quick reaction post
Still dying of papers. Feeling a little less dying than before, though. About two weeks until I need to be out of here.
ANYWAY, I saw Iron Man 3 today and it was totally rad.
It was a friend of mine's birthday, so four of us went to the super early showing - yay for cheap tickets, basically. And 2D, which is a blessing, because 3D always makes my head hurt, no matter the quality.
Basically, I loved it.
Less basically - I loved how it kept subverting my expectations and answering my doubts. I was unhappy about the trailers! I was unhappy about bringing in the Mandarin! Like - I love bringing in elements of Iron Man's comic book past (I kept giggling at the cracks about 'Iron Man's bodyguard'), but I would also like to leave the Mandarin's gross Yellow Peril origins in the past. Please. And I was not assured by Ben Kingsley getting cast - he's an awesome actor, but I agree with Howard Tayler that he tends to get cast as "vaguely ethnic, dour, sinister mastermind." Which is the opposite of what I wanted.
And luckily, the opposite of what I got. Not only did it not turn out how I expected, but it totally flipped around and showed how messed up the 'look, terror, must be the brown people' paradigm is. It was very satisfying to watch the scene where JARVIS is like 'they're in Florida' and Tony's like 'no way, you're glitching,' and THEY'RE TOTALLY IN FLORIDA, YOU JUST DON'T GET IT BECAUSE YOU'VE BECOME ACCLIMATED TO THE WAR ON TERROR XENOPHOBIC MINDSET.
ahem.
And toward the middle of the movie I was like - where is Rhodey, I need more Rhodey, he hasn't had enough to do. And that was right when they brought him back into the movie and he started being awesome again. Still not enough Rhodey, but I am not sure if it's possible to get enough Rhodey. More Rhodey. The same thing happened with Pepper, though they stretched it out for me more. 'Where is Pepper? Why is Pepper being turned into such a damsel? When is she going to beat up this villain guy whose name I cannot always recall? Is it now? Is it now? Is it- YES PEPPER PEPPER ILU PEPPPPER.' (Still not enough Pepper, still too many scenes where women were being threatened/injured/killed to motivate Tony, but I will take my awesome scenes with awesome Pepper where I can get them.)
Also it was really funny. And it had big dumb action scenes (which I love - I am the person who will watch a three-hour martial arts film where nothing happens except big dumb action scenes, that is me). And it had the best interaction between a kid and a superhero ever. And I am a huge sucker for the trauma plotline, I wrote a lot of words for post-NYC Clint about responses to trauma and I thought it was pretty well done here with Tony. And how it opened with "I'm Blue" as song that I am a) obsessed with and b) is the most 1999 song ever made, it so immediately set the time and mood for me. And and and I loved the whole retro-style credits sequence at the end.
AND THEN I was sitting there thinking - this was fun, this is my favorite Iron Man movie for sure, I think I may have even liked this more than The Avengers, gosh, but the narration at the beginning and end was kind of dumb and unnecessary and very cliche, I wonder who decided that was a good idea. AND THEN BRUCE, BRUUUCE, and that scene was ADORABLE, OMG.
Basically, I saw this movie about 12 hours ago and spent the rest of the day doing a bunch of dry academic stuff and yet I am still capslocking and giggling about Iron Man 3. Do you want to talk about this movie? I am all about that. Talk about this movie with me.
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/62818.html. Comment wherever you want.
ANYWAY, I saw Iron Man 3 today and it was totally rad.
It was a friend of mine's birthday, so four of us went to the super early showing - yay for cheap tickets, basically. And 2D, which is a blessing, because 3D always makes my head hurt, no matter the quality.
Basically, I loved it.
Less basically - I loved how it kept subverting my expectations and answering my doubts. I was unhappy about the trailers! I was unhappy about bringing in the Mandarin! Like - I love bringing in elements of Iron Man's comic book past (I kept giggling at the cracks about 'Iron Man's bodyguard'), but I would also like to leave the Mandarin's gross Yellow Peril origins in the past. Please. And I was not assured by Ben Kingsley getting cast - he's an awesome actor, but I agree with Howard Tayler that he tends to get cast as "vaguely ethnic, dour, sinister mastermind." Which is the opposite of what I wanted.
And luckily, the opposite of what I got. Not only did it not turn out how I expected, but it totally flipped around and showed how messed up the 'look, terror, must be the brown people' paradigm is. It was very satisfying to watch the scene where JARVIS is like 'they're in Florida' and Tony's like 'no way, you're glitching,' and THEY'RE TOTALLY IN FLORIDA, YOU JUST DON'T GET IT BECAUSE YOU'VE BECOME ACCLIMATED TO THE WAR ON TERROR XENOPHOBIC MINDSET.
ahem.
And toward the middle of the movie I was like - where is Rhodey, I need more Rhodey, he hasn't had enough to do. And that was right when they brought him back into the movie and he started being awesome again. Still not enough Rhodey, but I am not sure if it's possible to get enough Rhodey. More Rhodey. The same thing happened with Pepper, though they stretched it out for me more. 'Where is Pepper? Why is Pepper being turned into such a damsel? When is she going to beat up this villain guy whose name I cannot always recall? Is it now? Is it now? Is it- YES PEPPER PEPPER ILU PEPPPPER.' (Still not enough Pepper, still too many scenes where women were being threatened/injured/killed to motivate Tony, but I will take my awesome scenes with awesome Pepper where I can get them.)
Also it was really funny. And it had big dumb action scenes (which I love - I am the person who will watch a three-hour martial arts film where nothing happens except big dumb action scenes, that is me). And it had the best interaction between a kid and a superhero ever. And I am a huge sucker for the trauma plotline, I wrote a lot of words for post-NYC Clint about responses to trauma and I thought it was pretty well done here with Tony. And how it opened with "I'm Blue" as song that I am a) obsessed with and b) is the most 1999 song ever made, it so immediately set the time and mood for me. And and and I loved the whole retro-style credits sequence at the end.
AND THEN I was sitting there thinking - this was fun, this is my favorite Iron Man movie for sure, I think I may have even liked this more than The Avengers, gosh, but the narration at the beginning and end was kind of dumb and unnecessary and very cliche, I wonder who decided that was a good idea. AND THEN BRUCE, BRUUUCE, and that scene was ADORABLE, OMG.
Basically, I saw this movie about 12 hours ago and spent the rest of the day doing a bunch of dry academic stuff and yet I am still capslocking and giggling about Iron Man 3. Do you want to talk about this movie? I am all about that. Talk about this movie with me.
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/62818.html. Comment wherever you want.