a little east of reality

Monday, May 26, 2008

heart grown fonder yet?

I've certainly been absent long enough.

Blogging all the reasons would kind of miss the point of not having time to blog, so here's a quick post.

On my highly recommended list right now: Iron Man

There’s a reason this superhero comic book adaptation is up to 93 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, and it’s not (in my opinion) because it’s giving us something we haven’t seen before. Rather it’s giving us all the elements of a great superhero action flick, in just the right balance. I loved Transformers ~ so much so I wanted to see it twice on the big screen because those massive robots seemed to deserve that much space ~ but there’s no denying that it was all about the special effects and not much else. Iron Man has the special effects, but it also has strong characters, great casting, a witty and unpredictable script and a topical story that creates a meaningful internal conflict for the protagonist.

Speaking of which, did I mention it also has Robert Downey Jr looking sexier than most 42-year-olds can manage, in spite of looking every bit of his 42 years. When you’ve got it, you’ve got it. And he does. His perfect sense of comedic timing doesn't hurt either. Tony Stark is charismatic and every inch the man used to saying something and have it happen, or making it happen himself. I loved the way his mind was always totally engaged in whatever it was he was doing at that moment. I also liked that, in spite of a generally devil-may-care attitude, when an action plan he totally believed in turned out to have flaws he hadn't seen, he immediately admitted this and acted on his new understanding. There was a very real integrity underneath the banter. We got to glimpse the spots where he was vulnerable, but he never wallowed in it or used his emotional (or any other) challenges as an excuse to be weak when he needed to be strong.

Great movie. See it.

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