Go See Iron Man. Now.
Iron Man is pretty much everything you’d want in a superhero movie. Great action, cool hero, hot babe, and really smart humor that doesn’t get stupid or campy.
It’s not perfect, but most people will be able to look past the script’s logical flaws thanks to the sheer amount of fun eye candy the movie provides. It ranks right up there with Spider-Man 2 in terms of great translations of comic book characters to film.
I’ve never been all that fond of Tony Stark, but Robert Downey Jr. changes all that. You can’t help but like him, even when he’s being a self-involved prick. Favreau did an awesome job with this movie and better damn well come back to direct the sequel. Clearly this film was made by a true fan, packed with smart inside references that would make any geek smile.
Oh, by the way, DON’T LEAVE THE THEATER UNTIL THE CREDITS ARE DONE! Great cameo at the end which sets up the future of Marvel moviedom.
Apparently this is the first film in a trilogy about Iron Man. Apparently he cast Terrence Howard so he could have him play War Machine in the second.
Favreau has been a fan of comics for ages now, and is the primary reason he had a role in Daredevil and one of the things he’s been working towards by building up his directing cred.
Iron Man is a good movie. It’s an origins movie, so don’t go in expecting Iron Man action early on or in large doses. But, it’s well written, for a superhero movie, with the right cast. Scratch that, the perfect cast.
Favreau will direct the next one, he’s already said so many times and that the only thing to be decided is if a sequel is in the pictures (and it obviously is) and how soon he can get started on it. It’s planned for release in 2010 (I think April 30th is the set date as of today) and Marvel will try to bring in Thor into the second movie since his own movie will be released later that same summer. No Marvel produced movies for 2009, you get The Incredible Hulk later this year and that’s it until 2010 from them. Though other Marvel characters are being produced by other companies (such as X-Men Origins: Wolverine).
The Incredible Hulk trailer, now available at http://www.apple.com/trailers, shown this last weekend was also a big improvement over what we’ve seen with the first trailer. I’m not sure it will be as good as Iron Man, but it alread looks better than the first one done a few years back.
I think with the lack of overall interest in Speed Racer for this weekend, we’ll see another good weekend for Iron Man (I’m guessing between $50 and $60 million). The take for the first weekend is pretty good considering the economic issues many people are facing now in the U.S., though. I definitely think it would have gone higher if people weren’t being conservative in their spending.
/end_comic_book_geekery
Sequel in the works!
As anticipated, Marvel will be working on Thor, Cap, and Ant Man, as well as an Avengers movie and the Iron Man sequel. The plan seems to be two superhero movies per summer. That’s a lot of balls in the air, so hopefully the quality level of all will be as high as it was for Iron Man.
Captain America movie will be amazing. Indiana Jones isn’t the only bad-ass who can fight Nazis.
I always disliked the “superheroes’ league” device of comic books. I prefer my Übermensch isolated and unique, thank you very much, which is why staying for the bit after the credits tanked the movie for me. Part of the appeal of Iron Man is that he built what he is, instead of having some silly mutation as the result of a spider bite (for example). That actual superheroes exist in his world sort of ruins that element of the character, in my opinion.