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Van Plexico
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IRON MAN animated movie DVD REVIEW
« Thread Started on Jan 23, 2007, 9:00pm »

Here's my review of the spankin' new IRON MAN animated movie on DVD, written for and posted on http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.html?id=3458

Possible spoilers ahead!
--Van

The Invincible Iron Man Animated Feature DVD
By Van Allen Plexico

Rating: 6/10

The Overview:

The “Invincible Iron Man” animated feature on DVD offers fans of ol’ Shellhead, and viewers in general, a rather uneven entertainment experience. To be fair, it’s a beautiful thing to look at—especially if you’ve waited years (or, in my case, decades) to see the mighty Rustbucket in motion, fightin’ and boot-jettin’ and repulsorin’ his way through some bad guys.

But for every interesting choice the script makes, there’s another that leaves you scratching your head. For every exciting and action-packed sequence involving Tony Stark in the Iron Man armor, there’s a segment of plot that seems to make little sense. And, quite unexpectedly, the most interesting character in the film isn’t Tony or Rhodey or even the Mandarin (c’mon, you knew he was in it), but someone else entirely.

The Good:

The production values for this little movie are top notch. From the very first moment of the opening credits, it absolutely looks like a big-screen Marvel movie, right up there with the Spider-Man and X-Men films. The theme and incidental music sounds like it came straight out of a major Marvel film. Above all else, the visuals are striking. This movie simply looks gorgeous.

The story tries to cram in a sort of origin sequence (though that’s later squashed—more on that it a bit) along with face time for some of the classic supporting characters, such as Pepper Potts, Rhodey, and, of all people, Howard Stark. It manages to give us a nice armor gallery, something fans of the various suit designs will appreciate. And there’s nary a “drunk Tony” moment to be found.

The Not So Good:

While the voice acting is, for the most part, acceptable, there’s a certain stiffness to the performances of many of the cast members. And while Marc Worden, the actor portraying Tony Stark, sounds acceptable enough in general, he gives Tony some sort of overly smooth, cooing, almost “porn actor” voice. Maybe he thought that would suit the character, given the way the story portrays Tony as almost a caricature of his traditional self.

And, indeed, we get a lot of “Tony the playboy” in this movie. He’s romancing a sweet young thing the first time we see him, and he even takes time out from racing against time to save Rhodey’s life to share a few quiet moments with the pretty lady serving as one of his captors. (I’m sure Rhodey wouldn’t have minded dying if it meant you got to score for the 8,723,612nd time, Tony.)

Early on, when Rhodey disappears in China and all of his assistants are killed, Tony rushes right in to the danger zone—as a passenger in an armored personnel carrier! Well, sure, you say—this is the origin story, so he hasn’t invented the armor yet. We all know the origin. The armor’s still to come, after Tony is inevitably captured by Wong Chu and forced to build a weapon for him, right? Well, not exactly. Because, you see, despite seemingly inventing the original gray armor in a sequence lifted at least nominally from the comics, Tony later reveals that, basically, that wasn’t Iron Man’s origin at all.

Huh?!

To make matters worse, after waiting half the movie to see Tony leap into action in the classic red-and-gold Iron Man armor, it turns out that the first non-gray-prototype suit we see in action is none other than… the undersea suit.

The undersea suit? What the—?!

Put it this way: If you were waiting to see a movie with a big finale battle sequence in which Tony Stark, in the red-and-gold armor, smacks down with one or more classic villains…well, you’re still waiting.

The DVD includes the requisite "special features," and they're not all bad. There's an armor gallery that covers most of the important models, even including the armor of "Teen Tony" -- and if you don't know what that is, consider yourself fortunate. The "Dr. Strange" preview is actually a few minutes from the beginning of that upcoming feature, thus it barely contains Strange at all.

The one really nice feature, "The Origin of Iron Man," starts out with a look at the character's beginnings, but then turns into a "making of" documentary with several good interviews, including legendary Iron Man co-plotter/inker Bob Layton. The one drawback to this feature: Before the end, it becomes a series of explanations, if not outright justifications, for some of the odd decisions made in the construction of the script. We're left with the unsettling sense that perhaps too many cooks spoiled the soup -- that everyone had something that just "had" to be there, and in the end, it all got put in, leaving the screenwriter to try to make it all fit, somehow.

The Verdict:

The Invincible Iron Man animated feature looks like a big-budget Marvel movie, sounds like a big-budget Marvel movie, and in places has the excitement to be expected from a big-budget Marvel movie.

The script, however, feels glued together in an attempt to make all the old pieces of Iron Man history fit in with an entirely new and different story. (And origin. Sort of.) The net result is an unsatisfactorily uneven movie that will leave casual viewers somewhat confused and longtime fans disappointed.

Looks like we Iron Man fans are still looking toward May 2, 2008, and the live-action movie, for our real Shellhead fix. Deliver us, Robert Downey, Jr. Oh, my. Did I really say that?

“Iron Van” Plexico runs the AvengersAssemble.net site, has written Iron Man for the MV-1 FanFiction Project, and has had a beer with a guy in an Iron Man costume at DragonCon.

« Last Edit: Jan 26, 2007, 1:03am by Van Plexico »

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Van Plexico
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Re: IRON MAN animated movie DVD REVIEW
« Reply #1 on Jan 24, 2007, 12:25am »

An addendum to the review:

In the Special Features of the DVD, the various creators (including, IIRC, the screenwriter, producer, Quesada, etc) make the argument for why they altered Iron Man's origin the way they did.

Basically, it apparently came down to "Avi Arad wanted to see a big armor gallery in the movie." And since this was the origin movie, that would have been sorta difficult.

So... changes had to be made. Changes to Iron Man's origin. Biiiiig changes.

Ridiculous changes.

They defend this as best they can, but really, I think it's just plain indefensible.

By revealing what they reveal about the armor(s) later in the movie, it just sucks the air right out of all the "origin" stuff that came before it.

You shoulda saved the Armor Gallery for a second movie, Avi.

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Re: IRON MAN animated movie DVD REVIEW
« Reply #2 on Jan 26, 2007, 10:53am »

The other big problem I had with this movie was the totally anti-climatic final battle. In current marvel tradition, someone else one the battle for the hero.

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uberwolf
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Re: IRON MAN animated movie DVD REVIEW
« Reply #3 on Mar 17, 2007, 10:06am »

Well, I finally saw this and kind of wish I hadn't. Um, when did Pepper Potts become British and an ice queen? It would have been better if they'd switched the 2 big fight scenes, having Tony in his gray armor fighting in the volcano and switching to his red and gold at the end, but what do I know?

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Nutcase65
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Re: IRON MAN animated movie DVD REVIEW
« Reply #4 on Mar 17, 2007, 8:41pm »

ahhhh man, say it ain't so.

I want so bad to have something good to watch related to Iron Man.

and I find myself waiting for ,..ulp,.. Robert Downey,...sigh

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Surf's up, dude

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