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Saturday, March 01, 2008 

"I want to protect the people I've put in harm's way"

This trailer for Iron Man makes me want to watch a Marvel movie for the first time since... which came out first, the first Spider-Man or X-Men movies? Only this one has an actual actor playing the main character (and with the possible exception of Paltrow depending on how you feel about her, a solid supporting cast - Jeff fuckin' Bridges as Obadiah Stane, for fuck's sake!), actually amazing special effects and it looks like it's written keeping in mind the interesting character/thematic fodder provided by having our 'hero' be a rapacious, callous industrialist who makes weapons. I don't get pumped like this for action movies, normally, but damn that is a well put together trailer. And it's even co-written by two of the guys behind Children of Men!

I'm with you all the way until the red flag at the end. Children of Men? Please no - boring, dull, dishwater script, saved only by some amazing camera work. Favreau is no Cuaron, so I can't expect stunning direction to save it. I mean he did direct Elf and Zathura.

My expectations are summarily lowered, but I do expect Downey & Bridges to chew some scenery.

Well, uh, Children of Men was my favourite movie of last year, possibly. So we might just have to agree to disagree on that count. The dialogue wasn't sparkling, but I'm more concerned (in an Iron Man movie) on what they'll choose to focus on, what the writers think is important to the character. As part of (roughly one third, it looks like) the writing team, I think those two guys will keep Iron Man from veering off into silliness, or at least that's the hope.

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Ian Mathers is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Stylus, the Village Voice, Resident Advisor, PopMatters, and elsewhere. He does stuff and it magically appears here.

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