IRON MAN III Movie Review (Minor Spoilers):

I worked very hard not to read any reviews so I wouldn’t know what is going on before seeing this movie and still “heard” rumors, even though I put my hands over my ears and sang the theme song to Cheers in a vain attempt to be completely surprised. 

Well, after seeing this flick, I was STILL surprised… several times!

Iron Man III has so many twists and turns, it is a visual twisty, turny, loopy roller coaster. Even when you can see them coming (which was more often than not), it is still a thrill to watch it unfold, like being able to see the tracks of Viper at Magic Mountain; you know what’s next, but your world still keeps turning upside down.

Visually gorgeous (of course) and exciting; where there aren’t twists and turns, there are chases and explosions enough to keep even the most adrenaline-junkie happy, especially after the first loooong half hour or so of choppy and convoluted back story.  Thankfully, this section ends rather abruptly, almost as if the Real Director showed up with his latte and said, “Move it along kid, Daddy’s home.”

As ever, it is Robert Downey Jr.’s movie from start to finish. Downey masterfully brings the character of Tony Stark to a whole new level, taking the fun of the first Iron Man movie, adding in the angst of the second, less fun Iron Man movie and mashing them up into an even better, deeper and more complex and interesting character that drives the story home. 

Infused with enough humor to make me think that Writer/Director Shane Black is taking note of the best of the best of writer/directors (like Joss Whedon or early Steven Spielberg and George Lucas), the writing is mostly crisp and bright, and the movie generally moves along at a fairly brisk pace, spacing the plot twists far enough apart to keep the whole movie from being too predictable.

Casting notes: Guy Pearce is just creepy. Ben Kingsley was absolutely brilliant, as ever. Dale Dickey was perfectly cast for her tiny role, but it felt like she should have been one more scene… perhaps it was left on the cutting room floor.

A couple of irritants: Happy was rather ill-used, too much of a joke and then practically dropped out of the movie altogether.  Rebecca Hall and William Sadler were totally, ridiculously just boring, no presence as all.  And Tony Stark, what, is he made of steel or something?? There is no way any mortal man – even a brilliant one - would be able to withstand even the tiniest FRACTION of what this movie puts him through outside of that suit. It was more than a little ridiculous, especially in the final climatic scene, even in a super hero movie. And what was with the waaay too long, super talky dénouement, after everything, they are suddenly all alone on the… Dang. I promised no spoilers!

Fun stuff: the kid and skydiving! Watch the credits for the, well, monkey credit!  Of course, stay until the end of the credits for a funny extra scene (obviously directed and written by our Joss Whedon).

The end of the film begs more questions… and I am super excited about what Joss is going to do to continue that story in Avengers II!

My rating: 8.5 out of 10

Just Musing,
Susan

 

Movie Review: THE HOBBIT, AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

(MINOR SPOILERS). I have seen the previous movie and TV incarnations of The Hobbit decades ago – sloppy, horrible messes, and could never figure out why they turned out so bad. The book told a fairly simple and very personal story of one person’s journey into something bigger than himself, in finding reserves and strength he would never have know that he had, of a cleverness and ability to think on this feet, of a hero emerging out of a common man… So why did the previous terrible movies even get made?? One was a silly cartoon, stripped of any deep emotion or sense of dreadful urgency, and that other one that was so filled with horrible special effect battles, and very little else, as it they were the whole story.

So. Now, on to Peter Jackson’s interpretation…

After the grandiose vision presented in LOTR, I expected an epic. I expected gorgeous vistas. I expected great special effects and creepy critters. What I did not expect was the humor, the up close and personal aspects of the book coming alive in very capable actors’ eyes.

Ian McKlellan seemed a less sure wizard, a bit more watchful and uncertain of the outcome. Martin Freeman as Bilbo was spot on in his quizzical and comical reactions to the unfolding events. Time was spent getting to know these characters, and most of them got enough screen time to bring them alive, to see the different personalities emerge. They were engaging and fun, powerfully evil (although… is it just me, or did the pale orc just keep ordering his minions to kill/go after/behead our heroes, even though he was standing right there? Seems kinda cowardly to me), majestically ethereal (Kate Blanchette’s Galadriel was perfect; the costuming, the lighting, everything was simply gorgeous), strange and compelling, outrageously difficult and campy.

At 169 minutes, it drags a little in a few places, but quickly steers back on course. Bilbo’s introduction to Gollum was brilliantly creepy and funny, and felt very important, as we all know it was. The riddle scenes and Gollum's facial expressions were priceless!

The special effects were very nearly perfect; the big critters had mass and weight and various realistic skin conditions, each of them was individual, no cookie cutter CGI monsters here! The battles were well lit so discerning what was happening was much easier than in much of LOTR, which at times seemed to be an endless gore-fest. 

There were some places where the special effects took over the movie (the thunder mountain scene is one) to no real purpose other than to put the band of travelers in jeopardy and show off technical skill.

The size differences of the various main characters were seamlessly executed, and after the first few minutes of the movie, I forgot about them and just immersed myself in the film… although the Bilbo’s (and Frodo’s) big hairy feet still looked like a bad toupee had been stapled to a slab of heavy inflexible plastic with barely carved toes.

It has been decades since I have read the Hobbit and LOTR. I have heard that there were changes in this, the first part of what appears to be a trilogy based on The Hobbit, but the story line seems intact and clear; whatever changes there were did not seem to distract from the movie experience. Except the cloak, I did miss the cloak; it seemed weird that Bilbo could just duck down and suddenly no one notices him anymore.

Engaging, fun, intense, epic and personal, I give The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey an 8.5 out of 10. I am very much looking forward to Part II!