Tag Archive for 'Iron Man'

[Well-rendered riff goes here]

Published
by
Colm
on 1 May, 2008
in Films & TV
. 8 Comments

ohmygodgtaissomuchfun ok ok, to the matter at hand: Last night, thanks to the independently adjudicated generosity of one David Maybury, I was at the movies.ie preview of Iron Man. Capsule review: very cool.

It occurred to me yesterday that Iron Man is essentially the Marvel Batman: no superpowers to speak of, but he gets by on his ingenuity, determination and fabulous wealth. I can imagine Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne being drinking buddies. Or at least, I can imagine Robery Downey Jr and Christian Bale being drinking buddies. That is a cocktail party I would gladly attend.

Anyway… my point is, Iron Man is a hero I can get behind.

As everyone assumably knows by now, RDJ makes a perfect Tony Stark. Some people, myself included, worried that the eventual transformation into Iron Man and the attendant action extravaganziaaa would take away from the charming brilliance of the character as seen in the trailer. This is not remotely the case. If you’re sceptical… well, just wait until you see the amazing comedy double act that is Robert Downey Jr and a fire extinguisher.

Where it succeeds most of all is in its subtlety. The Spiderman and X-Men films beat you over the head with spectacle and hammy emotion, but this is much more finely tuned. There’s just the right amount of (very well shot and choreographed) action and just the right amount of character development. The film is aware of the wider Iron Man/Marvel mythology, but it brings it in gradually and realistically rather than just throwing in some nudge-wink moments. And in a supremely tasteful move, it puts the insert sequel here moment at least twenty minutes from the end.

Finally: watch out for the Stan Lee cameo. It’s a good one.

Things will be different

Published
by
Colm
on 28 April, 2008
in Games
. 5 Comments

Lost is back on tonight, which is good times for all concerned, and with any luck I’ll be seeing Iron Man on Wednesday. Nordiebuddies will be around come week’s end and there’s a bank holiday to look forward to. And to occupy every other waking hour, there is Grand Theft Auto IV.

I don’t know if it’ll slow down the blogging – after all, eight hours in work don’t fill themselves – but there’s a significant chance it will take over the output. I’ll try to avoid it, sure, I’ll try to be interesting, but I can’t guarantee it. I don’t know… somewhere in the code of a GTA game there’s a sequence of numbers that sinks into your brain, takes over your neural pathways and leaves you unable to talk or think about anything else until you’ve slogged your way through*.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. The release of the last GTA game heralded a month-long era of universal brotherhood, where you could approach practically any stranger on the street and, with a simple enquiry (“So, what mission are you on?”), form a lifelong bond. It was rather beautiful.

This is me out for the moment, then. I’m off home to freeze myself until I can come back into town and buy the game. Gentlemen: see you on the other side.

*The affliction seems to have some tie to the Y chromosome, which is fortunate since it leaves roughly half the population functioning well enough to keep things ticking over.