How is it possible that nothing about this movie pissed me off? Gushing with incredibly low levels of abating after what bloggers seem to be calling “the jump.”

When Iron Man was released earlier this month, I was prepared to mark the event as the beginning of a promising summer season, and enlisted the assistance of one very special (but not particularly prolific) Cracka to help me celebrate the occasion. Sadly after the film, I had a strong sense upon my egress that the season’s offerings had prematurely expunged all of their greatness all over me and there was little left in the coming months beyond a lot of showering, immensely uncomfortable heat and mediocrity. To put unsettling metaphors and overwrought verbiage aside for just a moment, I think the movie was super good. Seriously.

Now, I must admit that I have a history of little more than passing familiarity with Iron Man, despite my high-school days being littered with almost exclusively Marvel-brand comic entertainment. My interest in the character exhibited itself only when trips to Target revealed him, in plastic form, to be an excuse for comic book artists to render a disquietingly emotionless and ass-kicking suit of impenetrable armor. I had a hard time coaxing myself into giving a shit when I heard hushed murmurs of the embattled, fragile spirit within the suit, possibly because he had a mustache that I didn’t think was particularly becoming. I did still watch Magnum P.I. from time to time, stalking the elusive James Hong appearance, so my decisions as a child are admittedly open to question. This may be venturing into both spoiler territory and graceless pride, but my honed suspicion regarding facial hair configurations served me quite well in the viewing of Iron Man. In your service, I will say no more on the subject.

I’m not saying the flick is a mind-blowing masterpiece of cinema, but there is perfection in its balance of elements. The characters are exaggerated enough to be interesting and stylized in accordance with their comic-borne lineage without being dehumanized or caricatured. The action is brisk and exciting yet relevant and necessary to the story. The comedy is deliberate without seeming forced or lackluster. Finally, it deals with issues containing a certain degree of complexity and messiness with respect. Initially, it feels like it might get heavy handed or dangerously patriotic, but the film portrays Iron Man as amazingly cool while simultaneously exposing the paradox of using force and unchecked morality in the pursuit of peace as a sort of zero-sum game. All this while creating some pretty great merchandising possibilities. As such, it reminded me of the most recent Gundam series.

You may notice that I’ve done little in the way of reliving personal pain and loneliness in this particular post. Maybe it’s because Tony Stark’s specific struggles are so foreign to me that I had to stop trying to relate for a moment and instead just give myself over to understanding his experience without my usual selfishness. Maybe it’s because I just let myself enjoy a summer movie for what it is, and what I’ve always valued in the blockbuster season. Maybe it’s because the movie successfully captured the wonderment and thrill I associate with my long-standing love for comic book characters. But lets just say that, while I admire the apparent triumphs of his will, the global community may breathe a sigh of relief that, Chinese or not, I’m such a sub-par engineer that I will never look to path of powered encasements in my search for redemption. We’d all be in a lot of trouble if I did.

This entry was posted by eugene on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 1:49 am and is filed under american, movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.