Iron Man starts off promising, but loses its way somewhere between the origin story and the "WINK WINK! There Will Be A Sequel! WINK WINK!" moment. What I'm not sure about is whether Favreau got lost in the forest of comic book devotion or in the wasteland of laziness.
Things that are acceptable in movies based on comic books:
* thin plot points that don't stand up to much questioning
* camp
* lingering on CGI of futuristic technology
Things that are not allowed in movies based on comic books:
* breaking the 90 minute rule without cause
* a really atrociously applied bald cap on Jeff Bridges
The main issue I have with this film, though, is one that seems to fall under the 'acceptable' category. "Seems," though, is the key word here.
Every moment shared between Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. can at first glance be mistaken for camp because of its comic book environment. But soon enough, the viewer is forced to reason that the length and severity of the ridiculousness just does not fit in with the treatment of the rest of the film as comic-book-esque. Could it be that they had to severely tone down the romance to get a specific MPAA rating? No, this is a PG-13 flick. No, this is plain and simple, utterly disastrous writing, and these are actors that know it's simply not worth the effort. Any suspension of disbelief you are able to build up is quickly destroyed during these scenes (that are very close to being 'so bad they're good,' but fail even at that). If the entire movie were as bad as those conversations, you would NEED to own it. If the entire movie were as good as the first half hour, you would consider it fine enough. As it is, though, I'm quite glad I didn't pay $10 to see it.
Things that are acceptable in movies based on comic books:
* thin plot points that don't stand up to much questioning
* camp
* lingering on CGI of futuristic technology
Things that are not allowed in movies based on comic books:
* breaking the 90 minute rule without cause
* a really atrociously applied bald cap on Jeff Bridges
The main issue I have with this film, though, is one that seems to fall under the 'acceptable' category. "Seems," though, is the key word here.
Every moment shared between Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. can at first glance be mistaken for camp because of its comic book environment. But soon enough, the viewer is forced to reason that the length and severity of the ridiculousness just does not fit in with the treatment of the rest of the film as comic-book-esque. Could it be that they had to severely tone down the romance to get a specific MPAA rating? No, this is a PG-13 flick. No, this is plain and simple, utterly disastrous writing, and these are actors that know it's simply not worth the effort. Any suspension of disbelief you are able to build up is quickly destroyed during these scenes (that are very close to being 'so bad they're good,' but fail even at that). If the entire movie were as bad as those conversations, you would NEED to own it. If the entire movie were as good as the first half hour, you would consider it fine enough. As it is, though, I'm quite glad I didn't pay $10 to see it.
