That being said, movie talk time!
Iron-Man 2 (2010, dir. John Favreau)
Caught this with the girlfriend on Saturday and I'd just like to say that I had a lot of fun. The 2 hour-long film seemed to progress at a steady clip and the story wasn't absolutely awful or anything, so in all, I'm going to go ahead and say that this is a succesful comic book film (as we all know how bad ones can turn out.).
Robert Downey Jr. captures the Tony Stark us comic book readers know and love so well here, combining a performance that'll not only satisfy the fans of the source material but also draw just average movie-goers in with his narcissistic charm that you can't help but feel is awesome (unless you're looking to find things wrong, then you might get all pissy about how he's an "ass"). Pepper Pots was fine, played the way that worked and... well... it's not much to write home about but that's the way it should be. Don Cheadle as Col. Rhodes (stepping in for Terrence Howard due to some falling out with the studio, I guess) works and is fun, and he stands opposite Stark's character well enough that the pair is believable as an unlikely duo.
However, Nick Fury (as played by Samuel L. Jackson) was a disappointment for me. The guy is awesome, as is the actor who portrays him here but jesus... Come on Jackson, don't be so stiff. I know he's only in this film as a way to tease the audience about the upcoming Avengers flick (2012 release I think?) but that doesn't mean you can just sleepwalk through your lines. Similarly, I would've liked them to use Black Widow's character (as played by Scarlet Johansson) more than just the fight scene with nameless henchman (which, though kind of tacked on, was bomb).
The effects are, as should be, really stunning though they really have to be in a world of post-Avatar big budget cinema productions but the final fight between IronMan+WarMachine vs. Ivan Vanko was over almost instantly. Seriously, guys, you build up to this moment all film and then what, run out of money or something? Let's fight the main badguy for 15 seconds! woo.
I give Iron Man 2:
I have this thing about people handing me stuff/10
Shijie (2004, dir. Zhang Ke Jia)
I posted over at Filmspotting that I really didn't enjoy the Herzog film Aguirre: Wrath of God due to its slow pace, lack of character development, and uninteresting writing with special emphasis at how many useless scenes there were in it. Obviously, the crew over there shunned me further (after I expressed my dislike of High Fidelity) and so I don't think I'll go round there anymore, but let me get back on track. Shijie has some of the longest takes I've ever seen in a movie, and it needs to be praised for this. Think about the acting skill that it takes to continuously stay in character for minutes on end while the camera rolls by; tough shit. I really appreciated the art here, an almost direct contradiction to the way I evaluated Aguirre (which I still think isn't that good) but that's fine. Maybe it's the setting? A park in China that recreates world monuments at roughly a 3rd the size (it actually exists!) is the perfect location for the story.
It also helps all of our "main" characters express their sense of being trapped, heck, one of 'em even says they've never met anyone who has been on a plane. The characters are, oddly, distant from us due to a lot of medium or long shots with very few shot/reverse or close up techniques but we still get the feeling that we know who these people are and that's.. nice. It's a hard watch, don't get me wrong, there are scenes in there that maybe are thrown in just to bore us/challenge us and the pacing of foreign films always tends to be slower so I have to work a little bit more but I think it was probably worth it.
I give Shijie:
Are we dead?/10
Quick ratings cuz I can't really type it up!
Notting Hill - Delightful roommate and supporting cast means this is a hard romcom to beat/10
Father of the Bride - Try really hard to not realize that this could easily be me+has B.D. Wong/10
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