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  • Canister X Movie Review #46: Iron Man 2 (2010)

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    Iron Man 2 (2010)

    Iron Man 2
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    Iron Man 2 (2010)
    Written by Justin Theroux
    Directed by Jon Favreau
    Runtime 124 min.
    4 out of 5

    Taking place six months after Iron Man, old shellhead is using his armor to maintain world peace and keep things right as rain for the world. Enter Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), aka Whiplash, who has a vendetta against Tony Stark and wants to see him dead for the wrong he believed Tony did to his father.

    Meanwhile, Tony’s dealing with issues of his own, namely that the very tool he’s using to keep himself alive—the arc reactor in his chest—is actually poisoning him, and time is quickly running out.

    Can Iron Man defeat a foe hellbent on grinding him to dust while also saving his own life?

    Iron Man 2 is a solid sequel. It’s not as smart as the first one, but it’s certainly not bad by any means. The idea of the arc reactor slowly killing Tony is brilliant. I mean, really, what do you do, right? Just wait it out? Unplug? Tell someone? Good stuff.

    A lot of people gave this movie grief and I don’t understand why. You got superhero action, superhero struggle, relationship tension, introduction of a new hero—War Machine (Don Cheadle, who plays James Rhodes; the part was originally played by Terrence Howard in the first movie)—and a new villain with a simple but decent origin story. Adding to that you got the breadcrumb trail that will eventually lead into The Avengers. The cool part is this subplot—complete with appearances by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)—don’t detract from the main story. Of course, I won’t fail to mention Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, who’s an amazing actor and becomes whatever role he is assigned. I love that about him.

    As before, Robert Downey Jr. continues to amaze me as Tony Stark. He is that guy. End of story. Never thought I’d like a self-absorbed hero, but he proved me wrong.

    Anyway, back to the action: Iron Man 2 has got loads of it, right from Iron Man’s first encounter with Whiplash, to the big fight at the end where it takes Iron Man teaming up with War Machine to take out robots and a newly-armored Whiplash. What I liked was the realistic—as you can get, anyway—portrayal of what a suit of robot armor would most likely do and fight like if it was real. It was fluid, yet appropriately clunky and moved as such accordingly. The flight sequences were exciting, same with the weapons used.

    What was also good was the humor. Aside from the here’s-how-I-pee-in-the-armor joke, which I found dumb, every other bit of joking around totally worked and still maintained that this was a serious movie with a serious hero fighting a serious villain.

    What makes this third movie in Marvel’s Phase One plan great is that while it had its own self-contained story, it was part of the overall Avengers plotline. I loved how the two worked together but weren’t dependent on each other.

    Do I watch this movie when I’m going through my super flicks in my DVD and Blu-ray collection? Every time.

    A major iron thumbs up from me on this one.

    Recommended.


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  • Canister X Movie Review #45: Iron Man (2008)

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    Iron Man (2008)

    Iron Man
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    Iron Man (2008)
    Written by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway
    Directed by Jon Favreau
    Runtime 126 min.
    5 out of 5

    Tony Stark has it all: money, women, fame, and little regard for anyone else but himself, but when he’s kidnapped by a terrorist group known as the Ten Rings, everything changes and he soon finds himself with a car battery connected to a magnet in his chest. Tiny bits of shrapnel from the blast that led to his capture are slowly making their way to his heart and the magnet is keeping them at bay.

    The Ten Rings want him to build them a weapon and Tony knows that if he does, the world will fall into the terrorists’ hands. He needs to find a way to escape and to do so he must create something more than just the weapon the Ten Rings wanted him to.

    After inventing a metal suit with some crude weaponry, he manages to escape the Ten Rings’ lair and return to the world as a new man. Taking his iron suit discovery to a whole new level, he becomes Iron Man and sets to right the wrongs of his past and ensure that the terrorists who tried to enslave him won’t do so to anyone else.

    Iron Man is a thrill ride you don’t want to miss!

    There’s something about origin stories that I have an extreme soft spot for and Iron Man is near perfect in that regard. Given that Iron Man is a “human hero with no powers” ala Batman and it’s his suit which gives him his abilities, he becomes instantly relatable (well, okay, maybe not one hundred percent as I’m not a billionaire, playboy, philanthropist like him), but I’m on the journey of life like Tony with my own share of pain and turning points. The movie’s pacing is bang on and progresses “as if this really happened,” which is a huge plus for a superhero movie. (I’m a fan of super flicks that come from the angle, “If this happened tomorrow, this is how it’d most likely play out.” My own superhero series, The Axiom-man Saga, is based on that premise.)

    The Iron Man armor looks amazing and real, which is a big deal because most of it is CGI. I’m glad they were able to create real-looking metal armor that didn’t look totally fake. Likewise, to see the progression from the oh-so-crude Mark One armor all the way up the Mark Three was cool.

    The rest of the special effects were out-of-sight, especially the ultrasonic flying sequences. Looking at the world from Tony’s perspective inside the suit put you in his shoes—in his armor—and made you feel like you were Iron Man along with him.

    This flick also boasts a killer soundtrack and score that gets you pumped.

    Let’s see . . .

    Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark. Right from the first scene he lets you know who he is and what he believes in: himself. This carries throughout the rest of the film, but he also does a good job of becoming a changed man as the story goes on and the Tony we meet in the beginning of the movie is different from the one at the end. A lot of actors who are on supposed journeys during a story don’t pull that off and usually come across as the same guy from start to finish.

    Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts is dynamite. She’s strong, witty and is one of the few people who can go toe-to-toe with Tony’s narcissistic personality. Excellent casting for this role.

    Iron Man was the stepping off point for Marvel’s Phase One, which would later culminate in The Avengers. I don’t think at the time anyone knew that Iron Man—who back then wasn’t really known outside of the comic book community—would become such the massive hit it was, the franchise growing bigger and bigger with each outing.

    But I can see why. This movie is awesome.


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  • Canister X Movie Review #25: Daredevil (2003)

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    Daredevil (2003)

    Daredevil
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    Daredevil (2003)
    Written by Mark Steven Johnson
    Directed by Mark Steven Johnson
    Runtime 103 min.
    4 out of 5

    An A-plus report card brings young Matt Murdock to the docks to show his father. All he ever wanted was to please his dad and, as per his father’s advice, “be a doctor, be a lawyer.” Except, stumbling upon his alcoholic, washed-up ex-boxer father as a leg-breaker, Matt takes off on his skateboard in a hurry, only to accidentally run into a truck with barrels of radioactive liquid that cause him to go blind. But all is not darkness because he also mysteriously inherits a strange “radar sense” that enables him to see in a sort of X-ray way because of his newfound ability to convert sound waves into sight.

    Him and his father vow to fix their relationship and their life, promise to never give up and be fearless, and embark on a journey to perfect themselves and hit the comeback trail—Matt via the books and honing his senses and disciplining his body; his father to enter the ring once more. With Matt by his side, Jack “the devil” Murdock makes good on that promise, but a fateful night in the ring changes everything and Matt promises from then on to stick up for those who can’t defend themselves and watch out for the long shots like he and his father were.

    Now, all grown-up, he’s a lawyer by day and masked crime fighter by night. His name: Daredevil.

    And he’s not the only one who wants a piece of New York. Crime boss the Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) is on the rise, as is his hired goon, Bullseye (Colin Farrell). Adding to matters, Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner)—a shapely martial arts master—has her sights on Daredevil (Ben Affleck) as well, leading us into a battle for New York, for vengeance, and for those who have been a victim of crime.

    For some reason a lot of people didn’t like this movie. I thought it was great. I liked the overall story; the costumes (except Bullseye’s); the atmospheric New York City; the sense of darkness Matt Murdock carried within himself; Elektra’s close relationship with her father; Foggy Nelson (Jon Favreau) and his being a “come-with” guy—very enjoyable. There was a sense of humanity about this version of Daredevil that I was able to relate to on a lot of levels.

    The fight scenes were nothing short of amazing, especially that barroom brawl where Daredevil clears the room. I remember seeing that in the trailer and just being absolutely stoked.

    Who cares that Kingpin was black? So what? The dude’s one of my favourite actors and it was interesting to see him play the bad guy as he’s usually the nice, innocent one, but for some reason people didn’t like the character being black in this. It doesn’t matter, folks. He did a good job.

    The whole Matt Murdock-Elektra/Daredevil-Elektra relationship was well-handled, in my opinion, and I particularly enjoyed how those elements intertwined with each other throughout the film.

    If I was going to criticise a few things—and while I enjoyed Daredevil’s gallivanting throughout New York—his spinning jumps and aerial movies were very similar to Spider-Man’s (who made his feature film debut the year before Daredevil came out), and some of the stuff Daredevil was able to do was pretty farfetched. I mean, I don’t care how awesome you are at acrobatic stuff or if you’re more fit than Bruce Lee on his best day, but falling face first toward a window washer’s station at lightning speed won’t get slowed down by doing a somersault in the air so you could land on your feet. You’d break your legs and die from the impact. But whatever. It’s superheroes, so I overlook most of the impossible these guys accomplish. Just goes with the understanding that superheroes can do things we can’t, whether realistic or not.

    That’s really my only critique. I liked everything else. Wasn’t crazy about Bulleye’s costume. Would have liked to have seen him as more of a stealth assassin. I also don’t read Daredevil comics so I can’t tell you if this is a faithful adaptation or not. I know Daredevil’s backstory and a bit about some past adventures, but that’s about it.

    I haven’t seen the director’s cut of this either, so need to get around to doing that.

    Still a good movie and I’m proud to have it in my superhero movie collection.

    If you like superhero flicks, you’ll like Daredevil (2003).


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