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Robert Downey Jr.

Iron Man

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io9.com - 5/1/2008

Robert Downey Jr.'s Exposed Torso Is America [Iron Man Review]

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There's no way to make an apolitical movie out of Marvel Comics' Iron Man , and director Jon Favreau doesn't try. The story of a weapons manufacturer who's captured by a warlord in Afghanistan is clearly a metaphor for American power overseas. The great strength of Iron Man , which opens tonight, is that it can be read in a variety of ways, in spite of a fair bit of speechifying. And how you ...

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Iron Man “first comic-book movie better than its source material”
SpoutBlog — ... source material.” Traditional critics bitch and moan that their reviews of “sure” blockbusters don’t matter, but when millions of consumers invest in a shared entertainment experience, film reviews transcend arts reporting and become anthropology. It’s always exciting to see someone take the responsibility of that anthropological study seriously. An excerpt from Anders’ review after the jump; you can read the full thing here. Part of Iron Man’s great strength ...

Welcome To The Summer Of White Guilt [Guilt]
io9 — ... The first big summer movie of the season, Iron Man, set the tone with its story of a rich white dickhead who discovers his weapons have fallen into the hands of an evil strongman in Afghanistan, and are being used to oppress the locals. I've already written about the brave choice director Jon Favreau made to graft Tony Stark's weapons-maker guilt into Iron Man's origin. (In the comics, Tony doesn't feel bad about creating super-weapons until years later.) Tony Stark's wounded heart becomes a giant metaphor for the the mistakes America has made in arming the wrong people ...

Post-Traumatic Stress Makes Hulks Out Of All Of Us [The Incredible Hulk Review]
io9 — ... If Iron Man was about America's power overseas — specifically in Afghanistan, where much of the movie takes place — then the Incredible Hulk is about what happens to our soldiers when they come home. It's about the impossibility of transforming young men into "super-soldiers" and then expecting them to blend back in. Banner is on a hair-trigger not just because he's pissed off, but because he's traumatized by being under attack and on the run — and because military-sponsored experiments have made him fit only for battle. The whole movie is ...

Hulky Talky. BlogNosh 06/12/08
SpoutBlog — ... “If Iron Man was about America’s power overseas — specifically in Afghanistan, where much of the movie takes place — then ...

Best And Worst Science Fiction Movies Of 2008 [Io9 2008 Year In Review]
io9 — ... 5. Iron Man. This movie exceeded our expectations, delivering a mind-expanding story of the military-industrial complex instead of just a superhero punch-em-up. I was so excited, I wrote a giant essay instead of a simple review. ...