Quote of the 'Week'

"Men will always be mad, and those who think they can cure them are the maddest of all."
Voltaire
Discovering that someone has commented on one of my blogs is such a joyous feeling. Hint, bloody hint!

Sunday 4 May 2008

Let's have a go at reviewing a movie, shall we?

I think I should have a movie review up here every now and again.
So here goes. By the way, I won't swamp you with related showbiz gossip and mention other films that some of the actors have been in unless I can draw anything worthwhile from it.
Ahem.
Today, I went to see Iron Man.
I have to admit, it was a truly fantastic film. Now, I'm not one of those people that dedicate their lives to cramming their brains with facts and figures about a FICTIONAL comic book character, claim that they're said character's biggest fan, and then march outside a cinema in protest to a slight alteration to the character in the film adaptation. It's just not me, is all. Anyhow, even if I was, I don't think it would have mattered with this film. Although not an Iron Man fanatic, I do know a bit about the comic book Iron Man and as far as I can see, Jon Favreau (the director bloke) has done a pretty spiffy job keeping to the comic books. One reason may be that Iron Man looks cool no matter how he is portrayed, unlike many comic book heroes or villains (cough-green-goblin-cough) that look okay as a drawing but on the big screen just look downright silly. Iron Man didn't need changing. Tony Stark, the billionaire inventor that isn't anything like Bruce Wayne, didn't need changing. And so they didn't. And I must say that this film is, as far as comic book movies go, a masterpiece. These are my four favourite reasons that this film is great:

REASON ONE: Iron Man is a good comic to build a film around. The story is as engaging as any screenplay. Especially nowadays - they rather cleverly modernised the story by changing the terrorist capturers from a random bunch of arabs led by a bloke called Wong Chu to terrorists in Afghanistan (led by a bloke who may very well become 'The Mandarin', a villain from the comics, if the clues I picked up on serve me well), smartly linking the story to the recent conflicts, and there is a lot of potential for special effects.

REASON TWO: Robert Downey Jr. is perfectly cast as Tony Stark, as he is a lot like Tony Stark in real life. Downey Jr. went through a lot of trouble in the past, including cocaine abuse, but worked hard to get himself together and continue his acting career. Tony Stark matures as a person in this film, and Downey Jr. brings an extra level of believability to the role.

REASON THREE: The fantastic special effects. Seriously fantastic, visually. There is a bit where Iron Monger (the villain of the film, a bigger, badder version of Iron Man) runs through a lab, chasing Stark's secretary, 'Pepper' Potts. It is awesome. He is, like, ten feet tall, running at what must have been about seventy miles an hour, charging through the machinery of this lab, and the secretary only just escapes. It is a brilliant, scary moment in the film that really shows off how much money was put into this movie.

REASON FOUR: Samuel L. Jackson. Some of you may be going: 'So what?'. Sam Jackson plays Nick Fury, leader of the organisation called SHIELD. In the original comics, he was caucasian, with an eyepatch, a cigar and a crew cut. Then Marvel introduced the Ultimate version of the comics, revamped and modernised to prevent the comics becoming too old-fashioned. Nick Fury was changed to look like Samuel L. Jackson (with his full consent), still with the eyepatch. And then, at the end of Iron Man, after the credits, Sam Jackson himself steps out of the shadows as Nick Fury. It was inevitable - he was virtually being groomed for the role. But:

Nick Fury + Iron Man = Ever rising possibility of a movie based on the superhero team the Avengers.

Rumours of films based on Thor and Captain America (other members of the Avengers) are definitely around, so it looks likely.
So without sounding too much like a comic book nerd, I will just say that there may very well be a few cracking films out in the next few years that I wage with great anticipation.
Over and out.

Thursday 1 May 2008

Old men talking


By William Wivell (me)
I write like
Cory Doctorow

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!