Iron Man 3

Now's a better time than most for me to get back on the saddle. If you want a spoiler-free review, click here or on the video review posted below. Otherwise, prepare for a spoiler-riddled review.

Before we begin, let's have a preamble  The Iron Man movie franchise has a special place in my heart. The first movie came out when I was finishing high school and finding my way towards college. It helped me to solidify my interest in the field of mechanical engineering, rather than another similar field or my backup option of journalism. The first movie also helped to ground my interest in comic book culture, and it spearheaded the Marvel movie franchise. Also, the movie itself was pretty good. Things went boom.

As for the third movie, I liked it. It doesn't have the same feel as Iron Man the first, and it shouldn't. This movie takes place after The Avengers, and it's better for it. Tony Stark has to deal with the emotional backlash and turmoil that comes with saving a city from alien invader with the help of space-gods from another dimension (or planet? Thor still confuses me) and it's destroying him. It's a nice contrast to comics where events like these can break a person's mind. The stress and panic attacks really humanize the character.

A short list of all of the things I really loved: The characterization and duality of The Mandarin was a total surprise. the character was handled in a way I found to be interesting, believable and a total 180 turn from how the character is done in the comic medium. A brief rundown of who the Mandarin is in comics: A guy who finds a crashed spaceship and the 10 hyper-technological rings inside, confusing them for magic items. Which are capable of summoning a giant green space-dragon who wears short-shorts. With all of that nonsense, the character was re-defined very well in Iron Man 3.

The re-branding of War Machine into Iron Patriot may seem silly at first, but in terms of plot and story structure it makes sense. The bad guys are using this personification of American self-righteousness and assertion to destroy the country from within.

Who are the bad guys? Long and convoluted. The short version: They are regenerating fire-men who use an ill-defined technology called "Extremis" to breathe fire and be super awesome. Imagine Captain America mixed with the Human Torch. Imagine a hodgepodge of Chris Evans' two Marvel-related movie roles, but fifty of them and evil. The technology is used to do exactly what Tony Stark has done to himself: fix people with broken bodies. It's a nice contrast. They represent the evil-scientist-commune called AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics), but there's a lot of potential here for AIM to be larger and stronger than they are represented here. In my mind, they could easily be as strong and prominent as HYDRA was in the Captain America movie.

I plan to keep this review short for now, so let's focus on what I thought was unnecessary: the Christmas sub-plot. Or is it a theme? Regardless, the story benefited in no way from having all of the events occur around the holiday season. It could have easily been Pepper's birthday, resulting in the same amount of relationship trouble while also having a nice nod back to the first movie.

The post-credits scene? Hilarious, lovely, everything I wanted. Except it doesn't' set up any other movie. I won't go into detail here, but I didn't feel like Iron Man 3 allowed for the other Marvel franchise movies to sneak in. The movie is for all purposes a finale' to the Iron Man movie franchise. In the last five minutes, we see Stark getting a surgery to remove the shrapnel from his chest. The arc reactor is no longer a part of him, and his home and all of his suits are gone. What does this mean for future Marvel movies? Iron Man is the cornerstone of the franchise, and I hope that the other movies (Avengers 2 primarily) won't suffer from this supposed end-of-story. There are rumors that Iron Man will be "a big part" in Avengers 2, but I'll just wait and see if that holds true.

Oh wait, Iron Man 4 is coming out in 2017? With an Iron Man 5 planned?

Sign me up.

Oh wait, that's four years from now? Damn. Time to cry in a corner and pray that Ant-man movie works out in 2015.

About the DCU reboot.

If you're a fan of comics, and you're probably not, then you would know that DC comics are completely re-booting their stories. Plots, histories, characters and everything else is being re-done just so they can get some extra scratch.
Recently they released their first comic in their new universe; the new Justice League comic.

So. Here's basically how the first comic went.

Batman: "I am Batman."
Green Lantern: "I automatically think I am superior to you."
Batman: "I dislike your methods. Let's go visit Superman because of the plot."
Green Lantern: "I still think you are a wimp. Oh look, it's Superman."
Batman: "I am Batman."

Other things happened in between.

Youtubes.

So.
I don't really go here much.
Keep in touch with my thigns that I do:
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/heiru3
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/HJT
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A recent look at what I do:

I'm on a Sandstorm kick.

He does a few things similar to spiders.

Well, there you go. The first trailer for the new Spider-Man movie has gone live. I'm not too impressed by it, even though I love Spider-Man. Though, personally, I hardly ever read the comics. Maybe... twice. I've played the games, watched the cartoons, and saw the first three movies with Toby McGuire. Also, the toys. So many toys when I was a kid.

Now, back to the preview. Hmm... well, there is more focus on his past. The whole Parker-parents thing doesn't seem very suitable for the origin story. Although, I guess it will be necessary for him to develop his web fluid. The fluid is based off a scientific design Parker is able to complete after he gets his spider-powers. Probably because spiders have a natural instinct for creating their own web. Though, the more you think about it, the less sense it makes.

Then Gwen Stacy. Hot. Approved.

Then comes the parkour thing. It looks a lot like the Mirror's Edge game. The special effects producer must have played it recently with his kids.

The Peter Parker character seems a bit too cliche'- nerdy, though maybe he is where the cliche' comes from.
Bla bla bla.
I need more beer. Peace.

Captain America: The First Badass.

Well, the next Summer blockbuster is up.

God, how does that not look awesome?

Short version of the review: I recommend it. Long version of the review: Below.

If you saw Ironman 1&2 and Thor, I would recommend you see this. If you plan on seeing the Avengers film next year, you have no goddamn reason to skip this movie. Otherwise you are missing the point itself. In fact, a piece of the major plot revolves around the very-shiny-and-mysterious cuboid seen in the post-credits scene of Thor. 

Yeah, that thing. The Cosmic Cube. Have they flat-out said what this thing can do? I don't think the Captain America movie even knew what it was all about. 

Now, time to prod this movie with a mocking stick. Also, look out for some spoilers below. I won't be descrete about this. The movie starts with Steve Rogers doing his thing; trying to fight for his US of the America. Some character exposition happens, some more things, and then we are introduced to his best-friend-and-eventually-sidekickish friend Bucky. Sorry girls, he doesn't wear a domino mask in this movie and he isn't 14. More character exposition happens, bla bla bla, just sit back and enjoy.

Then comes the super soldier treatment. In every commercial I have seen for this movie up until it's opening, we see Rogers actually grow inside the giant metal taning bed, which was a really nice touch. It showed progression into the man he would become. Instead, we get blinding light and then he steps out all big-blonge-and-beautiful. Mm. 

Small thing that bothered me: they said that they were going to apply some serum to all of his major muscle groups. Then they only apply it to his biceps. Why didn't he walk out looking like a Tank from Left 4 Dead? A major hulk above the waist, and a tiny scarecrow of a man below. 

After all of this, other things happen. A nice chase scene with only one car involved, Nazi submarines and more. The good stuff. A little humor in there too; which I love. There was a nice little bit where Rogers was chasing down a car using his Adonis-body-from-five-minutes-ago, and he is so unfamiliar with his new form he accidentally turns too hard and crashes into a building. Brilliant. 

Bla bla bla. More stuff happens. Captain America gets three costumes in this movie, all of which are either ridiculously hilarious or down-right badass. Though, to be fair, the second is really a composite of the first and some stolen military gear. 

Then some shields happen, and the rest of the movie spends 40% of the screen time with that damn thing in the screen. 

Then he gets a badass motorcycle that does some tricky-awesome things straight out of Twisted Metal.

Damn, I need to wrap this up. Uh.

Hydra was awesome. Instead of just being a straight parallel to the Nazi army, they are the super devious research and development branch of the Nazi regime that eventually spirals out of control. Their weapons are devastating  and everything has a nice blue neon trim. Though their salute is downright humorous. 

Then Captain America and his rag-tag group of mercinary-soldiers of fortune crash the party and look damn good doing it. However, this is all in montage. I guess the videogames can pick up that slack, but damn, I would have loved to see them crush even more Nazi heads. 

Also more shield. 

Then more character development, some credits roll, and you see pure Marvel magik.

I misspelled that correctly, yes. 

Here is my theory for why everyone loves this: Steve Rogers represents the typical, under-physically-developed fan who wishes they were as big and strong as their favorite heroes. Instead of going to the gym and working up to that stature, Rogers gets it within a span of five minutes. Who wouldn't want that? What a slacker. 

Here is a link to my quick and thorough review of the movie on youtube.

Hm, I probably should have posted this first.

Like, comment and subscribe. It grows the brand. http://www.youtube.com/Heiru3

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Oh, also. Best character in the movie: A young and suave Howard Stark.

What a majestic stache.

July When?

Summer vlog action Go!

Class is in attendance.

How could I possibly forget to make a review of X-Men: First Class?

Oh yeah, finals. That's why. So shut up.

If you don't want to read this, I have a video summary on my youtube page here. And here:

Basically, I enjoyed this movie. I laughed. I loved. I had one or two emotions throughout.
Michael Fassbender as Erik / Magneto was amazing. Paired with James McAvoy as Xavier, you have a winning combination  If only they were the only two characters in the film, then maybe things would have been more impressive  Sadly not.

The students/mutants they recruited were... interesting. Banshee was a must-have, so kudos to that. Havok? Clearly an allusion to Cyclops who was actually a member of the first class in the comics, but due to continuity they couldnt' have Cyc in the movie. (Even though they broke some continuity later on.)

Angel was also an original member; remember that winged dude in X3? Yeah, that was the original Angel. Instead they took a pixie-stripper and slapped the same name on her. Who would know, right?

Also, Mystique was hot. Not the blue-stique, but the actress who played the human disguise. Jennifer Lawrenece:

A lovely girl.

As for the rest of the movie, it was fun. It wasn't too serious, it wasn't even too good, but it felt pretty darn 60's and light hearted.

Also, the montages. Oooh, the montages. So fun. So good. Excellent cameo in there as well.

Anyway, I am drunk and must go get drunker. Go see the movie. See you next time when I talk about Green Lantern.

Though on a final note, why bother sticking to some continuity of you're going to kill more of it towards the end? Whatever. Fox can't make a movie like Marvel Studios can.

P.S., don't bother staying through the credits. Nothing to see at the end.