Iron Man (2008) (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

Hope I'm not boring anyone with these recaps...

I like it because it's nice to hear about people connecting with their kids through art (to use a highfalutin word) and because I forget most of these movies anyway so I could use a recap.

 

[Sam Favate]

One other thing about CA:TFA -- did Joe Johnston (an underrated director IMO) try to make a lot of the scenes colored in a sepia tone? Obviously, it was in color, but it was so muted in many places that it gave the impression of sepia. In particular, the scenes in which Steve chases the Hydra agent through Brooklyn and the scenes in the bar when the team is being assembled and when Peggy is annoyed with Steve for kissing Natalie Dormer all seem very muted. Incidentally, it was during the promotion of this film in 2011 that Johnston said he'd love to direct a Boba Fett movie, which lead me to believe he knew of Lucasfilm's plans to make more movies more than a year before the sale to Disney.

BTW, Wonder Woman (2017), a film I also loved, borrowed a lot from this one.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think Johnson was hired because of his background directing other films with a more classical style ("The Rocketeer" to name one example), so whether or not they ever implicitly discussed a color scheme, I think there was very much an intention to give those scenes set in the past a look similar to what we as an audience associate with that time period on film.

It's still my favorite Captain America movie, and one of my very favorite in the MCU. I like it more each time I see it, which is a welcome surprise. I think it hits all of the right notes in terms of plot, casting, direction and most importantly, tone. It's a fantastical story, but it's grounded just enough to be believable. I could have watched an entire series of films set in that time period with that cast. I kinda wish that they hadn't ended the movie with Cap being frozen and instead put that off for a sequel - I think it would have been possible to do the Avengers with Cap waking up in the present, but without us as audience knowing how he got there yet. But that's clearly not what the intention was and I can't fault the film for being something it was never meant to be. If anything, I remember hearing or reading at one point that they hadn't necessarily planned on making a Captain America movie before Avengers and that it had been a late addition to the Phase One calendar - if that's true, I'm doubly glad they did.

The characters are great, the humor is great, the drama is believable, and the villains (often the weak spot in these MCU productions) are good. Chris Evans (and the writers) had a fine line to walk between making Cap the perfect boy scout that he must be, but also making him a living, breathing human and not just a walking cliche, and they absolutely succeed - to the point where the character has become the moral center of the MCU.

 

[Sam Favate]

The kids and I watched Avengers. Great film, which they had seen before (we're watching them in order for the first time). They clapped and cheered throughout.

I know nothing about Avengers 4, except what everyone keeps saying, which is that main characters could die. If that's so, Cap's line to Stark "you're not the one to make a sacrifice" could be relevant. (Although, I suspect it was meant to tie into the end of the film, in which Iron Man appears to be sacrificing himself to save New York.)

None of the Avengers (except maybe Natasha) trust Fury. I don't recall specifics, but I think this was lost in other films. Coulson's death is handled very well, but I also think Agents of Shield brought him back in a plausible way.

Fury comments that Shield is making weapons to fight people of other worlds, and mentions the Asgardians who came to Earth in Thor. But he seems to know more than he is saying, which makes sense since we know he's going to meet some aliens in Captain Marvel.

A very enjoyable movie in pretty much every way.

 

[Sam Favate]

This past week we've watched Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World.

Iron Man 3 shows some very confident filmmaking. The writing is sharp, the performances manage to wink at the audience without actually winking at the audience and the film moves at a brisk pace. Here you can see the elements of change starting in the MCU. Tony Stark destroys all his suits (Operation Clean Slate) and his home is gone, meaning he's going to start over. His relationship with Pepper deepens and we get to see some villains with a twist - the Mandarin/Trevor Slattery/Aldrich Killian. This is a huge improvement over Iron Man 2, and rivals the first film as the best Iron Man movie.

The short Hail To The King goes with IM3, and sets up the real menace of the Mandarin, which the MCU will hopefully get to one of these days.

Thor: The Dark World is not nearly the bad film many make it out to be. (It's often on critics' lists as the lowest point in the MCU.) It starts out wonderfully, with a bit of history about the Dark Elves and then we see Thor, Lady Sif and the Warriors Three in action on Vanaheim, in one of the best action sequences in any of the Thor films. It's a pleasure to see the interactions between Sif and Thor and the Three; they are a vital part of the Thor mythology and it's a shame more hasn't been done with them. We get to spend a lot of time in Asgard, which is terrific. My biggest complaint is that the scenes with Malekith and the Elves are incredibly dark, which often doesn't translate well to blu-ray (especially projected blu-ray). Natalie Portman's Jane Foster is better here than she was in the first Thor, but Portman doesn't seem to want to be here. (She was famously annoyed that she was promised a female director - Patty Jenkins - for this film and it didn't work out that way. BTW, Jenkins' ideas for the film sound very good: http://collider.com/patty-jenkins-thor-2-idea/.) I found The Dark World to be a very good installment in the series.

 

[Tommy R]

I saw The Dark World for only the second time a few months ago (the first time was in the theater) right before Infinity War, and though I liked it the first time, it really got better on a repeated viewing, even if it was four and a half years later. Thor is my favorite series of the Marvel super heroes. I had kind of lost track of the Marvel movies, the first Guardians being the most recent one I saw in the theaters and hadn't seen any of them since until earlier this year. Probably due to my son being born in December 2014. I had seen all the movies in the theater up to that point. I had to re-watch a few and catch up on all the ones I missed the weeks before Infinity War came out. I've really been missing out, and I think we're going to go through them all chronologically before Avengers 4 comes out. I've still only seen a lot of those older entries once, IM2&3, CA1&2, The Incredible Norton. I may just substitute Eric Bana in though. I remember hating the Norton one.

 

[Tim Glover]

Sam, enjoying your posts here! I missed Iron Man 3...I need to see this.

Always cool to read another's views in retrospect and with their kids there. Very COOL!

 

[Sam Favate]

Oh, boy. This was the one I have been waiting for. The kids and I rewatched Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which I have said for four years now is my favorite Marvel movie. I just confirmed it.

The kids loved it. What's not to like? Cap in action in the present for the first time (not counting Avengers), the introduction of The Falcon, the biggest roles yet for Nick Fury and Black Widow, the unveiling of the modern Hydra, which has been at work for all these years, and the introduction of The Winter Soldier, a fascinating character if ever there was one. Let's not forget Agent 13, who deserves more attention. (Attention, Agents of SHIELD writers!) Plenty of spectacle too - those three giant helicarriers shooting the hell out of each other and then crashing! Into SHIELD headquarters!

The movie had some really amazing stunts too. Several times one of us said "Whoa!" at something a real stuntman did. With CGI, I'm afraid stunts are becoming a lost art. And speaking of lost arts, the political thrills in this one really gives it a maturity over the other films and make it seem more present. BTW, the movie's plot device of dumping intelligence secrets on the Internet seems prescient.

The movie also has a number of ways it could relate to the rest of the Marvel films. Black Widow certainly seems to know Bucky. Hopefully (as rumored) this gets addressed in her solo film. It makes both of them more interesting. Nick Fury said "I trusted someone once; it cost me an eye." I wonder if that will turn up in Captain Marvel. Steve continues to long for Peggy, and you sense the deep regret both of them have at the way their lives kept them apart. (Could that pop up in Avengers 4?) This is Chris Evans' best performance as Steve.

I remember thinking in 2014 that this was the moment the Marvel films really arrived. If you ask me, they've been on an incredible roll since this one that hasn't let up.

 

[Sam Favate]

What do you do after you've been to your Fourth of July parade and it's just too hot to stay outside? You get the kids into the basement theater and watch the next Marvel movie!

It was Guardians of the Galaxy today, and it's one of our favorites. The kids have seen this one a few times, and so have I. We love it. I remember when it was coming out, it was anything but a sure thing (I'll never forget Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers trashing it months before it came out (and before he saw it) in his summer preview list. Nice to see him eat crow a few months later.)

Everything about the movie works. It sets up the characters and their intros nicely, makes their first meetings memorable, puts them in action scene after action scene, shows us more characters from deep within the Marvel Universe (Ronan, Nova Corp., the Ravagers, and our second look at Thanos) and more than anything, it expands the scope of the MCU tremendously. Guardians is the essential ingredient that got the MCU to Infinity War.

But what really makes it work is how much we care about the characters. For all the jokes (there are plenty), fights (ditto), chases and things blowing up, the movie has a heart, more than the other MCU films - so much so that I'd say subsequent films have done their best to imitate it. The music also takes the movie to new heights. This is the rarest of pop soundtracks that really works, in part because the music is well chosen and also because the songs haven't been used over and over in films before (a big mistake that Suicide Squad made, hoping to be DC's answer to Guardians).

The result is a movie that's an absolute joy from beginning to end. Watching it with your kids and hearing them laugh constantly is something everyone should experience.

 

[Sam Favate]

Bad weather gave us another movie day today. Age of Ultron it was.

The kids only saw this one once before, but are overly familiar with it because of the Lego Avengers video game, which they've played a thousand times. So they knew every beat, but were enthralled by seeing real actors (and CGI actors) playing the parts.

It's a fun movie, even if it doesn't reach the heights of the previous Avengers movie. I liked seeing the camaraderie of the team in the first half, only to witness the destruction of the team later on. Sure, they come back together to work to resolve the conflict of the film, but the damage is done. We can clearly see where the Civil War battle lines are drawn.

The introductions of Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Vision are all done nicely. The Vision in particular is a strong presence in the movie. Since our main concern in rewatching these is the connections to Infinity War, this one had a lot. The Mind Stone is the central element in this film, responsible for Ultron, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and the Vision. Tony Stark messing around with it to create Ultron showed very clearly that he had no idea what he was playing with.

Each character gets their moments to shine, as it should be in a big ensemble piece like this. Cap's vision of Peggy echoes the longing we saw in Winter Soldier (and which we'll see in Avengers 4? Just a guess). Banner and Black Widow's relationship gives the movie a wistful feeling (and the CGI on the Hulk is at its best; you can see Ruffalo's sad eyes several times).

Ultimately, this will be seen as the weakest of the three Avengers films, but for a movie with this much going on, this much fun being had to be the "weakest" is really elevating the series to a new height.

 

[Hanson]

Avengers Age of Ultron requires rewatching because there's so much going on that scenes are connected by single lines of exposition. Miss one, and the film seems like a random bundle of set pieces. There's a logic and order to the scenes, but requires repeat viewing to follow through all the arcs they cut between the various plot lines (especially during the Sokovia fight). Part of this is Wheedon trying to give all the heroes something to do and part of it was likely editing slicing out valuable connective tissue to get down to a manageable runtime. When I watched it for only the second time recently, I had zero memories of the scene with Natasha and Cap taking the nascent Vision from Ultron's van. Zero. It was like I was watching it for the first time.

Ultimately the movie is too overstuffed to handle in one viewing, but I actually liked Ultron's finale more than Avengers, which upon repeat viewing still feels like a hodgepodge of repetitive fights.

And I think it was my fourth viewing where I realized that Pietro wasn't trying to shield Hawkeye with his body, but rather a bus. But he had to run through the strafing bullet fire to put the bus into place, which meant he got hit multiple times.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The more I see Age Of Ultron, the more I like it. It's a flawed film, but it's also a remarkably personal film from writer/director Joss Whedon. There's a lot to pick apart in it about Whedon's feelings about humanity and what it means to be human, themes which are more easily identifiable if you've been following his work over the years. There are individual moments that, to me, are staggeringly beautiful. On the other hand, he's shoving a lot of plot into a movie that's actually a tiny bit shorter than the first Avengers movie, so it ends up being a little bit of a mess. At times, it can feel like things are moving along too quickly, but I also think that if someone created a real life AI that was determined to wipe out humanity and grew in ability at an exponential level, it would all happen pretty quickly - so maybe the pacing is right.

I love the last scene with Ultron and Vision together, where Ultron can only see humanity's folly, while Vision expresses that it's a wonder just to be alive and to walk alongside humans.

There are two things that bug me more than anything else with the movie when I watch it. The first is the opening "hero shot" with them storming the castle in what's meant to be an unbroken shot, but is so clearly poor quality CGI that it just looks like a video game. The CGI in these movies is usually much, much better, and while I understand what the concept of the shot was supposed to be, it just isn't where it needs to be, and takes me out of the movie right from the start. I would have preferred that they cut the shot rather than keeping in something which so obviously breaks suspension of disbelief. And, on the overall look of the film, I really dislike Ben Davis' cinematography here. It's dark and murky and bland and just isn't very exciting visually to look at. It's a big step down from the work of Seamus McGarvey in the first Avengers film. And although this next nitpick isn't as high as the other two, the score is blandly generic. Bryan Tyler wrote a few Marvel Phase II movies and all of his work is instantly forgettable. Danny Elfman was brought in to work on some themes at the eleventh hour, but it's still not great stuff. Alan Silvestri's score from the first Avengers film is significantly better.

 

[hanshotfirst1138]

Damn, that old two-disc edition of this and #2 misses the MA code (obviously), and has sure gone up in price.

 

[Hanson]

Due to my daughter's MCU-fanboyism, I have re-watched most of the MCU ouvre since April. I've seen many of them at least three times in the past 3-4 months. I just watched The Avengers for the fourth time last night.

I find it fascinating that the ones I didn't particularly enjoy the first time get better on repeat viewing. Sometimes it's my third or fourth viewing before I begin to really appreciate them. It's the kind of appreciation curve normally reserved for songs.

Last night's rewatch was the most I've ever enjoyed The Avengers. I'm still not that fond of the last act (there just seems like too many Chitauri to be fended off by 6 heroes and a lot of the fight scenes still feel repetitive). The nuclear warhead solution was a very tidy way to wrap up plots. I had remembered the whole scenario incorrectly -- the warhead didn't close the portal like I thought. Rather, it destroyed the Chitauri flagship and served as a convenient way to dispose of the active nuke, but it was Natasha and Loki's Spear that actually closed the portal. Although why Loki just left it there on Stark Tower is a headscratcher.

It's interesting to note that the post credits Thanos scene (with the "to court death" line) indicated they were moving towards the comics version of the Infinity Gauntlet story, wherein Thanos kills half the population of the universe to impress Mistress Death. They switched gears at some point on the journey to Infinity War.

Another one that took repeat viewing before taking hold was Captain America: First Avenger. I found it very blah at the time, but the puny Steve effects are still amazing and I choke up at the bravery on display during the hand grenade scene. Every time. Every time. I don't think there is a single scene in the entire MCU that elicits that kind of response from me.

 

[Sam Favate]

I choke up at the bravery on display during the hand grenade scene. Every time. Every time. I don't think there is a single scene in the entire MCU that elicits that kind of response from me.

I love that scene. One of the very best in the whole $17-billion-grossing franchise.

 

[Sam Favate]

We're now exactly two months in our MCU re-watch project, in advance of the blu-ray for Avengers: Infinity War. It was the original Ant-Man film for us yesterday, after a few days away from the films. This was the first MCU movie the kids ever saw and yesterday was only their second time seeing it. They didn't remember a lot of it.

It's terrific fun throughout. Marvel took a potentially silly concept - a shrinking man - and not only had fun with it, but showed the audience how it could be a real threat in the wrong hands.

Marvel's casting is one of their strongest characteristics. Paul Rudd is great, as are Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, and Michael Douglas. I like that they avoided using Douglas as the "old man" who gets sacrificed, etc. He had a lot to contribute. Also loved the flashback to Shield with Howard Stark, Peggy Carter and Hank Pym. How did the other guy (that Hank punched) get out of Shield - or was he Hydra? I wasn't clear.

Loved the heist movie angle, and that they strive to make each film in the series different. We also loved the use of the Thomas trains at the end; my kids were about Thomas & Friends age when the movie came out, and I remember my wife and I laughed a lot at the sight of those trains.

 

[Sam Favate]

The kids and I watched Captain America: Civil War yesterday. This was the first Marvel film they saw in the movie theater (in 2016). I remarked at the time how great it was to see the movie with them and hear them laugh (sometimes uproariously). Fortunately, that has not changed with a couple of years.

I love the movie (although Winter Soldier is my favorite) but to me, Civil War feels like an issue of the Avengers that primarily features Cap, instead of an issue of Cap that happens to feature the Avengers. However, following the narrative of the first two films, this is the resolution of the trilogy, as Cap searches for, finds and saves his friend.

This might be Scarlett Johansson's best appearance as Black Widow. She's both fierce and tender, conflicted and resolute. It's the most complex we've seen her yet, and Johansson is terrific.

The movie is essentially the end of the Avengers. There's barely any way they can work together again -- there certainly cannot be any more party scenes like in Age of Ultron where they are laughing and drinking together.

The addition of Ant-Man, Spider-Man and Black Panther all work so well that you can't help but think they belong on the team. Ant-Man and Spider-Man got the biggest laughs and brought some much-needed levity to the movie.

The villain, Zemo, is certainly brilliant but he seems a bit anticlimactic after the threats we've seen Cap and the Avengers face before. That said, his plan of destroying his enemy by making its members turn on each other was prescient, to say the least, of our modern politics.

Having seen the Black Panther movie, it's very interesting to follow T'Challa's path in this movie. Either the BP writers really picked up the gauntlet from this movie or the MCU films are so well thought-out and planned-out that it's scary.

I hope Civil War will not be the last Captain America film. Chris Evans is so good in the role, and the character is as good a window through which to view American history and politics as we have seen.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I love the movie (although Winter Soldier is my favorite) but to me, Civil War feels like an issue of the Avengers that primarily features Cap, instead of an issue of Cap that happens to feature the Avengers. However, following the narrative of the first two films, this is the resolution of the trilogy, as Cap searches for, finds and saves his friend.

Although naming it Captain America was probably a contractual thing, I have often wondered if the gross on it would have been substantially higher if it had been released as The Avengers: Civil War, which is essentially what it is. Not that it did poorly by any means, but its $408 million gross was $51 million off of Age of Ultron the year before, despite being a better film and actually being more essential to setting up Infinity War than the relatively standalone narrative of Ultron.

 

[Sam Favate]

The other day the kids and I watched Doctor Strange. They said it was "awesome." They'd seen in it the theater when it came out, but as kids do, they forgot a lot of it.

It's the least "superhero" of the superhero movies and that makes it refreshing in its own way. I disagree with the criticism from the time of its release that said it was an origin story very similar to Iron Man. Origin, yes. Similar, no. In fact, if I had to compare it to any other property, it would be Marvel's Daredevil and Iron Fist shows on Netflix. Much of Strange's training is similar to martial arts, which are in abundance in Daredevil and Iron Fist.

Benedict Cumberbatch is ideal as Strange, just as arrogant as Tony Stark but without his playful side. It's no wonder he doesn't have friends. The rest of the cast was admirable too, although I think Rachel McAdams was wasted in a pretty thankless role. If Strange is ever to find his Clea in the films, McAdams will have an even less relevant role, assuming she comes back at all.

Of course, where this ties to the larger MCU is the infinity stone in Strange's arsenal and the cosmic implications of the mystical side of the Marvel Universe. I contend that the mystical whammy Strange put on the time stone in this film to defeat Dormmamu is very close to what he did in Infinity War to defeat Thanos, but we'll have to wait until Avengers 4 to find out.

 

[Malcolm R]

Benedict Cumberbatch is ideal as Strange

His cameo in Thor: Ragnarok was awesome.