Efficient Awesomeness

Posted by admin on September 26th, 2007 in Movie Reviews, Pop Culture

Most of the articles on this site so far are about how many pop culture icons and movies suck. However, those who critique have a responsibility to defend that which shows great promise, and I want to illustrate how a certain superhero movie coming out next spring will in all likelihood irreparably rock your face off.

The world just shit its pants.

Check out the trailer here. This trailer is two and a half minutes long, the longest possible under MPAA regulation. In fact, what makes this trailer and the potential movie in general so fucking kick ass is that it’s balls-to-the-wall confident about the direction it’s taking. They skipped the teaser, probably because they know Iron Man is so easy to fuck up royally, there was a lot of skepticism running abound from nay-sayers, and ultimately no one would give a shit about a teaser unless they see Iron Man in action up close.

This film just secured $900 trillion in box office its first minute of release. Here’s a graph to prove it:

I don’t really know too much about Iron Man, I’ve read a few comics and watched the cartoon on television (wikipedia link). It wasn’t my favorite cartoon, but I watched it and thought it was cool enough for a rich guy to have a cool robotic suit. So given that background, I wasn’t really expecting Iron Man to be on my must-see list of movies for the upcoming year. However, when I heard that Jon Favreau was directing it, I put it on my radar to keep tabs on it.

Who’s Jon Favreau? You probably know him from his acting career, notably in Swingers, Rudy and The Break-Up. He’s your average actor who does some cool movies now and then, but not a big enough name to really headline a movie on his own. However, as a director, that’s where his career has truly been shining. Sure, he doesn’t have much to his credits yet: Elf and Zathura being his biggest blockbusters so far. I saw Elf on cable a few months ago, it was a decent holiday movie with Will Ferrell in it. Nothing bad, and nothing truly great.

ZATHURA

However, it was from watching Zathura that really changed my mind about this guy. I went in not knowing what the movie was really about, except for the fact that it was the sequel to Jumanji. The marketing and timing for Zathura was definitely not great, in fact, in great part because the studio didn’t really know what they had, the movie bombed at the box office. However, step into the theaters on opening weekend, and you saw a different story. Kids were jumping in their seats and talking excitedly afterwards about their favorite parts of the film and the fictional game. Unfortunately, the only people who remember what the hell Jumanji was, are people my age (in college or just starting their career in the workforce) who had seen Jumanji when we were in elementary or middle school. Most of us didn’t have kids who were old enough to take and see Zathura, so the “built-in” audience wasn’t being reached.

The trailer for the movie advertised it purely as a kid movie, a sci-fi version of Jumanji starring two kids. And since what I most remembered from Jumanji was that Robin Williams was in it, it didn’t help that it had no names starring in Zathura. And on top of that, despite starting with a chic “Z” the movie’s name was forgettable. You’d say “Do you want to see Zathura?” and people would squint and say “What the fuck is Zurethra, some Korean movie?” I was very unexpectedly blown away by the movie. It’s not your typical kiddie movie, the kids actually act like real kids, they call each other names that you don’t expect to hear from little kids, etc. It’s not watered down bullshit like most kids movies. And the movie has some relatively mature themes that you wouldn’t expect, much like the classic children’s films of yesteryear. The movie also has a robot that oddly looks a little like Iron Man, perhaps Favreau’s way of putting his hand out to helm the superhero flick.

If you haven’t seen Zathura yet, I’d recommend it for you and any adventure-film lovers, it’ll probably make you want to see Iron Man even more, because all the wit, enjoyment, action, and thrills that’d you hope for are all there. I have admiration for filmmakers who respect the films they work on, enjoy the films they work on, and Favreau does just that.

GREAT TEAM

I had a close friend who worked on the film, and everything they said about it seemed too good to be true, how so many of the effects were amazing and done practically on-set. How masterfully the cinematographer controlled the look and the set (the DP is Matthew Libatique, who’s previously worked on the spectacularly-photographed The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream) and how full of enjoyment and kindness Favreau was constantly, riding around on his scooter.

If Favreau can make a kiddie movie so very awesome, then think what he can do when he’s armed with Robert Downey, Jr. and a huge robot suit that actually has glowing eyes! (Why didn’t they think to do that with the Batman suits?) Batman and just about any superhero who lurks in dark areas have glowing eyes in cartoons and comics, why is Favreau the first guy to realize this awesomeness on the big screen? For that achievement in itself, Favreau has me convinced he’s gonna come out a super-director from this film. There’s probably going to be sequels to Iron Man, not to mention what other awesome movies that the studios will be offering him next. Hell, maybe the movie studios will actually grow some balls when it comes to their superhero movies being more straight up badass. Bravo, Favreau, thank you. And double bravo for making sure Iron Man is superbly awesome, complete with jetpacks coming out of his palms to make him go even faster in the air and break the sound barrier.

Panties everywhere are in need of a dry replacement.

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