Comparing Movie Review of Iron Man 3

"'Iron Man 3' Doesn't Iron Out its Kinks" (Review of the review)

Despite its clever title, New York Post's film review of Iron Man 3 scrutinizes every minute of the movie. It starts off with saying Thor, another Avenger hero, wrote and directed the movie. Although I laughed at this comment, he has to be realistic. He is comparing Shane Black, who directed the fifth highest grossing film of all time, Iron Man 3, to a fictional man who throws around a hammer. Even though a majority of the review is spent bashing the film with jokes and smug comments, he does make some valid points. He says that the humor in the film is directed to a middle school audience. I would agree with this especially because of the young boy inventor that appears as a son-like figure for Tony. I think that the boy was an unnecessary part of the movie that made it feel more elementary. I also agree with one of his opinions about a scene in the movie when Pepper, Tony's lover, gets to wear the famous iron man suit. The review says, "Pepper also gets to wear the Iron Man suit, but if anyone can us it, why do we need Tony?", exactly why do we need Tony? It might as well be me, a random high school girl, underneath the iron costume.

The review was over-exaggerated and the author clearly hated the movie. He makes a joke out of one of the best superhero trilogies of all time. Most of his comments were extremely unnecessary, but the review made me laugh. He criticized Iron Man 3 so harshly to the point were it was entertaining to read.

Film Review: Compare and Contrast

Film Review for Iron Man 3

New York Post's review for the film, Iron Man 3, did not do the movie any justice. From the title to the last line, the review made sly comments about Iron Man 3 failure to live up to the previous two movies.

Here is a link to the review, titled "'Iron Man 3' doesn't iron out its kinks":
http://nypost.com/2013/04/30/iron-man-3-doesnt-iron-out-its-kinks/

Picture from Iron Man 3, showing Tony Stark (right, obviously) played by Robert Downey Jr..




Iron Man 3:
 
Iron Man 3 released at the beginning of the summer, started the summer off right. The movie had a lot of expectations as it was the first movie released after the phnom Marvel's The Avengers, and was the talk around the town to kick off the best summer yet. It captured everything  that a comicbook-based movie should- action, romance, comedy and a thrilling ending.

The movie, unlike the rest of the trilogy, focuses on the man inside the suit- Tony Stark. Instead of being smug and walking with swagger, this movie shows that Stark isn't invincible. He starts experiencing panic attacks and falls into an anxiety-induced coma whenever someone mentions his battle with the Avengers.

Tony Stark and his trusty suit face yet another villain in Iron Man 3. This nefarious figure is the Mandarin, who violently slaughters Americans on national television. The Mandarin aligns with a victim of Tony's past- Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). Thirteen years ago, on New Years, Aldrich was a nerdy scientist who wanted Stark's help in launching his company. Stark, being the ignorant millionaire that he was, blows him off and creates one of the worst enemies he could ever imagine. Aldrich, within a decade, becomes handsome, rich and is scheming plans of his own, with the Mandarin, to take down Tony.

One of the major fragments of the plot in Iron Man 3 is the romance between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Tony Stark creates version after version of Iron Man to make sure that Pepper is protected. But with the threat of the Mandarin, Tony and Pepper gets separated only to reunite in the last final battle.

After another one of the Mandarin's bombings, that hospitalized his former bodyguard, Tony confronts the Mandarin through the press and gives him his address openly inviting him to attack. Well, Mandarin accepts the invitation and Stark's home is bombarded by helicopters. Stark is pronounced dead in the battle, but actually winds up in Tennessee in the garage of a young aspiring inventor. The towns leads Tony to put the puzzle pieces together.

All in all, Iron Man 3, is a must see if you are the action adventure type. In my opinion, the acting, directing and filming of the movie, makes it perfect for the conclusion for the trilogy Iron Man.

Iron Man 3 - Official Trailer (HD)

Remakes

Star Wars then and now

Filming of Godzilla

As we are seeing in the remakes, technology has made the experience of viewing a movie more realistic. Innovations like the green screen have made extreme ficition possible. In the first picture there is Star Wars then and now. Back then, the director had to create the scene by hand. Instead of looking like an outer space galaxy, this first photo looks like a junk yard. Whereas, in the recent picture the background is only a green screen. The green screen looks, and makes the viewer feel like they are actually protecting the galaxy, or swimming in the depth of the ocean.

The second picture is of the first filming of Godzilla. Godzilla is a story about a horrible monster that destroys city by city. We see that back in the day, they better technology was not available, so they had to resort to actually building a scene, a costume, and stage. In modern days, Godzilla, is animated, which makes the monster look more real and the film crew didn't have to create a whole set they created a whole story behind the computer. 

Technology has significantly advanced our culture and specifically influenced the film business. Like we were discussing in class the other day, a mere decade ago kids my age didn't have a Iphone that they could casually whip out and film a movie. Although the movie might not be even close to looking professional, the important thing is that kids now a days have the tools to make a movie. To make a vision of a book, or reiterate a story to the world or to simply make a film for someone to laugh or cry or scream. Movies have jumped leaps and bounds since the time of homemade sets and for the better. Now movies are not only more real, but are accessible to anyone to make and enjoy the phenomena of a great film! 

Life of Pi was a global film celebrated around the world. In this picture, we see people living in Paris experiencing the thrilling adventures of Pi and Richard Parker on actual boats.

A real life movie theatre in Paris viewing Ang Lee's Life of Pi

Academy Award for Best Director

"Lights, camera, action!" The famous line of a director. The highest honor a director can get is an Academy Award at the Oscars. Usually, when the Oscars come around the public gets caught up in the fashionable dress, Hollywood glitter, and red carpet drama, but what they fail to acknowledge is the true talent of the directors of some extraordinary films. Last year, Ang Lee won the Academy Award for Best Director with the film Life of Pi. Life of Pi was an amazing film that captured the deep moral of the book. One of the most difficult things in filmmaking I think is making a popular book into an even more popular movie. Ang Lee truly transferred the philosophical messages in the book into a thrilling adventure in the Life of Pi. Lee also directed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which won Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. As a Taiwanese-born American, Lee incorporates a lot of culture into many of his films. One of the reasons why Life of Pi,  was such a good movie was because it had rich culture that Lee was able to bring to the film because of his childhood in Taiwan.

Here is a link to an interview of Ang Lee talking about his award winning film Life of Pi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mbEU-m_zOs !!

Life of Pi | Ang Lee Interview (2013)

While filming today, I realized that, although not on the camera, the cinematographer plays a big role in the finished product of the movie. Inception won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 2010. Inception is famous for its complex angles and filming that literally takes you into another dimension. All the camera tricks and any filming for that matter, could not have been possible if it was for Walter Pfister, the cinematographer. Walter, better known as Wally, grew up in Chicago and was raised learning the film business as his father was a producer. Wally got a job with a television station right out of college, and ever since has flourished in the filming business. Along with Inception, Wally filmed the movies The Italian Job and more recently Moneyball. Wally also has a film on its way called Transcendence which is released into theater early this new year!!

As a producer of the remake of Sherlock Holmes, I was very interested to learn about Grant Heslov who produced Argo. Argo won Academy Award for Best Picture in 2012. The movie was a thiller about trying to bring a group of innocent Americans out of Iran by disguising themselves as a movie cast. As well as being a producer, Heslov is also an acclaimed actor. He starred in Goodnight, and Good Luck and The Scorpion King. Grant Heslov is best friends with George Clooney. Supposedly, Clooney lent Heslov $200 to buy headshots while filming Goodnight, and Good Luck and they have been close friends ever since. Another fun fact, Heslov once directed a short film about a Woody Allen fan called Waiting for Woody, and in 2006, Grant competed for an Oscar in the same category as Woody Allen. What are the chances? Overall, Grant Heslov, the producer of Academy Award winning fim Argo, plays a big role in film. Whether its acting in a big movie, producing academy award winning films or directing Oscar nominated short clips, he is well-accomplished in the movie business.

The animation movie Up was nominated for the Academy Awards in 2009. The screenwriter was Bob Peterson with the help of Pete Docter. Peterson also helped out in other Pixar movies including: Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and Ratatouille. He is considered a star in Pixar. Pete Docter was also the screenwriter in Toy Story, another Pixar classic. Both joined Pixar at a very young age. Peterson was born January 1961 and Docter was born October 9, 1968.

Take Two!

I honestly didn't know what to expect coming into this Jterm. How do you remake films? What even is remaking a film? Well, just after the first couple of days I have learned the basics of the art of remaking films. I have learned different vocabulary terms like form and content. Also, how to shoot a film with different camera angles. The most interesting thing that I have learned so far is that with varying camera angles it creates a whole different feeling to the scene. For example, when we were doing the exercise yesterday, I learned that horizontal landscape shot is better than vertical because it gives the viewer more of a sense of the background. Also, high low shots during an argument or 180 degrees shot to make the viewer really feel apart of the conversation.

In terms of group work, I am our producer. After brainstorming different ideas for films to remake, we have decided on the great mystery Sherlock Holmes. I am very excited to get started! Also, yesterday we went over the rough overview of each scene and determined the characters. I cant wait to see how the final product turns out.

I am looking forward to the remaining of our two weeks. I am interested to watch more old and then new movies and evaluating the differences in the remake. Also, I am excited to continue to work on my groups remake of Sherlock Holmes!