So I saw Iron Man on opening day of all things. Someone remarked earlier on the fact that I hadn’t posted on it at all. Another remark he made got me to thinking why I might not have. He said something to the effect that it had no emotional hook.
You know what, I think he’s right. It’s a gorgeous movie. There’s a lot of whiz-bangery and “OMG ISN’T THAT COOL!” moments. It’s a spot on reproduction of the comic with a few of it’s own touches. The action is fantastic. There’s no heart though.
Sure there’s the scene where he get’s his wake up call and decides to stop being a cowboy. That’s about it though. The relationship between Pepper and Tony is about as deep as the wax on the Audi. I don’t think it’s RDJ’s fault. It’s certainly not Paltrow’s fault. So it’s probably either the script or the director, possibly both.
“But Scott,” you say “it’s a film based on a comic book.”
“Spider-man,” I say. You can have an emotional hook in a comic book film. In fact it needs one. If you want a grown up comic book movie it has to be there. The characters need to be fleshed out, have some depth. I saw more of that in Rhodey and he was on screen a lot less (maybe it was Downey?).
So should you see it? Frak yeah. You probably already have. You’ll enjoy it. You’ll probably whoop and holler. I did. It even got a “Helly yeah!” form me at the cookie after the credits. It just didn’t resonate with me. What do you think?