While running errands yesterday I took some time and saw the new movie Ironman.
Great special effects and, remarkably, very funny at moments. The people in the theatre were LOL at times (see how I worked that LOL in there for the younger crowd?).
There was a reference to SHIELD, suggesting a future movie as well as various embedded suggestions that there will be a sequel. Yah, I, know, "BIG surprise! Great insight there, Father!" Still, I rather hope this will get a sequel!
I am rather disturbed about I trend in movies these days. Aren’t there a lot of remakes? Has something happened to creativy?
Special effects are simply incredible these days.
I wonder if the effects, and the amazing graphics in video games, will start to twist people’s minds, distort their understanding of what is real?
That aside, the movie was a hoot!
We all know that the world is divided into various camps, e.g., AL v NL people, cat v dog people, t-paper roll front-wise installers v back-wise, PC users v Mac users, WDTPRSers v everyone else, and DC v Marvel.
I wasn’t a Marvel Comic kid when growing up, but this is great comicbook fun.
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Saw it as well Father! I really liked it, and it is indeed set up perfect for a sequel, or 5… haha.
Haha, I was going to see it this weekend. Now with another opinion that says it was good I will definitely have to go. Thanks for the review Father!
Ut unum sint. Oh that DC and Marvel readers may be one. That we could breath with both lungs of the comic book industry.
So far this movie has Rotten Tomatoes highest review rating ever for a superhero movie.
There used to be Marvel comics on TV. One comic character per night. IIRC they were (in no particular order)
Spiderman
Hulk
Submariner
Ironman
Thor
I was a big fan of Thor.
Great movie. I’m a big Jeff Bridges fan, and he did a great job in his role. Downey was a real surprise in a very good way, as was Gwnneth Paltrow. I think Downey has hit gold here finally.
Doesn’t Tony Stark eventually die in the comics? (Alcoholism related, I think?)
As far as comic books coming to life, the biggest disappointment for me was the Silver Surfer movie with the less-than-Fantastic Four. I sincerely hope they do another movie with him in it…as the star, instead of some “fly on” part.
Hawkeye was another fav…
They had some preview trailers for the Hulk. Looks like all new actors are involved. Some of the special effects look pretty good. Ultimately, though, it’s always “Hulk smash this…Hulk smash that!”
Gordo
Gordo
I adore any movie made from a comic book although my hubby isn’t so keen. You’re right. There have been many, many remakes over the past ten years (at least). The special effects have amazed me, too. My favorite is the whole “Lord of the Rings” series. Just stunning!
As for movies, I lament the nuanced films of the 30’s & 40’s. Love Frank Capra. One of the gems we recently watched was “I’ll See You In My Dreams”, the life story of songwriter Gus Kahn, with Danny Thomas and Doris Day. It’s a charmer.
There is creativity out there. But many “indie” flicks strike me as depressing. I just don’t have enough time to explore the better ones! (another good one: “Once” Outstanding alternative/folk music and a good redemptive storyline.)
I hope everyone stayed through the end of the credits. There was a final scene, and the comic book geek in me was very excited for it. Especially since that character was literally created in that actor’s likeness in the Ultimate universe. Perfect casting…
Gordo, Tony Stark is not dead in the comics. In fact, he’s taken on a much bigger role in the past couple years. He and Captain America re-formed the Avengers after the team split up in Avengers Disassembled. He was a driving force behind the Super-Human Registration act (requiring all super-powered people to register their identities with the government and work under government control) and led the pro-registration side in the super hero civil war. Following Civil War, and with Nick Fury’s absence, he’s been named Director of SHIELD and is pretty much running the Marvel Universe now. I expect big things to happen with him against the skrulls in this summer’s Secret Invasion.
I come off looking way too geeky after this. I’m going to go stand in the corner and hang my head in shame now. :-)
Uh, I hate “LOL”
Please. LOL is soooo 6th grade. :)
D.C. versus Marvel? No, both are irrelevant. There is only Tintin. All American comics are bad. Tinton makes them all look so bad.
I suppose that there is a Tintin vs. Asterix opposition. Tintin wins hands down.
The greatest film of the year will be, of course, Prince Caspian. I’m a big Narnia fan. Read the books under the covers with a flashlight when I was a tad younger (okay, I still do). From the first film, I still really like little Georgie Henley as Lucy, especially when she discovers Narnia for the first time. I’m also a real fan of Wm. Moseley as Peter. He seems to project innocence and earnestness to a remarkable degree (given his age), and the boy who played Edmund (Skander Keynes) shows real promise as a budding new actor. By the way, he’s Maronite (as is his mother). The witch (Tilda Swinton) was superb in the first film. I’ve heard that they plan to stretch the second story a bit to bring her back briefly.
But the real reason for seeing the films is . . . the stories. I just hope that the director doesn’t ‘Hollywood’ the film too much, by which I mean turn it into pure action. It’s the story that counts.
I’m also looking forward to Get Smart in June. But I fear that it will fail. I think that it’s impossible to replace the ‘voice’ of Don Adams as Max. That’s what made the humour work. I think that there is also an Indiana Jones film coming soon. That should be wonderful. I made the mistake of going to see that Golden Temple King Fu thing. Pure garbage. I had to go home and listen to Bach’s Partitas to drive the noise out of my head.
P.K.T.P.
Since the whole “sequel” controversy was raised here, I nearly fell out of my chair last weekend when I saw that “Prince Caspian” (no. 2 of the Narnia series) is due out on May 16.
In the midst of remakes and movies that are all too shallow and yet seem to revel in their high-tech special effects, here’s a movie I’d drive across town to see.
As for the comic-book-characters-made-into-movies phenomenon, I think that the first of the Batman (Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson as the Joker) and Spiderman movies were fantastic. So was the first of the Superman remakes with Christopher Reeve. I didn’t see the third Spiderman in the theaters, but picked it up on DVD and was sorely disappointed.
On the last post:
I liked the Batman with Nicholson as the Joker. The one with Danny De Vito as the Penguin was a real disappointment, though. De Vito is a very good actor but, somehow, I don’t think of him as the penguin.
Yes, the superman films were fairly good. I don’t like American comics, but the films were quite good. With Tintin, it’s the opposite: the comics are classics but the films were a disaster.
The thing I hate the most in this world is contemporary music, especially rock noise and jazz. Except for some Richard Strauss, I don’t listen to anything written after 1905. That’s the magic dividing line for me: the so-called ‘twilight of tonality’.
I think that imposing rock noise on people in shops and restaurants should be a criminal offence punishable by death. If people want to hear that aural sewage, they should have every right to listen to it–but where others can’t hear it.
P.K.T.P.
Somewhat different from the previous comments…
“I wonder if the effects, and the amazing graphics in video games, will start to twist people’s minds, distort their understanding of what is real?”
I agree, and don’t see how CGI (computer-generated effects) CAN’T affect our perception of reality, especially when it’s constantly in contact with so many people. Platonic caves, Prima Pars q. 75-89, Heidegger’s last man, MacIntyrean Benedictine monasteries… Man, I’m sure glad I’m Catholic. I don’t see how people survive or flourish without…
I certainly agree with the eagerness to see what is done with Prince Caspian.
I’m under the impression that there will be less C.G.I. and more of other modern techniques for the new “Prince Caspian”. I don’t really know what I’m talking about here. But I check on the Narnia websites from time to time. I think that there will be more action in this one. Apparently, some of the actors were being taught kick boxing and all that sort of thing. They are also apparently adding in a romance between the Prince and Susan, something Lewis would have disliked, I think. But then he was imagining somewhat younger children. I hear that Peter’s character has been adjusted somewhat, making him more defensive and less endearing than in the first film.
“The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” was designed by Lewis to be a redemption story focused on Edmund, the younger boy, and Lucy, who represents moral–even spiritual–purity (owing to her young age). The older two children weren’t much developed. Adamson, the director wove together this redemption story focused on Edmund with a maturity story focused on Peter. I thought that it was a dangerous thing to attempt but that he really pulled it off to perfection. Lucy, in this analogy, is the force who holds these themes together, owing to her connexion with Aslan (representing Christ, of course).
I am wondering if Adamson will try the same thing again, adding a romance story (Caspian and Susan) to the maturity story of Lewis (focused on Caspian). Hmm. Harder, that. I think that we shall see Peter in this one having to adjust, to ‘go back’ and re-assert himself but, this time, learn humility. A difficult project. The reason is that the Peter of the first film had perhaps too much humility to begin with (I mean too much to learn it). I would imagine that Adamson will try to make the older two Pevensies important in this film for the simple reason that they are not to appear again until “The Last Battle” (except for cameo appearances in “The Boy and His Horse”.
Let’s hope that Walden, Disney’s partner, keeps intact the Chrisian ethos and message in these films. Adamson inadvertently (given his own analysis) made the battle scene in the first film even more Christian than Lewis’s version. In the book, Peter and the Witch are fighting when Aslan suddenly intervenes, so that it is Christ (Aslan) who defeats the devil (Jadis). But, in the film version, Peter becomes a ‘white martyr’–even better. He is at the point of being killed by the Witch when Aslan saves him–and the battle. Although, technically, we can never know if the Witch would have succeeded in killing Peter had Aslan not intervened, we can at least say that Peter expected to be defeated and killed, and yet he never relented or pleaded for mercy and that, at least at that particular point in the battle, he did not appear to be hateful or filled with a desire for revenge.
The message? Christ commands us to will to be perfect but, even so, the devil is stronger than we. Hence, in the end, we must rely on Christ Himself. The beginning of our journey begins with Christ, and it ends in Him. Our part is the middle one, in which we contribute a co-operative spirit.
As a child, I liked Edmund the best because he is a rebel and a contrarian. I thought that Adamson enriched the redemption story by focusing on Edmund’s attachment to his absent father. The implication is that Edmund’s nasty behaviour proceeds out of a disordered love, disordered because he puts his earthly father before his heavenly one: Anyone who loves father or mother, &c., before Me, is not worthy of Me, &c.
P.K.T.P.
There’s no “AL vs. NL” in Philadelphia, Father. Here, we’ve seen the light and fully recognize that it is NL all the way. Go Phillies! I guess you’re an unfortunate Twins fan. Too bad. LOL! (See, I worked it into my comment, too.) Just kidding . . . I think.
“The Boy and His Horse”.
“The Horse and His Boy,” that is.
Father, glad to see that you take some time out and have fun.
Please watch this parody vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlLeCu63HCA
It’s sure to give any comic fan a good laugh.
Timmay!
Hmmm…I thought he died at some point. One of the Marvel guys kicked the bucket a few years back due to some chemical dependency issue. Maybe it wasn’t Tony. I seem to remember something about his problems with putting on the suit, his armor, without dealing with his inner child issues or something.
Glad to hear it was not Tony Stark!
Question about Prince Caspian: I have always thought it to be an allegory about the Reformation. Has anyone else run across this? Am I way off base here?
God bless,
Gordo
John Enright: Go Phillies! I guess you’re an unfortunate Twins fan. Too bad.
Lemme see… in the last 25 years the Twins have won the WS twice and the Phillies have lost the WS twice.