Dork Adore » Iron Man

The most exciting film of 2012?

Emma Cossey — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:28:51 +0000

They’ve been been building up to it for a long time now. Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk and Thor have all enjoyed a level of solo success at the cinemas.

Now, they’re all starring in a big fat slice of Marvel movie goodness - The Avengers. And they’ve thrown Scarlett Johansson in the mix for good measure.

We might be quite excited about this. The only annoying thing is, it’s not out until May. So essentially, this trailer is just a big geek tease.

Check out the trailer below, then let us know in the comments what you think.

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Make your own Iron Man, Thor and Captain America cakes!

Emma Cossey — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:00:30 +0000

I love cake. Who doesn’t? And I have a soft spot for Marvel movies (yeah, even Thor. For very, very shallow reasons). So this Marvel Cakelet pan is right up my street.

This cake pan has moulds for three of the characters from next year’s mega-movie, The Avengers, (Iron Man, Thor and Captain America), so it would be great for a bit of comic book-inspired afternoon tea before you hit the cinema. All you need is a bit of practice with an icing bag.

You can get the Marvel Cakelet pan from Williams Sonoma for £25.45.

The bad news is, it’s not eligible for international shipping, so you might want to get a kind friend in the USA to ship it over to you.

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Thor – Dork Review

Nick Bryan — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:13:51 +0000

Following in the hissing footsteps of Iron Man, Marvel Studios brings you Thor, their latest attempt to push a lesser-known hero to a wider audience, in advance of his role in next year’s Avengers.

But the thunder god is a slightly more fantastical premise than Captain America, Iron Man or Hulk. Can they sell him to the horrible, cynical public? Do they deserve to?

Great Balls Of Thunder

To be honest, I wouldn’t have shoved Thor out there on his own, simply because he’s such an odd one out. Were I somehow in charge, I’d have featured him in Avengers and hoped he went over well enough to get his own movie. But evidently Marvel execs have bigger balls than me.

And good for them, because this was very entertaining. I was worried at the start, the first half hour is a slow info-dump made up of posturing in silly costumes, although it’s a credit to everyone involved that this doesn’t come across as entirely ridiculous.

And once Thor arrives on Earth and the actual plot starts, everything is fine. No, it’s unlikely to change your life, but the funny bits made me laugh, the serious bits didn’t make me laugh and most of the action is chunky enough to enjoy. Not sure what else I could want from one of these films, really.

Brothers And Avengers

Special credit to star Chris Hemsworth; he’s new to the action blockbuster but manages to sell the notion of an arrogant god without soaring over the top. Tom Hiddleston, as his brother Loki, is pleasingly ambiguous as well. Those two, as well as Anthony Hopkins as all-father Odin, make the royal intrigue seem meaningful despite the fantasy trappings. Director Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespearean roots may have helped there too.

Said fantasy trappings sometimes stumble, I admit. Maybe we’ve been spoiled by Avatar, but the CG landscapes look a bit videogame at times, though still better than most of Doctor Who. So it’s fortunate that the majority is set in middle America, which appears much more realistic.

Thankfully, the Avengers-trailing is nowhere near as blatant and distracting it was in Iron Man 2, but the random Hawkeye cameo remains gratuitous. The post-credits scene was equally indulgent, but that’s the ideal place to do it, really.

In short, a fun establishing shot for a little-known superhero, in a similar vein to the original Iron Man. It’s not quite as good as that movie, due to a slightly weaker plot and the fact that Hemsworth, though impressive, is not Robert Downey Jr, but it is the best thing Marvel Studios have done since then.

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Dork Review: Iron Man 2

Nick Bryan — Tue, 11 May 2010 09:00:15 +0000

The second appearance of Iron Man comes with added weight to his armour: High expectations. The first Iron Man was a minor surprise hit, converting dork buzz into genuine success through light-hearted yet highly budgeted punching and the perfect casting of Robert Downey Jr as the metal man himself.

With the second go-round, audiences want more, so it better be good, yeah? Well, Downey Jr’s Tony Stark is present and correct, still having fun in a way few other superheroes are permitted. Seriously, if Spider-Man enjoyed himself this much, he’d have to lock himself in a cupboard and self-flagellate for hours.

The special effects are still lovely, the action still plays out like a high-speed video game and Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell play good villains. Rockwell, in particular, gets the thankless task of playing an unscrupulous equivalent of Stark, putting him in direct comparison with the star of the show, and still steals many a scene with his quirky take on capitalism.

But with all that expectation, it’s hard to deny that Iron Man 2 doesn’t feel like quite as beautifully formed as the previous attempt. Although Downey Jr is clearly having a good time, and his energy carries the film along, the all-pervading sense of fun that made Iron Man such a joy doesn’t quite return.

Not to mention Gwyneth Paltrow, whose chemistry with our hero was another highlight before, now somewhat relegated to nagging girlfriend status. But Don Cheadle’s re-cast Rhodey has some great scenes, especially when he encounters the posturing Rockwell.

For fans of the comic, there are a lot more Easter eggs here, setting up trailing strands for that Avengers movie we all desperately want to be brilliant. (Stay tuned after the credits for the biggest one.) For those who don’t know or care about any of that, it’s possible to ignore them.

But it’s glaring how much this feels like a ‘mid-season’ episode of a TV season, setting stuff up yet not offering huge resolutions. Of course, if we take this as chapter two in a series, with Avengers as the next step, perhaps that’s entirely intentional. Still, this movie could be a little unsatisfying when taken on its own.

Still, I’m starting to feel like one of those people who complain about episodes of Doctor Who because they don’t have enough references to classical philosophy. It’s an enjoyable movie, it builds on the first one, I just wish I’d felt a bit more giddy euphoria. It certainly won’t make me any less of a drooling fanboy for the Avengers film.

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Spring Comic Book Movie Fun Time! Dork Preview

Nick Bryan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:00:58 +0000

After a winter so cold that even Jack Frost started tweeting complaints about the inconvenience, some might think the main appeal of spring 2010 would be the potential for sunshine. But we dorks all know that the real reason to anticipate the turning of the season is the arrival of not one but three comic book movies which could be genuinely quite good.

This can lead only to a rush to the cinema, sudden bursts of unplanned adrenaline and probably quite a lot of articles in broadsheet newspapers with headlines like “BAM! POW! ZAP! Comics aren’t just for kids any more!”

This sentiment will be particularly prevalent after the April release of Kick-Ass, based on the recent eight-issue comic series by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. One of the most successful US comics in years without a big name superhero attached, Kick-Ass poses the question: what would happen if a normal kid pulled on a costume and tried to become a superhero, without the benefit of super-powers?

Well, he’d probably get beaten up a lot. Which is portrayed realistically, and at length. Fans of extreme violence may want to check out the red band trailer, but the normal one is actually cooler…

Back in more conventional superheroics, Iron Man returns in May with the imaginatively named Iron Man 2. The first film was a masterpiece of lightweight bloodrush-cinema, positioning Tony Stark where he belongs: as the ultimate wish-fulfilment billionaire. The note-perfect casting of Robert Downey Jr helped.

Hopefully the second one will give us everything we liked about the first one, only more so. It worked for the Spider-Man, X-Men and Batman sequels, after all.

Finally, and leaving tights aside entirely at last, The Losers debuts in April. A classic revenge-heist story about a group of CIA operatives betrayed by the agency. The original comic by Andy Diggle and Jock (yes, just “Jock”) truly felt like an action movie on paper, so hopefully the film can’t go far wrong.

And it would be hard not to mention the incredibly geek-friendly casting, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian), Idris Elba (Stringer Bell, The Wire), Chris Evans (The Human Torch) and Zoe Saldana (Uhura). If this isn’t great fun, it won’t be for lack of trying.

And it does feel wrong to finish this without mentioning the upcoming Scott Pilgrim movie, even if it isn’t out until summer, and all we have to go on so far is a few photos. Still. There it is.

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Dork Adore » Iron Man

The most exciting film of 2012?

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