The Other Summer Movies

Well, I see you've covered most of the big summer movies so far, but there are a few left for me to tackle.

Iron Man

Let me first say that I tried everything I could not to see this movie. I had no interest in this film, I've never seen a Robert Downey Jr. movie, I had no knowledge of who Iron Man was, and nothing in the previews or story sounded interesting to me. I managed to avoid seeing this for weeks until I was back in Denver and every other
movie sounded worse so I finally gave in. I went into the theater expecting to hate every second of it and already hating that I was seeing it at all.


To my complete surprise this movie was amazing. It begins with an arrogant, corrupt, sleazy businessman, Tony Stark, who gets captured as a prisoner of war. Instead of having that experience transform him and give him the morals and values of a "superhero," Stark remains a complete jerk! It's wonderfully refreshing to not only see a flawed superhero, but I LOVED that he didn't spend any time waffling about whether or not to do what he's doing (Spiderman, Batman, etc). He just accepts his flaws and embraces life! It's great.

There are many other things that are great about this movie. I love that he openly admits his alterego at a press conference without trying to hide it. I love that he makes mistakes and we get to see him learn. This is almost more a movie about inventing and mechanical engineering, with minimal focus on fighting crime or saving people. I also, again to my total surprise, loved Gwenyth Paltrow's character. She plays his loyal assistant who keeps busy to avoid thinking about her own feelings, and he totally takes her for granted. It's a great dynamic and the film does a great job of drawing out awkward moments, glances, too much eye contact, etc. Bravo!

I never thought I'd say it, but Iron Man is probably my favorite superhero film of the modern era.


Kung Fu Panda

Well, it's no Horton Hears a Who, but how can you compete with that? Actually, Kung Fu Panda was a lot of fun. It's not easy to tackle such movie cliches as martial arts, wise sensais, discipline-filled dojos, etc when so much has already been done. But this movie dove right in and made its own place in the East Asian mantra teaching films.

You will laugh out loud. You will like it. Jack Black's Po is a loveable character. They step around a lot of obvious holes you expect them to fall into. There are two scenes that make this movie worth seeing. One involves the best computer graphics I've ever seen as the villain, Tai Long, escapes from a mountain prison where he is being held as the only prisoner, chained over a bottomless pit with a thousand guards standing by. That was amazing, believable, and well-earned. (Also Ian McShane, Deadwood's Swearengen, is the voice of Tai Long- which is a great bonus!) The second amazing scene is the montage where Po tries to grab the last dumpling from his wise master. A more intense and impressive battle over one food item can likely not be found in movie history. Well done! Yeah, it's worth seeing.