Tag: robert downey jr

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cinema cinema:english

FERRIC TERRIFIC

IRON MAN THREE

Hollywood knows how to make action blockbusters, they invented the whole thing. By virtue of brevity, that line alone would have sufficed for an Iron Man Three piece.

While the previous Iron Man movies have been entertaining in various degrees, oscillating  with part two lingering near the bottom, I believed that the franchise solely exists because of the character of Tony Stark and the way Robert Downey Jr plays him and that the more they try to milk him, the movies will only go downwards, I mean my interest level in a wise cracking arrogant man can only be that much: two movies.

< This was thought after walking out after seeing Iron Man 2, which I cleverly remembered; ok I stop now>

But someone seemed to have thought the same back in Hollywoodland, but too late buddies you can’t change Tony Stark, but then you can give him panic attacks and make him Woody Allen in an Iron suit, and yes it does work. Believe me.

Iron Man Three begins in Switzerland in the year 1999, before Tony Stark became the open super hero that he is, which contributes to how the evil of the past comes to torment him and added to that are the memories of ‘back-from-hell’ <something which Tony refers to as the New York incident, we can just call it the Avengers>

So when insomniac Stark, doesn’t know what to do with all those suits he has created, America is attacked by a villain known as the Mandarin ( Ben Kingsley) which also playfully underlines America’s growing pre-occupation with the rise of China. The Mandarin wears Chinese robes and sits amidst of what seemed to me dozens of cycle brand agarbathis and repeats a poor joke about how fortune cookies were an American invention. Ben Kingsley is terrific. But wait.

iron-man-poster

This is a Marvel production and their efforts in providing entertainment are not subtle, but the effort itself is laudatory, with Iron Man Three they have already an assembly line of blockbusters waiting to come up and sum it up again with Avengers 2; so all these movies will basically vary depending on which director is chosen and how he perceives a super hero film should be.

Although Marvel will never hire someone like Chris Nolan to do a deep dark tale of introspection and morality, they will probably hire someone like Shane Black who has in no doubt given one of the funniest summer blockbusters in recent times.  This is what I feel the best in the trilogy and the one of the best Marvel had to offer.

Yes yes, there are undying relentless henchmen who due to science may not be what they seem…um…not saying more, super cool action sequences, buddy camaraderie and some touches of idealism and inspiration to drive the plot along.

And finally for students of apparel, there in Gwyneth Paltrow in a sports bra reprising as Pepper Potts.

This summer has begun.

Categories
cinema cinema:english

SUIT UP!!

(In as many colors as possible)

Avengers (2012)

 

Avengers poster courtesy Mondo, yes it raacks!

Sometime during one of the hundred carefully and aesthetically choreographed action sequences, Phil Coulson (“since when is he Phil? His first name is Agent”, Tony Stark informs us) informs rather warily on his way to the end (oh no! spoilers) to the main antagonist Loki played to some exception by Tom Hiddleston that he (Loki) would never win because there was no conviction.

Well, that could apply to the rest of the costumed crusaders and the whole plot of Avengers, we all like them; but do we want them all the time? Simply put in more serious prose: What is the relevance of a hero in the absence of a crisis? The Avengers doesn’t deal with all that, since Marvel had already green-lighted the mega-project and only needed a skin of a story to work on. The skin provided by Joss Whedon is there, but we do not have time to pinch in further, only later these questions were realized whensome thinking was done beyond the CGI. Was an Assemble! Call really necessary to tackle an invading army brought out by Loki (simply put villain, otherwise put Shakespearean tragic anti hero with a brother problem). I mean haven’t these fellows (Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor and others. Simply put: good guys, the heroes. Otherwise cannot be put.) have done those acts singularly in the past.

Tesseract, the cube of infinite energy is the item of contention as with the previous Marvel production of Captain America, Loki steals it right from Nick Fury in return of an army of Chitauri (more bad guys) which will lead directly to earthlings to be ‘free of freedom’. Comics and any literature often derided for inducing loss of reality states in its readers have always stayed on pace with real events, like how Avengers meanders through nuclear disarmament, energy crisis and the power of the people. But are these done just as a nod to reality or will these help in creating something in the public is a topic hardly discussed, not even by Arnab Goswami. Fiction follows fact only up to a point where it can fuel its own progress, in the end these are just plot elements.

Joss Whedon’s Avengers is not pretentious and gives what it exactly aims for: a proper summer blockbuster, only to maximize those electronic ticket printing sounds at the theatres and it does this cleverly by indulging in the main characters only if the events lead to a graphic fight and this type of approach not only is good to watch, does not mess with our head in any way, in plain sight, it is an enjoyable movie with right lines at the opportune moments. Dialog in superhero movies should be a separate PhD topic, there is just so much to observe.

There is no need to bother about acting in a film headlined by Robert Downey Jr, especially when he is joined by a shy and angry Mark Ruffalo, the heroic Chris Evans, and the visitor Chris Hemsworth, though I did expect a little more of chatter amongst them, all that is lost in the run up to the war.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a very theater friendly one, not only it has internal connections, there is also the happy fact that simply for watching the Avengers you would have to go through those told stories and the looming possibility of further individual films like Hulk.

Opinions on movies are mostly instantaneous, which makes it easy to proclaim that a/any movie is the most ‘awesomatic of the aaaromale’ superhero movie ever, but Avengers is not to be so. End of the day fans are happy and will sleep without fear that they are in the good hands of the Protectors of Planet Earth, ‘realists’ will nod in disbelief and continue to make feigned movies.

So Suit Up, you don’t need a reason to watch the movie, as they didn’t need one to make one.

The piece was written under the influence of a song fittingly called, “Tu Mera Hero” from the movie Desi Boyzz (yes two zees), close friends tell me it is the only good thing in the film.

Joss Whedon’s Avengers is now out on theatres, no good print available on net.