May 17 2008
On Iron Man And Why I Don’t Go To Theaters
Everybody in the world saw the new ”Iron Man” movie before I did, and it was unanimously decided that it was great. Normally, I wouldn’t go to see a movie at a theater, because I hate theaters, but I was persuaded by the chorus of excellent reviews from my peers. And it turns out that we were both right: Iron Man is a great movie, and there is no reason good enough to attend a movie theater.
To clarify my position, I have to say that I’m not interested in spending ten dollars to be annoyed by hundreds of inconsiderate people while a movie that I’m trying to pay attention to plays unnoticed in front of us. The last time I went to see a movie in a theater, “The Hills Have Eyes”, was over two years ago. There was a woman behind me on her cell phone the whole time, a lady next to me that was sobbing hysterically during the scary bits (it’s a HORROR MOVIE, lady!), and an entire row of high school kids were asked to leave in order to teach the other ten rows of high school kids a lesson.
The Iron Man experience wasn’t nearly as bad. There were several pockets of small children scattered throughout the audience that were fairly loud. Worst of all, a three-year-old girl sat directly behind us and asked “Who’s that?” every time the scene changed. I don’t blame the kid, since I know that Aiden would probably do the same thing. But the parents should have at least tried to quiet her down. As a parent, I would have, but I know better than to take my TODDLER to a movie. Unfortunately, I now sound like a crotchety old man for complaining about the volume level of small children.
I knew this was going to happen, but still remained optimistic. It is, after all, a Super Hero movie aimed at kids who will end up buying the Super Hero toys. It wasn’t such a horrible experience that it would make me swear off movie theaters forever (that happened two years ago). But in the end, I would rather enjoy movies at home on my big screen TV with the surround sound, where I’m only able to annoy myself. That’s what Netflix is for. At the end of last Summer, I just added all of the “Summer Blockbusters” to my Netflix queue. I saw them all when they came to DVD.
There are two exceptions to this rule: IMAX and Transformers. I like going to IMAX movies, even though they’re more expensive, because the screen is HUGE and the sound system is so loud that it’s like being in a room by yourself. I’ve never been annoyed by the rest of the audience at an IMAX movie. The other exception is Transformers, which I will see where ever I can. I first saw the Transformers movie at Botcon, in Providence, Rhode Island, one week before it opened nationally, with several hundred other fans. We cheered and yelled and laughed as one, and it was all right, because we were all on the same page. It was slightly akin to seeing the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” with people that know all the words.
So in closing, Iron Man was really good. They were a little inconsistent with the bad guys, since I half expected the Afghani terrorist to be in the big suit at the end. But I liked Jeff Bridges with the backwards hair (I am seriously going to shave my head). And I don’t buy the claims that “the real bad guy” was Tony Stark himself, battling his own demons. They didn’t even bring up his alcoholism (much touted in the comics), although they rarely showed him without a drink in his hand. He had a change of heart, on many levels, and decided to be a hero. Good for him, but there was still a “boss battle” at the end of the movie, and hence a bad guy for Iron Man to fight.
Since Iron Man has seen so much success in its first few weeks out, I’m sure that we’ll be seeing a sequel in the next couple of years. Two things that I’m looking forward to in the sequel: Jimmy Rhodes (Terrence Howard) as the “War Machine”, which they hinted at towards the end of the movie, and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury of SHIELD, which they showed after the credits finished. That was awesome, and I’m glad that we stuck it out through the credits. I’m wondering if the “Avenger Initiative” will include other Marvel properties that made the jump to film. I guess we’ll see in a few years. In the meantime, I’ll be adding Iron Man to my Netflix queue so that I can see the extras and commentary when it comes out on DVD.
Meta-Tags:
IMAX, Iron Man, movies, Samuel L. Jackson, Transformers
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I agree about going to the theater. I hate getting my seat kicked all the time. Fortunately, we live far enough away from any city that our local theater is mostly un-crowded. Unless it’s opening weekend, most shows are about 30% full. Which means I can find another seat if I have to; and I have done so.
I also don’t go to theaters for much of the same reason (besides taking my two kids, 5yo son and 3yo daughter to Pixar and other kid related movies). I did take my 5yo son to see Iron Man on Friday night (although he has been to several movies and sits through them without problems. He knows to save questions until the end (which he did). We did have another family right in front of us with a younger kid (3 maybe?) that kept yelling and talking. The dad got up at one point and the kid stood up and screamed “Where are you going daddy?”. Granted the mom was good about grabbing him to make him sit down and shut up, but he still had his loud moments. But Iron Man was great and worth watching.
Iron Man 2 will be out April of 2010 which is nice. I’m pretty sure Nick Fury won’t be in the second Iron Man. The director is looking towards directing The Avengers movie as kinda like a ‘third’ Iron Man movie. If he does it might just be another small cameo (maybe in the movie instead of after the credits) as writing/pre-production of Iron Man has been started and Sam Jackson has no listing to Iron Man 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avengers_%28film_series%29#Avengers_films
Thanks for your input! I went back to the local theater on May 20th to see the live action version of Death Note. It had a limited showing of two days (once per night) and I was interested enough to not wait for the DVD. The audience was pretty loud, but I still had a good time.
I might go to films a few times this summer, since I may have gone overboard with the complete ban on theaters during the last two years. We’ll have to see. At least we haven’t had to spring for a babysitter while we go to the movies.
Michael