![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Erik and I had a date, with real going-to-the-movies and everything!
I really, really enjoyed this movie.
I mean, naturally it has the ever-so-much-more-so fast paced action scenes with all the ridiculously long falls that I'm growing weary of*, but it's a super hero movie. It had all the excitement and explosions and action fast enough that sometimes I don't even bother trying to follow it I expect from a super hero movie. And of course there's Tony Snark.
I can't get over how awesome it is that we saw Tony Stark having anxiety attacks. A male action hero in a summer blockbuster having mental repercussions for past events beyond mere angst? Having actual real mental health issues? And still being the god damn hero? That's amazing!
It's not like the mental health issues of people who go through traumatic events are untouched in film, or there aren't good dramatic portrayals of mental health issues, but those are usually kept as far as possible from the big summer block buster action flick. It's both an excellent, human portrayal of a person having a normal reaction in some very strange circumstances, and a decent way to handicap a super hero (the hero/villain arms race is always a problem with these things). It's not over-played as a huge dramatic crutch for everything else; it doesn't stop the action; it's just one of those shitty parts of life, and that makes it feel like a great portrayal to me. I even liked that it's clearly hard for the outside observers -- and perhaps even the internal one -- to tell when Stark slips from his normal asshole self to his extra special insomniac anxious asshole self. That happens. It even helps tie the rest of the marvel cinematic universe together.
I also liked Pepper's moment in the suit, and her body language in that scene is an exact mirror of Tony's. The suit doesn't suddenly become feminine when she wears it, and she just damn well saves him like she damn well has to. That worked fairly well at the end, too -- her "Well, that was violent" saved it from looking like she'd had a complete personality transplant as well as the extremis treatment; she just does what she has to do, very businesslike. Granted, she may have had a sudden secret martial arts level up, but it's a super hero movie. Everyone has those. If there's an Iron Man 4 -- and I'd be happy to see them milk this particular cash cow more, shit, "Fast and Furious" is now at six -- it'd be neat to see her with some useable powers, or her own armor. It's not entirely clear whether Tony removed the extremis thing or fixed it, after all, and they could do interesting things with that.
I liked the false-front plot point of the Mandarin (though I know now, looking at other reviews after the fact, it was a big departure from the comics), because it saved it from being another painful racist jab. It was clever, but mostly it saved it from feeling like another awkward piece of almost-propaganda, and made it into a rather more interesting point about the dangers of manipulation.
Oh, and the fall! The fall that worked because of TEAMWORK! Not just teamwork, but basically normal people saving each other (with significant help, obv) through teamwork. That made me smile.
I keep coming back to the anxiety attacks, though. That really is a marvelous thing.
*One of these days I'm going to just get frustrated at Hollywood's constant bigger-badder-boomier action sequences and sit down and mainline hours of Buster Keaton or something. Maybe go on an Evel Knievel binge. Hollywood action has become this bizarre thing where the violence starts with someone being thrown bodily across a room, slamming into a concrete wall, and then getting up to throw a punch -- and has to go up from there. Back when people were doing all their own stunts, and actually getting hurt, a rather lower bar of violence was still quite convincing. Super hero movies do get a bit of a pass, though. Of course comic book heroes can slam into walls. Duh.
I really, really enjoyed this movie.
I mean, naturally it has the ever-so-much-more-so fast paced action scenes with all the ridiculously long falls that I'm growing weary of*, but it's a super hero movie. It had all the excitement and explosions and action fast enough that sometimes I don't even bother trying to follow it I expect from a super hero movie. And of course there's Tony Snark.
I can't get over how awesome it is that we saw Tony Stark having anxiety attacks. A male action hero in a summer blockbuster having mental repercussions for past events beyond mere angst? Having actual real mental health issues? And still being the god damn hero? That's amazing!
It's not like the mental health issues of people who go through traumatic events are untouched in film, or there aren't good dramatic portrayals of mental health issues, but those are usually kept as far as possible from the big summer block buster action flick. It's both an excellent, human portrayal of a person having a normal reaction in some very strange circumstances, and a decent way to handicap a super hero (the hero/villain arms race is always a problem with these things). It's not over-played as a huge dramatic crutch for everything else; it doesn't stop the action; it's just one of those shitty parts of life, and that makes it feel like a great portrayal to me. I even liked that it's clearly hard for the outside observers -- and perhaps even the internal one -- to tell when Stark slips from his normal asshole self to his extra special insomniac anxious asshole self. That happens. It even helps tie the rest of the marvel cinematic universe together.
I also liked Pepper's moment in the suit, and her body language in that scene is an exact mirror of Tony's. The suit doesn't suddenly become feminine when she wears it, and she just damn well saves him like she damn well has to. That worked fairly well at the end, too -- her "Well, that was violent" saved it from looking like she'd had a complete personality transplant as well as the extremis treatment; she just does what she has to do, very businesslike. Granted, she may have had a sudden secret martial arts level up, but it's a super hero movie. Everyone has those. If there's an Iron Man 4 -- and I'd be happy to see them milk this particular cash cow more, shit, "Fast and Furious" is now at six -- it'd be neat to see her with some useable powers, or her own armor. It's not entirely clear whether Tony removed the extremis thing or fixed it, after all, and they could do interesting things with that.
I liked the false-front plot point of the Mandarin (though I know now, looking at other reviews after the fact, it was a big departure from the comics), because it saved it from being another painful racist jab. It was clever, but mostly it saved it from feeling like another awkward piece of almost-propaganda, and made it into a rather more interesting point about the dangers of manipulation.
Oh, and the fall! The fall that worked because of TEAMWORK! Not just teamwork, but basically normal people saving each other (with significant help, obv) through teamwork. That made me smile.
I keep coming back to the anxiety attacks, though. That really is a marvelous thing.
*One of these days I'm going to just get frustrated at Hollywood's constant bigger-badder-boomier action sequences and sit down and mainline hours of Buster Keaton or something. Maybe go on an Evel Knievel binge. Hollywood action has become this bizarre thing where the violence starts with someone being thrown bodily across a room, slamming into a concrete wall, and then getting up to throw a punch -- and has to go up from there. Back when people were doing all their own stunts, and actually getting hurt, a rather lower bar of violence was still quite convincing. Super hero movies do get a bit of a pass, though. Of course comic book heroes can slam into walls. Duh.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-05-30 02:28 pm (UTC)From:I actually even came up with a rationalization for Pepper's martial arts abilities there: My headcanon is that she knew who Black Widow was the whole time she was at Stark Industries in IM2, and got her to train her for a while.
And yes, I totally hope that Tony just stabilized her Extremis abilities, rather than removing them.
Or they could go the other way: Solarbird mentioned in the comments to my review that she'd be totally happy watching Tony Stark 4 instead of Iron Man 4, and I have to agree with her. They've got a solid enough setup on this continuity now that they could totally do a movie with these characters that doesn't need to lean on the Super Hero stuff at all.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-13 12:40 am (UTC)From:And Pepper didn't really enjoy it, per se, but she's too practical to reject the help of an expert when offered.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-30 03:36 pm (UTC)From:I loved that Rhodey and Pepper got some nice scenes too, especially when Rhodey and Tony are out of armor, and Rhodey shows he's a well-trained marine who knows his way around a battlefield, and Tony doesn't know what the heck he's doing.
And I agree, the PTSD was interesting to see. I'd heard that Disney put the kaibosh on doing the now-classic alcoholism story, but this is another great way of showing how a regular human can be adversely affected by the extreme stress of superheroing. AND still push through it and be a hero!
Once again, RDJ (and the writers) seem to know how to ride the line of lovable scamp and genuine self-centered asshole. He's really not a wholly good person... but not terrible either. In other words, a human we can relate to.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-13 12:39 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2013-05-30 03:47 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2013-06-13 12:40 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2013-06-02 01:20 am (UTC)From:I'm holding out for my Iron Widow movie.
(rocks in corner)