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[websandwhiskers]

I have been watching Iron Man II absolutely obsessively, mostly because I'm too broke to go to theaters and watch 'Avengers' quite so obsessively.  Also I draw while watching at home, and that's hard to do in a dark theater.  I still want to see it one more time before it goes out of theaters, though.

You know what I didn't notice before watching

Comments

[carmarthen]

Yeah, the Iron Man movies are very Superheroes for Libertarians, which is probably why they don't resonate well with me (well, okay, Iron Man I I enjoyed; II I found deadly boring. But they also don't resonate with me on a moral level); the most die-hard Tony-Stark-facial-hair Iron Man fan I know leans pretty strongly libertarian.

I think Tony's father issues are probably deep-set enough a part of the character that they won't paper them over in Iron Man III. One hopes, anyway.

[websandwhiskers]

Libertarian is maybe a better way to put it (though both movies are strongly pro-military; again, not a complaint. The second one is interestingly pro-military but anti-big-business, and as such must have been giving the middle-of-the-road-conservative set fits. It's aimed at blue-collar conservative, I guess I'd say, which is a really interesting target audience for a movie about a character like Tony Stark.)

. . whereas Avengers was aimed squarely at the geeks, from its waif-fu hairstyle down to its ittle gov't conspiracy toes. And I <3s it. And the mainstream certainly didn't hate it, so yay for proof that you don't have to make your characters Joe Everyman to make a movie that will appeal to Joe Everyman (I mean, for pete's sake, our intro-to-the-world character is *Natasha* for about the first half of the movie, before she turns that over to Steve).

[carmarthen]

I'm not sure there's any dissonance between libertarian and pro-military, but eh, IDK. I'm just pretty sure the Iron Man movies weren't for me.

It's aimed at blue-collar conservative, I guess I'd say, which is a really interesting target audience for a movie about a character like Tony Stark.

Perhaps Tony Stark represents a flavor of the American Dream, minus, I guess, the pulling yourself up by your bootstraps part--but the material success and the car babes, I guess. At least superficially, he's got an appealing fantasy life. I'm not sure, though--I gotta admit, I don't really understand the desire to be Tony Stark, because even post-Pepper, I am not sure he has a life that would be much fun to actually live. But I don't understand wanting to be a Hollywood star, either, and obviously people do that!

Avengers really did an amazing job at broad appeal, and I'm still puzzling over that a bit, because it is so solidly aimed at geeks and outsiders; I think it's almost the superhero-y-est superhero movie I've seen, and I think there'

[websandwhiskers]

I can see the appeal of having the sort of intellect and power and privilege that Tony Stark does, as well as that raw confidence/bluster. I wouldn't do with it what he does, though - not saying I'd do better, but I'd do drastically different. Neither cars nor bimbos do much for me.

[carmarthen]

I think I'd find his confidence more appealing if it weren't covering a deep well of insecurity. I already have that!

But Tony's flaws and problems are why I find him interesting rather than entirely irritating.

[websandwhiskers]

I have no bluster; in most situations where I am required to show confidence - work, for example - I aim for friendly and harmless. If I am up in your face, it is because I damned well mean it. Tony's shock-people-because-it's-fun thing is the exact OPPOSITE of my idea of fun; I don't mind attention, but THAT kind of attention, I hate. Makes me want to crawl under the floor.

[carmarthen]

That's the other reason Being Tony Stark does not appeal to me: being paparazzi-bait is not my idea of a fun lifestyle. (Although I got the impression after Iron Man II that Tony kind of withdrew from the public eye to some degree, dialed it down. Partly because of Pepper, maybe, but I think partly also because of how close he came to dying.)