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Topic: Iron Man 3 (2013)

Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

posted 05-13-2013 10:34 AM

quote: Mike Blakesley
Don't they take physics into account

I used to get into big arguments about this with my brother when we
were kids, watching "The Bionic Man"

He thought it would be great to have a bionic arm that would
give him the strength to lift a bulldozer or something equally heavy.

I kept arguing that even if you HAD a super-strength bionic arm,
it would still be attached to your non-bionic shoulder bone,
- - which would instantly splinter when you tried to lift the 'dozer.

We actually got into a fist fight over this once.

Thank God he DIDN'T have a bionic arm, or he would have killed me. [Big Grin]

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 05-13-2013 11:39 AM

quote: Marcel Birgelen
But let's be real here, if you want storytelling that doesn't involve some mystical over-the-top super powers or some mega-tech that comes at handy when needed, it might be better not to watch a franchise based on some comic books.

I'm sorry, but I just don't buy that excuse for lazy story telling.

Suspension of disbelief is ALWAYS a factor that must be considered when writing a screenplay and directing a movie. The audience will go along with all sorts of outlandish things if the "reality" is painted the right way. If there is enough things in place to make whatever fantasy being portrayed visually plausible the audience won't question it.

For instance, I'm not going to question Superman, a.k.a. "The Man of Steel" being able to fly through a concrete wall at 600mph and not get so much as a scratch. When you have a mortal man flying in a metal suit doing the same kind of thing, yeah I'm going to wonder why his body doesn't get turned into bloody pudding mixed with bone chunks.

When certain feats of action in movies are presented in too much of an over the top manner the audience will tune out of the movie. They won't feel any suspense because their subconscious is yelling "bullshit." At best the reaction will be "that looks cool," but it will always be tainted with the asterisk notation of it really being bullshit.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-13-2013 11:26 PM

Excellent post Bobby. I was trying to think of a way to say exactly that.

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Sam D. Chavez
Film God

Posts: 2153
From: Martinez, CA USA
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 05-14-2013 12:53 AM

I think the willing suspension of disbelief works here because we are charmed by the genius Tony Stark and his story is set up by believable circumstances as in Iraq, etc. We want to believe like when we fall in love. In the right context we will accept just about anything compelling for a couple of hours. Later we look back and replay the film and decide whether it worked. If it does, this is a great movie.

For me, "Alien" was one of those films. It worked every time I saw it and there was nothing realistic about any of it.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 05-14-2013 11:19 AM

Stretching reality works only to a certain degree even when the actors are delivering great performances. The trick is to push things only to the point where the audience won't notice it. I mention that one point in Iron Man where he crashes the first crude iron man suit into the sand dunes at high speed. I immediately thought right there such a crash in reality would kill anyone instantly. As an audience member my mind isn't supposed to go there. I still liked Iron Man. I even bought a copy of it on Blu-ray. But I still think that scene is laughable. There's plenty of other scenes in Iron Man that aren't very plausible, but that first iron man suit crash was a doozy.

Some action movies are so bad with this sort of thing that they're really laughable. Like this scene from Torque:
Catfight on Motorcycles!
That scene is so damned stupid it makes me deliberately want to take out my disgust against the extremely obvious product placements in the scene and never drink Pepsi or Mountain Dew again.

This is bad enough I fully expect buddy cop movies in the future to contain scenes where the ordinary hero cop pursues the bad guy leaving an office skyscraper by avoiding all the time wasted by taking the stairs or elevator and just jump out of a window and fall 20 or so stories. Nah, he won't get splattered on the sidewalk. He'll land in a cool pose like Morpheus in The Matrix. There will even be cracks in the sidewalk. But that cop will be OK because he had mad cop skillz in freaking reality.
[Roll Eyes]

BTW, not much bothered me about Alien other than some minor gripes. Like, why is it when computer systems crash or malfunction in movies they're always shooting out fire and sparks? I've been using computers for over 30 years now and seen at least a few serious hardware failures. I never saw a computer shoot out cinematic big sparks.

Explosions in space won't make any sound, like the sound the Nostromo makes when exploding (multiple times). You can't have noise in a vacuum. Almost every space movie, except 2001 has broken that rule. But many audience members are stupid and think something is wrong with the movie if the space explosions don't make any sound.

Do those Weyland-Yutani androids, like Ash or Bishop, have to change their milk on a weekly basis? Won't it turn into cottage cheese and get real stinky after awhile?
[Razz]

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Sam D. Chavez
Film God

Posts: 2153
From: Martinez, CA USA
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 05-14-2013 02:06 PM

In fact to add to Bobby's point, the tag line on the "Alien" poster was,

"In space, no one can hear you scream"

What was cool about this film is the minimalist approach, the rusty tramp steamer aspect of the space freighter and you don't see the Alien until way into the film. This was the first and best one but it was some 35 years ago. The second one was very good in its own way; after that it was crap all the way.

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Richard Hamilton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1341
From: Evansville, Indiana
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 05-14-2013 02:58 PM

Bobby,
sounds like you need to give up movies and just watch reality tv shows. No special effects there for you to criticize.

Rick

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 05-14-2013 04:07 PM

Nah. Some movies just need to stop being so stupidly shitty. That's all.

Screw "reality TV." If you want to talk about programming putting lies in front of lenses "reality TV" fills the bill. The concocted drama posing as real life is a bigger waste of time than bad action movies. I found it amusing when some "Pawn Stars" reality TV personalities were exposed for faking a lot of their shows.

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Martin McCaffery
Film God

Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-14-2013 08:30 PM

Well they are all fake, it's not like the cameras magically appear in real life.

I don't know if this is the same thing you mention, but one on the Storage Wars people who got booted from the show went public that they seed the storag bins to make the show more interesting.

I love that TruTV (formerly known and affectionately missed as Court TV) is campaigning they don't have reality shows, they have actualities. I wonder if they know that was the original name for documentaries?

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 05-19-2013 12:08 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
For instance, I'm not going to question Superman, a.k.a. "The Man of Steel" being able to fly through a concrete wall at 600mph and not get so much as a scratch. When you have a mortal man flying in a metal suit doing the same kind of thing, yeah I'm going to wonder why his body doesn't get turned into bloody pudding mixed with bone chunks.

I guess they nuked the fridge quite early on in the series. [Wink]

And that's why I reminded you, that you're watching a franchise based on a comic. Maybe you're not supposed to expect any such kind of realism, just like you wouldn't expect them from a comic either.

You know, I practically agree with all of your statements, but I think it is quite personal in how far you go with this sort of things.

For example, I enjoyed most of the current Iron Man films, but probably because I expected them to be much worse. I could quite easily forgive the not-so-realistic story elements, because they already start at the very introduction, where Tony Stark manages to beat McGyver and the A-Team single-handedly by building his "beta Iron Man" suit from some scrap lying around.

quote: Bobby Henderson
BTW, not much bothered me about Alien other than some minor gripes. Like, why is it when computer systems crash or malfunction in movies they're always shooting out fire and sparks? I've been using computers for over 30 years now and seen at least a few serious hardware failures. I never saw a computer shoot out cinematic big sparks.

Just like those damned consoles in Star Trek that randomly explode in your face. There we are, a few hundred years into the future and all your computer terminals need to be directly hooked up to the warp core...

quote: Bobby Henderson
Explosions in space won't make any sound, like the sound the Nostromo makes when exploding (multiple times). You can't have noise in a vacuum. Almost every space movie, except 2001 has broken that rule. But many audience members are stupid and think something is wrong with the movie if the space explosions don't make any sound.

According to 2001, there is classical music in space [Wink]

.
But ever imagined how lame it would be if the Death Star would explode without an epic rumble?

In the end, even the movies that try to be very realistic, like 2001 get stuff wrong. The floating pen scene for example, as stunning as it is, is not an accurate portrayal of weightlessness.

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Pravin Ratnam
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 844
From: Atlanta, GA,USA
Registered: Sep 2002

posted 06-19-2013 02:11 PM

THe reason why they are making so many comic book movies these days is precisely why they need to more careful in what superpowers they give the characters and set some semi realistic limits to avoid the audience member from getting jaded by the action scenes. THere has to be a sense of danger and I dont get that from ANY superhero comic book movie these days. I didnt realize Spiderman became superman with the way he is indestructible when bouncing into buildings.

Iron Man 3 was OK. I didn't see it as much of an improvement over Part 2 despite Shane Black(my favorite action writer from decades ago) helming this. I still liked it but not something I would want to watch again.

REgal Hollywood 24, Auditorium 8 was the venue. If I didn't have so many cheap discount passes, I would not be visting multiplexes that often. 11 bucks plus for the experience is a joke. Half the auditorium was cordoned off by yellow tape. The ac unit was blasting a lot of cold air with a lot of force. THe movie was letterboxed on a small common height screen with no masking. I guess with the lack of adjustable masking on those iMAX and LieMax screens, I guess theaters feel they can get away with it.

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