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Iron Man 3 (DVD)
by Jake Speed
Iron Man 3 (or "Iron Man Three" as the end credits would have it) is the third go around for Robert Downey Jr's irreverent take on the cult Marvel Comics superhero. The major change for this one is that Jon Favreau has been replaced in the director's chair by Shane (The Last Boy Scout) Black and the witty Black (who also ... co-wrote the screenplay) brings a much more flippant and insouciant air to proceedings, the humour quotient amped. I strongly suspect this is the only Hollywood blockbuster you'll ever watch that has a joke about Croydon. Black is more interested in character interaction, dialogue and giving people funny things to say than Iron Man shenanigans and this is both a strength and a weakness. It's a colourful and amusing entry in the superhero stakes and zips past in entertaining fashion but ultimately it does feel more like a Shane Black film than an Iron Man film. While general audiences will have a lot of fun I think the pesky fanboys will be less forgiving of the gaping plot holes, the treatment of certain characters and the willing disregard Black displays for the Marvel film universe that has been unfurled over the last several years. I found myself quite torn in that I enjoyed the film a lot while it was playing but did find myself nitpicking when I thought about it afterwards. Although Iron Man 3 is supposed to be the start of Phase 2 for Marvel as we move towards the next Avengers it feels much more like the last gasp of Phase 1. The film is set a few months after the events of The Avengers and finds multi-billionaire industrialist and inventor extraordinaire Tony Stark suffering from sleepless nights and anxiety attacks whenever he remembers the New York battle with that alien armada and having to fly through the worm hole to save the world.
This extended encounter with Gods, monsters and aliens has left him feeling vulnerable and worried about the threats he might have to face in the future. Can he keep those close to him safe? He is after all just an ordinary man behind the high-tech armour, jet boots and repulsor rays. Tony has been spending the sleepless nights endlessly creating and tinkering with his Iron Man armours and is now up to Mark 42 - a prototype suit that can be remote controlled by Stark's thoughts in encephalo fashion and can also quickly attach itself to him in flying pieces during an emergency situation. Trouble is soon looming for our preoccupied insomniac hero though in the form of two villains. The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) is a shadowy Osma Bin Laden like terrorist who has been striking deep in the heart of America while Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) is a rival businessman who has been dabbling in a dangerous and powerful genetics altering technology called Extremis. When Stark's lavish beachside home is attacked by helicopters and his Iron Man armours are apparently destroyed, Tony finds himself all alone with only the battered and damaged - not to mention untested - Mark 42. Can our bearded wisecracking hero still save the day?
What's good about Iron Man 3? Well, Robert Downey Jr is always funny and charismatic and could probably play this role in his sleep by now. I like the way the film is constructed with Stark narrating the story to an offscreen listener (stay for the post credit easter egg to see who) and the "Classic Bond" fan in me loved the old school James Bond riffs that Black seems to draw on. There is a spectacular mid-air plane sequence involving Iron Man that scores points for using real skydivers rather than CGI and the interplay of the supporting actors with Downey Jr is relaxed and witty. Gwyneth Paltrow is starting to come into her own as Pepper Potts and it's good to see Jon Favreau in front of the camera again as Happy Hogan. Don Cheadle is not the most convincing action lead but he makes Rhodes feel more like a friend of Stark than the dull Terrance Howard did in the previous films and he also gets to don the War Machine armour (here made to look like Iron Patriot from the comics). Guy Pearce enjoyably hams it up as Killian and I liked the wonderfully laid-back turn by James Badge Dale as Killian's main henchman Savin. You are never too far away from a decent laugh either. My favourite Shane Black line in the film? When one of the villain's henchmen says - "Don't shoot! Seriously, I don't even like working here. They are so weird!" I think the biggest problem for fans of the comics is going to be the depiction of The Mandarin and in this regard Iron Man 3 does feel rather like an elaborate joke aimed purely at annoying fanboys.
In the comics, The Mandarin is Iron Man's deadliest and most famous enemy. He is to Tony Stark what Moriarty is to Sherlock Holmes or Blofeld is to James Bond. The Mandarin is a Chinese wizard with flowing robes who looks like Fu Manchu or Lo Pan and has ten magical rings that give him access to alien technology. Now, someone at Marvel has obviously decided that The Mandarin is too much of a racial stereotype to get away with these days and for understandable economic reasons China is the last place modern Hollywood wants to offend. So The Mandarin here has been refashioned as a more racially ambiguous villain who seems to operate from the Middle East. Disappointing to think we'll never see The Mandarin from the comics onscreen but all well and good I suppose. Ben Kingsley's line reading as The Mandarin is rather intriguing too and it appears as if a very memorable villain is still going to emerge despite the changes. However, I suspect that the ultimate arc of The Mandarin here is going to split audiences down the middle. General viewers will like it and fans of the comics will not. To be fair, Ben Kingsley seems to be enjoying himself and some of his lines got the biggest laughs at the screening I attended. It's just a shame though that the full potential of The Mandarin will probably never appear in one of these Marvel films now. I have to be pedantic for a moment and run through a few other quibbles that bugged me. Why are Tony's armours so fragile in this film? We've seen his Iron Man suits battle alien technology and even stand up to a scuffle with The Mighty Thor in The Avengers. Here they seem to fall apart at the drop of a hat. It seems inconsistent with the previous films.
Also, having established that the world is full of superheroes and that there is a government agency to keep an eye on superpowered or alien threats, where is SHIELD is this film? It seems a trifle odd and convenient that they just vanish while Tony Stark is battling the Extremis villains - especially as Air Force One is hijacked in the film. And Tony Stark spends precious little time as Iron Man and for most of the film runs around like a government spy trying to get the drop on Killian. I suspect that the thesp in Robert Downey Jr wanted as few scenes as possible with Iron Man capers and prefers to have his face onscreen. Another quibble is that when they have a sequence where Iron Man does something and then we learn that Tony was merely remote controlling the suit from a cupboard (or something) it's simply not as dramatically satisfying as having him actually in the suit doing these things. I could point out too that the Guy Pearce villain is an exact carbon copy of The Riddler from Batman Forever. It is extraordinary how they pilfer the whole Riddler arc lock stock and barrel, even down to Killian as an uber nerd meeting Stark early on and becoming bent on revenge from a perceived snub. Still, Pearce is a lot of fun and chews up the scenery in every scene he's in. The film doesn't make much sense in the end as two of the major developments in the last act are - when you think about it - things that Tony could presumably have done at any time he wanted to. So, essentially, he didn't even need to get so battered and bruised and into so much trouble and could have wrapped this all up much earlier.
The big action set-piece at the end is somewhat of a mess but - like Iron Man 3 in general - it's fun and you forgive Black some of his excesses and inability to grasp logic and coherence because he constantly throws you funny lines and keeps the film full of energy. I enjoyed the thoroughly unsentimental depiction of the President (played as a bit of a sleaze by William Sadler) and Rebecca Hall adds some class to the film as a scientist who we are introduced to early on in a flashback set in Switzerland. Tony Stark does get a kid sidekick for part of the film but mercifully this doesn't play out nearly as bad as it sounds. Overall, there are far too many plot holes for this to be considered anywhere near a classic but the film always coasts along in enjoyable and entertaining fashion, never quite as sassy as it thinks it is but certainly invested with a lot more wit than your average popcorn blockbuster fare.
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Robin Hood [2010] (DVD)
by lilmsnaughty79
As The Crowe's Arrows Fly
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On his way back from the crusades with King Richard the Lionheart an unfortunate skirmish has dire consequences for England. Robin Longstride is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Conclusion
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Robin Hood is not your typical Robin Hood ... movie, being Ridley Scott it was never going to be just the traditional story that we all know. It is however set in the same period in history, the time of Richard The Lionheart's crusades and his notoriously bad brother John.
From the trailers I was expecting this to be Gladiator in tights, which would be no bad thing. It's true there are similarities to Gladiator but not as many as I was expecting.
As with all Ridley Scott film, it looks very impressive, not as impressive as some of his other work, Gladiator included but good nonetheless. The sets don't seem as convincing as some other of Scotts historical pieces. The first battle is nice to look at for sure.
The soundtrack won't be winning any awards like it did with Blade Runner and Gladiator, it's just an average classical soundtrack that blends in very well but is not memorable in any way.
I'm not totally convinced at the choice of Russell Crowe as Robin, he seems to be in every other Scott film these days and that's starting to get a bit clichéd now, just like Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are. I do like Crowe but there were bound to be comparisons to Gladiator with him in the title role, and I don't think he is convincing enough here.
I wasn't at all convinced by some of the people who would become the merry men, especially Friar Tuck with his strong mancunian accent, I think he was in the terrible (IMHO) Full Monty, he seems to be playing the same role here.
The best performance on show here by far is the excellent Max von Sydow as Marion's father, he steals the scenes he is in.
I couldn't help but notice the Saving Private Ryan styling of the main battle, slow mo underwater shots with arrows killing drowning soldiers. The final battle really had some bizarre moments, you'll have to see it to see what I mean, Scott seems to have forgotten about his usual attention to detail and relative accuracy in that scene for sure. They also seem to have had WWII style landing craft, albeit made out of wood, complete with retractable ramps at the front in Medieval times, I think not.
The biggest problem with Robin Hood is that it feels underdeveloped; the story could have been tightened for sure. The end battle and the ending in general leaves a little to be desired. Having said that, a second viewing helps with the enjoyment with lowered expectations and it's not taxing so is not a bad escapism.
I know Ridley Scott is getting on now and he seems to have a lot of projects on the go, but I think he should take more time in future, he must have at least one more classic in him. This film has prequel written all over it, although there's no sign yet of one.
Main Cast List
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Russell Crowe - Robin Longstride
Cate Blanchett - Marion Loxley
Max von Sydow - Sir Walter Loxley
William Hurt - William Marshal
Mark Strong - Godfrey
Oscar Isaac - Prince John
Directed By : Ridley Scott
Running Time : 140 Mins
Certificate : PG-13
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Iron Man 3 (DVD)
by JoelM
Personally I couldn't wait for this to be released. Avengers was alright but had not been enough! Didn't get to see it straight away because of work issues but I did see it on the 5th of May. Was not disappointed let me tell you that!
The film was 130 minutes long
Main cast:
Robert Downey, Jr. (Tony Stark,Iron ... Man)
-Very impressed, normal over the top charismatic self. Great performance as always
Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts)
- Not too impacted by her, she was there but that was about it.
Don Cheadle (Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes / Iron Patriot)
-Great character, as always. Can be humorous at just the right time.
Guy Pearce (Aldrich Killan)
-Nice twist associated, very impressed. Great performance
Rebecca Hall (Dr. Maya Hansen)
-Don't see that much of her, only at important intervals, meh. Not really decided. Better than Gwyneth but that's not saying too much.
Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan)
-Funny character, impressed. Short lived, empathy felt even so. Well acted.
Ben Kingsley (The Mandarin)
-Nice twist associated, very impressed.
As with many movies nowadays there was a choice of 3D and 2D I personally hate 3D after seeing clash of the titans in 3D absolutely hated it, ruined the experience for me. So as you can guess I saw this in 2D, some of us split up and they saw the 3D version. Again mixed views.
The story is nothing to jump out your seat for, Stark threatens a terrorist that has been blowing buildings up and killing people. This obviously angers said terrorist and he attacks Stark's home. A chain of event lead up from this which are quite forgettable apart from the pleasant surprises along the way such as with the mandarin played by Ben Kingsley. Saying that I did not get bored at any point it always kept me thinking what other twist could they pull. The ending was very impacting but nothing special, nice to see but not surprising quite generic for this type of film. After the credits had rolled there is a scene with Dr. Bruce Banner where Stark was explaining all we had seen and Banner fell asleep, was a very funny scene that not many saw because they had left by that point. I knew that something would happen this is why we stayed to the very end.
All the 'main' characters from the previous movies are in this with a few additions. Such as the mandarin he is the villain in this title. An aspect of this will be very surprising and humorous. Another thing I liked them doing was renaming 'War Machine' to 'Iron Patriot' because it was a 'nicer' term that war machine, was a funny and nice addition (this is the character played by Don Cheadle) Re-hashing is something that may have been done here with the characters but I did not care or seem to notice until after when I had thought about what I was watching. It grabbed you, kept you guessing and I was certainly not bored at any point. I did like the play on Stark's anxiety it was a clever move, the boy was a nice addition to the film also. Acted brilliantly. The soundtrack was also great.
All in all it does have cracks in the full picture. But these are made up for in a big way. I enjoyed the film thoroughly, especially the many intense scenes. I would definitely recommend this film. Any Iron Man fan (would have already seen it!) but will be impressed. To any newcomers you will not be lost from the start.
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