[05/09/2013]
I decided yesterday to go
take my niece out to an early showing of “Iron Man 3” in 3-D. Despite not
being a fan of 3-D, I thought of just being a treat not just for me but my
niece as well. She actually met one of her school friends at the theater
and talked for a bit – that was nice. Also, I did not have a good
week myself, fighting a head cold and dealing with the depressing weather
currently going on. I needed to get out and just enjoy something
for once for two plus hours.
That type of attitude is what
I think is best when watching this film – just watch and enjoy. “Iron Man
3” is the first of the Spring-Summer films, and that is what it is – a summer
film. If you are wanting to have a movie deep in character and
complex in story, then this is not the film for you. Don’t expect it to
be in caliber as The Avengers – you will be disappointed. As what this
has been advertised by the first Marvel-Disney movie made after “The Avengers”,
this is a follow up of Tony Stark and how he is handling the events of “The
Avengers”. Like some other reviewers have mentioned, there is a part near the
end of the film where a lot of hard-core Iron Man might disagree.
Personally I don’t mind or don’t care, because I’m not a die-hard Iron Man
fan. The only thing is how this will fit into the next Avengers film.
Bits of the plot has been
copied from “The Dark Knight Rises”, whereby the hero Tony Stark is having
doubts about his position as a superhero and now has to deal with something
from his past. Besides that the movie has some humor. But the movie
is very “comic book”-y – a term that is being used a lot. Let me explain
below.
Comic Book-y
What was great about the
first “Iron Man” and the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy were character driven
movies in a comic book genre. In the first “Iron Man”, we see the
evolution of Tony Start – a selfish and egotistical billionaire (due to his
circumstances) changes to a more selfless and caring individual who uses
his Intellect and company to benefit others. The same went with the
Nolan trilogy, where we see the story character arch of Bruce Wayne.
A “comic book”-y film is pretty much the 21st century
version of the 1960’s Batman shows – POW! BAM! BOOM!
“Iron Man 3” falls in the “comic book”-y category.
This is just a fun two hour
carnival ride to enjoy, just like it was for my niece. It was a nice
follow up to The Avengers. Like before, make sure to see
an ending where Tony Stark is conversing with another colleague.
However, I think that in five
or ten years from now, no one will remember much of this movie. Right now, Marvel’s Avengers
did so high that any other movie related to Avengers will naturally be
sub-standard. I feel Thor 2 is going to be like this.
For Marvel, my anticipation
is “The Wolverine” – a potential to do Wolverine right.
Marvel vs. DC: Movie
adaptations
If I go further, I see that
this is the difference between Marvel and DC Comics movie adaptations.
Despite Marvel now being very popular in mass and claims to be more relevant
and realistic to viewers (i.e. “everyone is like Peter Parker” or
“discrimination as shown in the X-Men”), Marvel I believe is more “comic
book”-y than DC Comics. Any time a movie adaptation of a DC character is
produced similar to the Marvel comic book style like a Marvel comic book movie,
they fail miserably by the masses: Cat-Woman, Green Lantern, Batman
and Robin. Vertical comics, a branch of DC Comics, deal with more
substantive comic book adaptations: V for Vendetta, The Watchmen, and
Constantine. Christopher Nolan – the savior of DC Comic movies –
did excellent in replacing the George Clooney Batman with a more substantive
version with gravitas. Now working with director Zack Snyder, Nolan is
trying to do the same with Superman. Even my cousin Charles mentions how
great a character Hal Jordan is in the comic books, having a gravitas similar
that to Batman and Superman. They just was never exploited properly in
movie adaptation. Princess Diane (Wonder Woman), Superman, Hawk-man /
Hawk-girl, and Martian Manhunter are basically gods trying to help mankind.
Then there are those individual men who do extra-ordinary things:
Batman, Green Arrow, Hal Jordan, and the Flash. If the “Man
of Steel” is what I think it’s going to be, more gravitas than “comic book”-y,
then that might potentially be the movie of the year.
Marvel and DC are like Paul
McCartney and John Lennon in respects. Paul McCartney is very popular and
has made a lot of hits in his solo career – compared to John Lennon.
However more people enjoy
John Lennon’s music, not because of his hits but that he actually has something
to say – some gravitas. Marvel will have the hits,
but will they have classics that will last the test of time?
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