Boy I tell you what. When you work 12 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, things like blogs tend to fall by the wayside. I love writing these, but with work and a new house to keep up with, I'm finding myself stuck choosing between the blog and family. As you can tell, I have been choosing family more often. When your 4 year old princess curls up in your arms and says she misses you, or your beautiful wife puts your arm around her and says she's glad you're home, you discover what's important in life. No one ever said, while on their deathbed, "My only regret is that I didn't work enough Saturdays." or "I wish I could have written more blog posts." That said, I really hope things slow down a little, because I love writing this stuff. Not to mention the encouragement I get from you guys. Thank you guys so much!
Ok, on with the show...
Iron Man 3 (PG-13) (Action/Adventure)
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwenith Paltrow, and Ben Kingsley
Overview - Following his heroism in Marvel's "The Avengers", Tony Stark returns home to try to get things back to normal. But when you have faced death, normal is not so easily achieved. Especially when you turn on the TV and see a psychotic terrorist who is not only murdering innocent women and children, but calling you out by name.
Review - My brother in-law saw this movie 2 weeks before I did. He texted me and said "This movie proves you CAN have a successful one-man super hero movie following 'The Avengers'". After seeing it myself, I have to agree. This movie came back with a vengeance, following the lousy attempt at movie-making by Jon Favraeu (director of the first 2 Iron Man films) when he made "Iron Man 2". He humbly turned the reigns over to Shane Black, a fairly new director. He directed Robert Downer Jr. in the 2005 film "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang". He has written for several big movies, but this is only his 2nd time in the director's chair. And I have to say that he knocked it out of the park with this one. Sure the villain was a tad overdone, and sure there was some needless plot points that made you scratch your head, but what movie exists that does not contain contextual errors? What I like most about this film is we watch Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) be pushed up against a wall, backed into a corner, and kicked while he is down, but he can not just call his super friends. Ha can't just shoot someone with a gun. He is forced to THINK his way out of danger. The Iron Man suit is more of a shield and a tool, than a big "beat up bad guys" device.
Now, Robert Downey Jr. crashed and burned several years ago and re-emerged in 2008 when he practically begged Jon Favraeu to let him audition for the role of Iron Man. Since then he has really raised the bar on 2 of my favorite characters, Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes (Though I do think that Benedict Cumberbatch portrays Holmes much better than Downey Jr. in the hit BBC show "Sherlock" with Martin Freeman as Watson). In an interview, after "Iron Man 2" came out, Robert Downey Jr. said that if he could simply play Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes for the rest of his career, he would be ok with that. He said he loves the characters, and genuinely has fun with the films. This statement alone makes me like him 10 times more. They did a lot of fun things with his character in this installment. The most unique thing, I think, is that Tony Stark is struggling with PTSD from his near death experience in "The Avengers". I thought it was a really unusual twist on his normal cool demeanor. Plus it made him seem like less of a douche bag. They annoyed me a little with the whole "Run into a little kid that's going to help me find my way back to reality" cliche'. However, they picked a kid who was really fit for the role, and doesn't come off all cheesy and.....well....like a dorky 12 year old pretending to make life-changing statements. There is some great banter between Stark and the kid, and I was forced to retract my complaint.
Let's touch on some of the other stars. Gwenith Paltrow.....she's in it. Ok, Ben Kingsley. This guys really intrigues me. He has had a host of characters over his acting career that really catch your attention. He was the head doctor in "Shutter Island", a near psychopath in "Sexy Beast", an amateur film maker in "Hugo", the list goes on. He's an incredible talent, and when you get him going he can bring you to the point of peeing your pants from belly laughter. So, the fact that he is listed as the villain in this movie really tickled me in my soul of souls. If nothing else, you should watch it for his role, because he will split a side or two. There are also a couple others in this movie I want to mention. Guy Peirce, for instance, is a rare talent. The guy can do pretty much anything you ask him to, but he's not in a crazy amount of movies. So, either he's really picky about his roles, or he's a complete dick. My money is on the latter (Yes, that's judging. Oh dear). Another actress that pops up in this one is a woman who is commonly overlooked and I really wish they would cast her more often. Her name is Rebecca Hall, and she's great. She was in "The Town", "The Prestige", "The Awakening"......she likes films with THE in the title, apparently. But I am stoked to see what she has in store for us down the road.
The crew so much fun making "Iron Man 3" that the original cut of the movie was over 3 hours and 15 minutes long. They had to make a lot of painful cuts to get it down to 2 hours. Heck, I say go for the 3 hour film. Can you say "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Extended Edition)"? Good Lord! That's got to be around 12 hours of footage. Something I thought was really cool was that Robert Downey Jr. pushed hard for Gwenith Paltrow to have more action sequences in this film. He said, "I think people are getting tired of the whole 'damsel in distress' bit. Let's get them to question if she's the damsel or the savior." I also love when they use props instead of graphics. The crew shot the scene of Tony Stark mansion being blown to bits in a giant sound stage in North Carolina. They built the house on a moving ball that could rotate the entire structure 45*. I love when they do that (they did something very similar in "Inception"). If you go back to movies like "Star Wars" and "Jurassic Park" and watch some of the action sequences, the fact that they did not have the technological capability for CGI actually helps the scene. When you make dang near everything a digital projection, you lose a lot of depth of the story. Not to mention the scene. Speaking of ruining scenes, you will be thrilled to know that Samuel L. Jackson does NOT make a cameo in this film. Praise Jesus!
Overall I was very happy with this movie. I will definitely buy it on Bluray. Anyone who likes a good action/comedy with enjoy this film. I give it a 4.5 out of 5. There are MAYBE 10 movies in the world I think achieve a full 5 out of 5, but this one comes close. It's a ton of fun.
Questions, comments? Email me at entertaindave@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @entertaindave
Keep an eye out for my YouTube Channel. I am hoping to write and direct some short films, both funny and serious. As well as capture some of the pseudo "Who's Line is it Anyway" skits I have been in at my Church.
No comments:
Post a Comment