Marvel’s Phase Two shows obvious signs of being post-Avengers. And not just in the characters and the ramifications they have to deal with (Tony Stark, perhaps most of all) but in the studio and writers and directors who have seen what a Joss Whedon superhero movie is and now have to be that good.
The Dark Knight Rises is a Christopher Nolan movie and so it’s very well made, structurally sharp, intelligent and takes the time to actually say something interesting. But there’s very little emotion in it.
History Lesson: Spider-man was the first superhero I ever knew. Of course he had his amazing friends who I liked a lot and sometimes the X-Men who were interesting. But Spider-man was the central figure in my superhero world and even back then I knew the difference between the lead and the supporting players.
I love Joss Whedon.
Here’s the thing, he has been loved by a small percentage of the population for over a decade. He’s an incredibly talented
I’m not a huge Robert Downey Jr. fan. In fact, I kind of dislike him more than I like him. Or, I did. But I was actually surprised at how much I liked this movie, even after everyone said again and again how good it is. I still didn’t expect to like it that much, because I generally don’t like him.
I know I’m in the minority of people who really like this movie. Ok, maybe not the minority because it opened to $65M but it’s one of the few movies Kel and I disagreed on substantially so
This was obviously a sequel that was rushed through production. And the disheartening thing is it doesn’t seem liked execs paid attention to what really made Iron Man so successful.
There’s more action and less story. Which is a sign of a rushed script. And the idea that execs think people want more Iron Man than they want Tony Stark, which I don’t think is the case.
This is more what super hero movies have the potential to be. Because action and special effects are easy, decent story is a bonus, any sort of character depth is astounding and applaudable. But this adds thematic depth to the mix which is new and sort of brilliant.
In some ways, this was a great movie and in some ways it was uneven (though not nearly as uneven as X2). But the easy stuff first:
I wasn’t thrilled with Kevin Bacon as the villain. In theory I thought it was great, but in
Thor is pretty and big and fun which is good for a summer movie.
There’s some attempt at depth and you’ve definitely got great actors who are capable of it. But it doesn’t really resonate powerfully.