The Earth-Toned Pill

Saturday night I went and saw Ironman with Cate and several friends from work after a light dinner at the Chilis near the theater. I really wasn't expecting much from the movie, mainly using it as an excuse for all of us to get together and socialize outside of work. Throughout the week leading up to seeing it, I repeatedly cracked jokes about watching Robert Downey Jr doing lines of coke before donning his uber-armor. Instead, I was shocked to be treated to:

Robert Downey Jr, aka Tony Stark, aka BADASS

The movie as a whole was absolutely fantastic, much to my total surprise.

While the story was for the most part highly predictable (especially if you're a giant geek and know anything at all about the comic character, like I do...) but everything else was totally beyond what I expected. I'm really glad I didn't read up on the movie at all, because I was pleasantly surprised to see some pretty big 'A'-listers in the supporting cast like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges.

One of my biggest complaints about a lot of movies coming out today, and one that seems to be echoed by quite a few other movie philes, is the overuse of computer generated imagery (CGI) as a replacement for non-digital special effects, stunts and scenery. This over-dependence on computer graphics as a film-making tool (where the story also seems to take a second seat to the effects) seems to have really peaked with the Star Wars prequels, and has developed into a mania which I like to call 'George Lucas Syndrome', since he seems to be the worst perpetrator of this madness thus far.

For those that don't know, we currently don't have the technology to create powered armor of the type used in the movie, despite ongoing research funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (or DARPA for short). So since they obviously can't really have Tony Stark flying around in an armored suit on screen, they have no choice but to resort to using CG to 'fill the gaps' and create a realistic portrayal of the character. And in this respect, the movie shines very brightly. I mentioned earlier that the story wasn't the strongest out there, but on the other hand they didn't seem to overcompensate with massive amounts of hokey CG either. And in the end I think viewers will walk away like I did, satisfied with a good blend of action, story and believable-looking CG elements.

The casting was also right on the money, with Robert Downey Jr seemingly slipping into the role of Tony Stark almost too easily. Paltrow also provided a great foil, and the romantic tension that developed established a foundation that can easily be expanded on in a sequel. I really don't want to go into any further detail so as not to spoil it for those of you that haven't seen it yet because it really is a treat not to be missed.

The only other thing I want to say is that if you go see it, stay for the whole movie, credits and all. At the very end you get a cameo appearance by none other than Sam Jackson, the 'original badass' himself!

So if you haven't seen it yet, what on Earth are you waiting for?!?!?