caught somewhere between real life, simple faith, & raw emotion
Movie Review & Question: Ironman
I saw Ironman with Robert Downey, Jr. this weekend. It was a great movie. I really enjoyed it. The story was good and the effects were amazing. CGI is getting to a point where you can hardly tell something is animated these days. So I highly recommend it and plan on owning it when it comes out on DVD (another way how I gauge how good a movie is).
Robert Downey, Jr. was very good. I’ve always liked him. Gotta love movies like Weird Science, The Pick-up Artist, and Less Than Zero. Now if he could just stay of the dope, he’d have an even more amazing career.
There were, however, what seemed to be a few small comments that hinted at anti-Americanism. After all, you know how fashionable it is these days to point out how ‘evil’ America is, even though it is the most generous country in the world and nearly every other country is happy to take our money in the form of aid (including countries like France, the U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, etc).
It basically came as the main character, Tony Stark, saying he wanted to change his legacy (of being the major weapons manufacturer for America) because he saw how bad it was, thereby alluding to America as being bad as well. The thing is, he himself became the weapon so I don’t really get it. I don’t see how that’s different. This isn’t really any moral high-ground, if you ask me. Maybe I’m just too dumb to get this elite type of double-thinking. But the movie was still amazing.
The best line in the movie went something like this:
“I’ve been held captive in cave for 3 months. The first thing I want is an American cheeseburger.”
Here’s my question, can you be a superhero if you don’t actually have any super powers? That’s kind of how I define a superhero. Otherwise, aren’t you just a guy in a suit? Or is it that if you accomplish a high enough volume and intensity in heroic acts, that you can attain the status of super-hero even without super powers?
5 comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I will read time to time that
By the way, I am going to see it again this weekend. Except this time, I am watching the DLP version (Digital Projection) and I am staying for the teaser trailer – no matter how bad my bladder hurts after 2 hours, 6 minutes!
Chip,
I am familiar with Nobel’s story. I see what you’re saying. If you see the movie, i think you can take it either way.
On being a superhero. My point is, if you don’t actually have “super powers” aren’t you just a hero then (technically speaking)? Or is it through your sheer volume of heroic acts, do attain the “super hero’ status?
Chip stole my primary example of a super hero without “powers”: Batman. See also: Green Lantern, Punisher.
I think the difference in Iron Man’s suit is that he has direct control over who he defends or attacks. With his weapons industry, there would always be the possibility of under-the-table deals with terrorists or incidents of having the weapons “fall into the wrong hands” and Tony felt responsible for things he had produced hurting innocent people. In contrast, he is directly responsible for 1 weapon and knows exactly what is being done with it.
On your first question, regarding anti-Americanism, the plot mostly reminded me of Alfred Nobel – the erstwhile dynamite inventor and armament manufacturer who read a mistaken obituary (it was his brother who had died) that called him the “merchant of death”, and then decided to change his legacy by using his fortune to establish a posthumous awards for, among other things, peace.
Nobel didn’t see Sweden as the “Merchant of Death” but rather himself.
Likewise (based only upon your one-line quote) with Iron Man, I see the projection upon himself, rather than on the country.
Regarding your second question: not all superheroes have super powers. Batman certainly didn’t.