comic book universe is a multifaceted concept not unlike a soap opera with very large biceps and chests. The complicated story plots on those printed pages suggest that you really have to pay attention, and it pulls the audience up just a bit farther than teenage boys.
Couple that with the fact that comic books’ second old age of the 80’s—those ‘teens’ are now running Hollywood. And they really put a lot of thought into those titles, almost as if the superhero movies of today are love letters from their high school years.
I’ve not reviewed the movie yet and there’s a reason for that, a reason I had to preface here, I’m afraid. You probably know that I’m out of the comic book closet with my recent review of Kick-Ass. So you’ll probably think I’m going to like Iron Man 2, by mere fact that I’m addicted to these kinds of flicks.
But the fact here is that there’s something going on up there on the big screen in this movie sequel that I want you guys to understand. Iron Man 2 is a good movie, plain and simple. The story slogs a bit as you watch it, however, because, well, those fanboys who wrote the movie seem to be a bit full of themselves. They want to milk and add as much stuff to keep those fanboys using their disposable income on large popcorns and midnight showings. And the average viewer might be a bit turned away.
I do believe, however, that there is a message lying underneath, and it’s a message that has more viable themes for the average viewer. There’s a message about the slow killing machines do to us and how our reliance on the world of the mechanical isolates us. Tony Stark as played by Robert Downey started a romance his famed Pepper Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow (look! Someone not suffering from winning an Oscar!). But here…he keeps her at arms’ length. His life with the battlesuit that he built in the first movie and is slowly saving the world means he’ll be in danger and he doesn’t want to hurt her. Do you see the metaphor I’m getting at?
It’s invigorating stuff and it burdens the picture. But it makes sense. Sequels are supposed to carry us somewhere. And Iron Man does. I really felt that the characters were different by the end of the picture, the sign that the movie sequel works. It may not be great, but I think it is above adequate.
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