Iron Man 3 Review (Minor Spoilers)

I will start this review by saying that Marvel can not make a bad film. They can however, make a film that, although well done and dare I say awesome, pales slightly to the films that proceeded it. Now I am quite aware that the Avengers film was going to be a hard act to follow, and perhaps it is for that reason that Iron Man 3 in my opinion seems a bit empty. 

 Now before all the fanboys start writing me hate mail, I will say I really, really liked this movie. (Love is something I reserve for my friends and family, a movie is liked in various degrees.) It starts with a bang, literally, and although the pace slows when necessary it never drags.  Robert Downey Jr. is flawless as Tony Stark as usual and is given a bit more to chew on this go around, emotionally and physically. He is out of the suit more in this film which I think is refreshing, and it is great to see the brain behind the brawn. Also in the limelight a bit more is Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts, who when on camera has a bit more strength than in the previous Iron Man films. She gets her chance to prove her medal, oops, I mean mettle this time. Now I hope someone at Marvel reads this, GIVE DON CHEADLE/JAMES RHODES/WAR MACHINE/IRON PATRIOT his own spin off movie!!! He is great  and I would love to see him spread his armored wings in his own film. Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin...nuff said, if you need more you obviously need to watch more of this man's films. Now I like Guy Pearce, but here I feel he falls flat and is a bit generic. It is obvious there is supposed to be more, but it just doesn't come across for me. Rebecca Hall fills the role of Maya Hansen well and does a good job with it. James Badge Dale plays Savin the extremely self assured leader of the Mandarins troops with just the right amount of bad, as to not make him completely unlikeable but you still want to see him get his in the end. And what would an Iron Man film with out Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan (who was sorely missed in the Avengers in my opinion), and Paul Bettany as Jarvis. I do think both get to shine in this outing, with Bettany's Jarvis being able to stretch his humor muscles a bit as well as, dare I say, bring a bit more humanity to the role. 

I am not going to drop a whole synopsis of the film in here as it would be to hard not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. What I will do is make a few points on why I feel the movie is a bit empty. Now I didn't think about it until my friend Brian pointed out that one of the biggest problems this film has is the lack of acknowledgement of the other Avengers. The US is under attack by a terrorist and never once is Captain America or Nick Fury even mentioned. I wasn't sure but after I saw it a second time, it is a big hole that needs to be addressed in more than a throw away line over drinks. Another point is that I feel that there is a HUGE hole left by the absence of Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson. Spoiler alert! If you didn't know already, Coulson is not dead and will play a part in the new Shield television show next fall, this would have been a great way to bring him back and explain the reasons why no other Avenger is dealing with the Mandarin threat.  It was reported not to long ago that Shane Black had stated that he edited over an hour and fifteen minutes of footage out of the final film. I can believe it. There are a few places where responsive looks and glances are made although no comment was made to warrant them, conversations at times almost seem like there was missing information. Not horribly distracting but I would love to see a 3 hour directors cut of this movie to fill in what I felt where gaps.

That all said, again I really do like this movie, it was fun, it has the perfect amount of humor, it has some great action scenes, it has Ben Kingsley, and it has 47 different Iron Man suits. 47 suits...yeah of course it was a way to justify 47 different action figures and toys to sell. But who cares it has 47 DIFFERENT IRON MEN!!!! Sorry, sorry, my inner geek took over and...THE HULK BUSTER ARMOR....sorry that was the last time, I promise. Oh yeah I forget I have seen this in both 3D and 2D, and to be honest it works in both formats, the 3D isn't at all distracting and at times it seems almost negligible, which is good since it's there and you don't realize it is.  So please don't take my criticism to mean that you should not see this movie. If you are a fan of the other Marvel films, then by all means you will be thrilled with this one.  If you haven't seen the other films, first shame on you, second, go watch them because this one will make a lot more sense if you know the back story a bit. So out of a total of 10 stars this film rates a solid 8 in my book. SO run down grab your popcorn get a good seat in the middle of the theater, if you have 3D glasses throw them on and tell Jarvis to drop your needle.

My review of GI Joe:Retaliation

Please be aware there will be some slight spoilers involved in this review. I will start by saying I was not expecting anything good from this film. I had read the reviews that were popping up all over the Internet and having seen the mediocre offering that was "G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra", my outlook for this outing was understandably grim. So the previews end, the house lights dim and the Paramount logo flashes on screen followed by the logos of the production companies involved including the Hasbro logo which makes me chuckle every time I see it. The film starts off with a small team of Joe's on a mission in a North Korea, I chuckled again due to all the saber rattling coming from that country in the past few days. And just like the 80's cartoon, the team of Great American Heroes does what they do best, shoot things, beat people up and get away. So far so good. The director, Jon M. Chu, actually handled the action scenes fairly well, the camera moving when it needed to but never being a huge distraction. Of course this being a modern action film the scenes of combat have the familiar kinetic flavor made popular by the Bourne series. From here on out the film has some real high points as well as some extremely low. But as I have always said, if you go to see an action film expecting Shakespeare, then yes you are going to be disappointed, but if you are going to see stuff blow up and bodies flying then you will be entertained.



OK, let's start with a few high points. First up, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. I really like him as an actor, and from everything I have seen and heard the man seems like a really good guy. In this film he is pure Rock, he plays the character of Roadblock. Now Roadblock in the original toy and cartoon series of the 1980's was an African-America mass of muscle with a heart of gold who was also a gourmet chef. In this film he is Africa-Canadian/Samoan born in California mass of muscle with a heart of gold who is mentioned in passing as being a chef. Fortunately for the audience the writes did not include the formers per chant for rhyming everything he said. Now of course Johnson has the physique and demeanor to pull this off, of course, we have seen him do it before, but who cares, this is an action film, the whole big guy beating people up rule is in full effect. Second is the portrayal of Roadblocks friendship with Channing Tatum's Conrad "Duke" Hauser. You really do believe these two men are like brothers.



Now on to Channing Tatum. He is really good in this film, unlike the wooden acting that was seen from his first outing as Duke in The Rise of Cobra. Here is where I spoil things a bit so please be aware. The afore mentioned friendship is one of the films high points but unfortunately it is short lived. After a quick snatch and grab of a nuclear warhead from insurgents in Pakistan, the Joes are ambushed by Cobra in the first strike in their plan for world domination. In this attack Duke and all the other Joes, aside from Flint, Lady Jaye, Roadblock and Snake Eyes are killed. The attack having been authorized by the President of the United States to eliminate the Joes. Of course those who saw the first film know that this is not the President, but Zartan, who has been impersonating POTUS.



This brings me to the third high point in my opinion. Jonathan Pryce as both the President and Zartan in Disguise. I have read other reviews that have said he was bland. I didn't see it that way. Pryce chews the scenery with such glee in his eye as the maniacal Zartan. He seemed to really enjoy being the villain in this film. We do get to see Arnold Vosloo as Zartan but only briefly, it was more of a cameo than anything.



OK so some low points. Flint, Lady Jaye and General Joe Colton. While I can say as a kid in 1984, Flint was my favorite G.I. Joe, in this film he is just sort of there for name recognition. The character is given no real development aside from being a brash officer who likes to rush headlong into things. D.J. Cotrona does an OK job with the script he was given but he is fairly forgettable. Lady Jaye. Adrianne Palicki is easy on the eyes and does a good job with the role, but again we are treated to little development of her character. The way she is written, Lady Jaye is one of the scripts low points. She is portrayed as a woman in a man's world constantly fighting for her place at the table. She complains that she isn't taken seriously as a soldier but has no problem flaunting her body in tight shorts or a low cut dress at the drop of a hat. I feel it weakened the character in that as soon as she was back in uniform she was fighting for her place again. Gen. Joe Colton, Joe as in G.I. Joe. Yes I am going to say bad things about Bruce Willis in an action film. Well I don't think it was all his fault, but Bruno seemed to be, well, bored. Again no character development whatsoever, and Bruce just seems like he is there because, you know, he's Bruce Willis.



Low point number two, what the heck is this ninja crap? It is an established part of G.I. Joe lore that Snake Eyes and Stormshadow were trained by the same master and it was Stormshadows betrayal and murder of that master that split them and started a blood feud between them. This was shown in the first film and is revisited here. But it gets bad quickly, very bad. While I think Ray Park's Snake Eyes and Byung-hun Lee's Stormshadow are both awesome on screen, we saw Stormshadow stabbed in the chest and fall into an abyss in the first film. But he just appears here, with no explanation as to how or why he survived. And then there is the convoluted story of who killed who and why that revolves around these two as narrated to us by the worst part of this film, RZA as Blind Master. RZA does his best to look and sound like a 1970's Kung Fu master, bad dubbing included. I have seen children read off of cue cards and be more believable. Sadly this story arc has a MAJOR part in the third act of this film, but I am not going to spoil that. Following a close second for worst part of this film is Elodie Yung as Jinx. I cannot say if it was the script, the editing or the actress, but nothing good ever comes out of this character. Sure she is a ninja but sweet sword skills and jumping around only goes so far if every time she opens her mouth, you want to hand Bill Paxton an Oscar for best actor. I will say the action scenes involving martial arts are well done and exciting, including the ridiculous swinging through the Himalayas sword fights, but hey, you need a bit of over the top action in films like this, in my opinion.



The look of this film is leaps and bound better than it's predecessor, the production designer stayed much closer to the source material, giving us H.I.S.S. tanks, The Water Moccasin swamp boat, Cobra Commander in all of his chrome faced glory as well as a few little bits here and there that fans of the original cartoon will recognize and smile when they see it. Unfortunately for us the late Chris Latta's voice is sorely missed, as Cobra Commander is more Darth Vader than screeching mad man here. Another sorely missed part of the Cobra cadre (Spoiler) is the lack Chris Eccleston's Destro. I am not sure if Mr. Eccleston didn't want to reprise his role or the writers felt they had enough characters but for me it just didn't seem right that Destro was not at Cobra Commanders side while the world burned. The script has some large flaws through out the film, going from tightly written dialogue to mundane and cliched. We are treated to at times extremely realistic action and dialogue followed almost instantly with implausible scenarios that take a large effort to suspend disbelief to get through. Thankfully there are no superhuman exo-suits or physics defying underwater battles to be found, and the action and violence is much more grounded and realistic. Not that there are not a few cartoony and tongue in cheek moments, but on the whole, this just felt more real.



As you can tell by now I am of two minds when it comes to this movie as a whole. I really enjoyed parts of it while I was disappointed by others. I guess it comes down to would I recommend the film, and yes I would. If you are willing to go in grab a popcorn, some Raisinettes and a Coke, sit down and just have fun watching toys you played with as a kid come to life doing things that can't really happen. If you are looking for a film that will broaden your mind or make you think about the human condition, I am sure there is something on IFC or Sundance you would find more your speed. So on a scale of 1-5, I would rate this film a solid 3.5, a good popcorn movie that you can escape with for 110 minutes.

In support of my friend in the VFX industry.

To anyone out there who dabbles in, works in or has a love of visual fx. Current Hollywood practices have crippled the VFX industry and good people, hard working people are losing their jobs. I have joined these talented artists,many of whom I call friends, by changing my profile image on all the social media I currently use to a green screen. Which is exactly what Hollywood films will look like without these hardworking men and women.

Icy Day

Woke up today to a nice icy morning. Schools closed so Tyler is home and hopefully things will improve before Missy has to head to work this evening. I have a few commissions to work on so it will be a busy day. I also need to make a copy of my life cast. Need to do some make up sculpting, more as practice than any other reason. Well off to work I go!

Face Off application and audition video

Well I did it. I submitted my application and video to Face Off. http://youtu.be/WSleE66ydR0.

News and some fun stuff

So a bit of news, it would seem I am heading to Florida at the end of the month for 2 weeks for some contract work. I am not at liberty to say what it is or for who. That's the beauty of contracts, not allowed to say anything. I can say it will be a lot of work in 2 weeks time and I am looking forward to it. This should be the first trip of many, well not many but a few. I will say it will be hard to leave the family for the extended time, but gotta take the work when it comes. On a different note, Melissa and I took the twins out today for their first sled ride. Big Brother Tyler rode in the sled with them. Jacob was all smiles and giggles, Charleigh on the other hand was not impressed. It would appear she does not like the cold. Well at least cold wind, because she did lay down and make her first snow angel.

 

I do have a few commissions I need to finish before heading south so I should be pretty busy for the next couple of weeks. I never know how to end these things, I need a catch phrase like "Live long and Prosper" or "Hasta La Vista Baby". I am going to need to work on that. How about.....

"Don't let the door hit ya, where the Good Lord splitcha." I don't know. Maybe not.

New Deals

Sitting here waiting for a phone call about a possible gig. Proposal was sent now just need to hammer out the details.

My little Superman

My son Jacob rockin his Superman track suit!

Ugggg

It's 4 am and I am awake...why?!?