The Twenty-Sixth One

Oh Robert Downey, Jr. I have loved you since Air America. No one was more pleased than I (except maybe you... or your agent) when Iron Man revitalized your career. As an avid comic book fan, I was also pleased that Iron Man revitalized comic movies also. Along with Batman Begins and Dark Night, Iron Mand shows us that just because a movie is based on a comic book, doesn't mean it can't be a great movie. Granted, Iron Man is decidedly lighter than either of the newest Batman installments.

That said, if you liked the first Iron Man you'll like the second as well. It continues on in exactly the same vein.

Things I liked:

• the briefcase Iron Man suit.
• Mickey Rourke as Whiplash.
• Whiplash's whips.
• the old videos of Tony Stark's dad.

Things I loved:

• watching Tony Stark deal with his impending doom in a self-destructive manner, while at the same time seeing (once more) how much the people around him truly love and care about him.
• Pepper Potts with a backbone. Really, just Pepper in general.
• War Machine. Seriously, how this character came to be was equal parts heart-breaking and hilarious. Don Cheadle is always wonderful.
• Sam Rockwell. Always and forever with the Sam Rockwell. Favorite Rockwell parts: Guy (Galaxy Quest), Zaphod (Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and anytime I've ever seen him. Actor I love just as much if not more and tend to lump in the same general category of skeezy but entertaining characters: Gary Oldman.
• any and every reference to S.H.I.E.L.D. This includes Samuel L. Jackson and that guy who is the ex-husband of Julia Louis-Dreyfus on The New Adventures of Old Christine
• staying until the credits are over.
• Jon Favreau.

Things I didn't like as much but were still okay:

• Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.

My absolute favorite thing about the Iron Man movies, however, is the fact that I really don't know much at all about the Avengers or any of its members. I know who they are (sort of) I know what they do (sort of) but I don't know more than the obvious about their backgrounds. Which means: everything's a surprise and I don't care if they get it wrong! After the X-Men and Batman movies it's kind of a refreshing feeling.

What made my night: (SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD) "Thor's like, the Greek god of storms or something." Oh people sitting behind me... read a book!

On a not completely separate, but should probably be in another post note, I read a review from another blogger who was well and truly irate at the sexism, racism and other isms that apparently run rampant in this movie. Among other things, she had a problem that the Black Widow was wearing a skin-tight bodysuit while Iron Man had a, well, iron suit (don't blame the movie, blame the artists that came up with her in the first place). She also had a problem with Pepper not being able to handle the stress after being a CEO for only a week (despite the numerous life-threatening situations she had been in- usually involving explosions of some sort) and Tony Stark's womanizing behavior (I'll give her this one, although only people who act like that anyways think it's alright to act like that... plus, I'm pretty sure Widow could take him when he's not wearing the suit). I think the woman who wrote the article needs to calm down. Not every movie out there is looking to slight the general population, sometimes it's just looking to entertain. And if we took everything that was remotely offensive out of movies we would be left with absolutely nothing, or at least absolutely nothing real. Because people and life in general have the tendency to BE offensive, whether they mean to or not. Better we know how to deal with it than be confined in a bubble of tolerance that kills original thought and creativity.

That is called a rant. Some would call it babbling. They would call it this because the point I set out to make was not the point I made  in the end. "F" for organization.