Leah and I went to see Iron Man last night, and since we get to movies so infrequently, it seems worth posting about.
I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I’m not familiar with the source material, which I think is probably a good thing. Whoever cast R.D. Jr. in this movie deserves to be in the running for an Oscar for that brainstorm alone. The film adhered pretty strictly to the genre’s formula and felt very solid overall. I do, however, have a minor quibble.
Rock music plays a pretty prominent part in Iron Man. Downey’s character might as well be a rock star; he’s Val Kilmer from Real Genius meets Val Kilmer from The Doors, with better clothes. There’s a lot of shooting and exploding and some really flinch-inducing mano-a-mano arse kicking going on, and the music makes a great background for that stuff.
But someone missed a huge opportunity, I think, to use Sabbath’s Iron Man in the scene in which it would have made the most impact, namely when Tony Stark blasts his way out of his captivity in Afghanistan. There’s a point at which Stark’s captors have fled their hideout ahead of Iron Man and are standing outside, guns at the ready, waiting for him to emerge from the mouth of the cave. This, Hans Zimmer, is the point at which you lay on those famous, chest-rattling drum beats at the beginning of Sabbath’s tune. Then, cue Iron Man’s exit from the darkness of the cave. How hard is that? It would have been the savory moment in a film chock full of savory moments.
Ah well. It was a couple hours well spent (I made Leah wait until the end of the credits to see Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. She wasn’t impressed.).