Iron Man  

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

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Iron Man

2008, in theaters

You should know

Ah, the best-laid plans...

Brian asked me if I wanted to see The Dark Knight.  Now, I get discounted movie passes through work, so I asked him if he knew what the surcharge was if you use a pass for an Imax film.  $3, bringing our total to $10 -- not bad for Imax.  Idly, I wondered how much a show at the Tuttleman Imax at the Franklin Institute costs.  Also $10, it turns out, and it's a bigger, wraparound screen.  Well.  No contest.

Saturday, we took the bus into town a few hours early to buy tickets to the 5:00 show.  Should the 5:00 show be sold out, we'd get tickets to the 7:45 show and eat dinner while we waited.

Dan had previously had plans to go down the shore, but those fell through.  He had already seen The Dark Knight at least twice, but not yet on Imax, so we invited him along.  He would meet us at the theater shortly before the show.

We got to the museum.  The 5:00 was sold out.  The 7:45 show was sold out.  The next show was at 10:30.  We called Dan, and he picked us up and took us back to my parents' house.  After a bit of research, we found out that the only show at the other Imax theater not yet sold out was the 1:00 AM show.  Well, that would not be happening.

So the question was: Is Dark Knight worth the hours of hassle we were now stacking up, the additional surcharge if we order the tickets online to ensure they weren't sold out again, and the invetiable loss of sleep since we wouldnt leave the theater until 1:00 AM and I, at least, had church in the morning?

Answer?  Let's try Dark Knight again in two weeks, and go see Iron Man now.  Neither Brian nor I had seen it, we both wanted to, and Dan was eager to see it for... I want to say the third time?  Dan loves his superhero movies.

So?

Tony Stark, billionaire playboy, heir to one of the world's foremost weapons design and manufacture corporations, is kidnapped by terrorists during a demonstration.  His captors force him to make an advanced missle for them.  He agrees, and uses the materials they provide to build a supersuit and escape.  As one does.

He becomes obsessed with perfecting the suit and stopping those who captured and tortured him, saving the next innocent victims in the process.  As he does this, he (with the aide of his personal assistant, Pepper Potts) stumbles upon a deep betrayal.

You've likely been spoiled by now, even assuming you haven't seen the movie.  None of this is likely to be news.

The story was entertaining and the action was exciting.  I did feel like I was missing something at certain points, but that's what happens when you try to cram decades of comic book continuity into two hours of movie and update the whole thing to 2008 in the process.  Overall, I approve.

Rating

See it... I guess

I mean, if you haven't seen it, you probably weren't going to, but if you're like Brian and me and have been meaning to see it but just not getting around to it, go ahead and do so soon before it leaves the theaters.  And stick around to the end of the credits

The rest of the Internet

Beware of spoilers

Andy at Scrolls of the PlatinumWarlock loved it.

Jeff at Movie Hawk gave it five stars out of five.
Brandon Valentine at BlogCritics enjoyed the energy of the film.

Housekeeping

There's been a lot going on lately, and there's even more to come.  As a result, I'd like to open a call for guest posters.  In return, I'd be happy to return the favor in the next few weeks. Reply in the comments and we'll talk.

Posted in Brian, Dan, Housekeeping, Movie, Theater by Laura