Iron Man 3 - Review

Iron Man 3
(2013 - May 3)
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi
2 hrs. 10 min.
Rated: PG-13 sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence throughout, and brief suggestive content | Read more
Grade: B-
Director: Shane Black
Writers: Drew Pearce (screenplay), Shane Black (screenplay), 6 more credits »
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle | See full cast and crew

Marvel Studios' "Iron Man 3" pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy's hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

In my opinion they 'jumped the shark' with this one. I think the material is getting thin. Its over done, the special effects are too much, the screenplay is desperate and weak as is the direction. It just didn't do it for me. I have enjoyed the previous two installments but this one isn't up to par. More is less and in this one its just more, More, MORE. I didn't buy into all the little sub plots, like the one with the little boy. It is one cliche after another. It's like they just threw everything at the screen to see what would stick and it just became campy, messy with too many subplots and inside jokes that fell flat. These two stills (below) sort of sum up the lameness of this film for me.

If you want mindless noise, big explosions, fist fights, gratuitous action, meaningless deceptions and plot twists for the sake of plot twists, maybe you'll enjoy Iron Man 3. Get a large popcorn to see you through.

 

Plot Summary: Marvel Studios' "Iron Man 3" pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy's hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle.

With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale with Jon Favreau and Ben Kingsley, "Iron Man 3" is directed by Shane Black from a screenplay by Drew Pearce and Shane Black and is based on Marvel's iconic Super Hero Iron Man, who first appeared on the pages of "Tales of Suspense" (#39) in 1963 and had his solo comic book debut with "The Invincible Iron Man" (#1) in May of 1968.

 

Behind the scenes

Cast

   Robert Downey Jr.     Gwyneth Paltrow       Don Cheadle       
        Tony Stark                      Pepper Potts         Colonel James Rhodes

   Guy Pearce             Ben Kingsley            Rebecca Hall  
Aldrich Killian                 The Mandarin                Maya Hansen 

33 Postcards - Review

33 Postcards

2011 Australia

(2012 - April - USA)

Drama

1 hr. 37 min.

Rated: Not Rated 
Grade: B-

Director: Pauline Chan
Writers: Pauline Chan, Philip Dalkin, Martin Edmond
Stars: Guy Pearce, Zhu Lin, Claudia Karvan | See full cast and crew

Mei Mei (Zhu Lin) is a 16 yr old Chinese orphan girl who dreams of nothing more than being part of the 'perfect' family. Dean Randall (Guy Pearce) has sponsored Mei Mei for the past 10 years, allowing her to get an education. When her orphanage is invited to participate in The Australian Choir Festival Mei Mei takes the opportunity to find her Australian sponsor in Sydney.  However, the Dean Randall's situation she finds is far from the idyllic life he depicted in his postcards. Initially mismatched and disconnected the two begin a journey in search of belonging, family, redemption, love and acceptance.

33 Postcards utilizes an old formula that dates back, at least on the silver screen, to the days or D. W. Griffith but as a storyline goes back even further than that. It's the "oh-so-innocent waif and big old baddie" odd-couple formula. It presents the opportunity to utilize the elements, among others, of danger, risk, hope, forgiveness, redemption, friendship, loyalty and love.

First released in Australia in 2011, and April 2012 in the US, 33 Postcards was not well received by the critics, said to be sentimental; ' feel-goodery'; 'Sweet to the point of getting a sugar rush'; blah, blah, blah. For example take this quote from the New York Post:

"Were it not for the staccato bursts of violence, this Chinese-Australian co-production about how an adorable orphan brings love into the life of a hardened convict would feel like a film from Hayley Mills' heyday." 

The innocence of  the Hayley Mills' heyday, of course, is something your children need protection from. Today's critics are in my view very jaded, to be a good film it can't be uplifting any longer, it needs violence, sex, drugs, nudity and antiheroes, it must elevate the sordid underbelly of humanity, show us the sympathetic side of criminals, terrorists, murderers, atheists, perverts, deviants, gangsters and thieves. Anything espousing morality, traditional family, religion, beauty or uplifting values is derided as old fashioned, sappy, goody goody, un-evolved.

33 Postcards is a sweet little film. Not a great film or a classic but an enjoyable film. I felt a bit of an affinity for the story having visited a Chinese orphanage and my ties to Australia. Plus, I have always liked Guy Pearce (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; L A Confidential; Prometheus, The Hurt Locker, Iron Man 3) as an actor and no, this is not his greatest performance and this is not the best written screenplay and it is not the pinnacle of direction but it is a nice film none the less.  I saw it at our local Art House cinema (Art House Cinema 502). If it's not playing in your area you can check it out on Netflix. 33 Postcards is a film you can enjoy with your family although some of the violence will be inappropriate for the wee ones.

The performances are adequate to good, the screenplay is a bit weak but not awful. The Chinese orphanage director, Miss Chen (Elaine Jin), reminded me of an Asian version of Viola Davis in  Won't Back Down. 

33 Postcards marks the first official Chinese-Australian (New South Wales) film collaboration. At the 2011 Sydney Film Festival, where it had its world premiere, it won the Community Relations Commission Award. At its Chinese premiere, just a couple of weeks later at the Shanghai International Film Festival, its lead actress Zhu Lin won the New Talent Award. The film is directed by Pauline Chan and inspired by real life events.

On the set with director Pauline Chan.

 
Cast

    Guy Pearce                Zhu Lin      

 Dean Randall                       Mei Mei       

    Rhys Muldoon         Claudia Karvan         Lincoln Lewis   

Gary                               Barbara                              Carl

Prometheus - Review

A clue to mankind's origins leads a team of explorers to deep space, where they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

Prometheus

Opened June 8, 2012
Running time: 2 hr 3 min
Genres: Horror, Suspense/Thriller

R Sci-Fi Violence, Brief Language and Some Intense Images

Guide for parents: Common Sense Media says iffy for 16+. Read More

Rating: B-

Director:  Ridley Scott

Writers: Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof

Cast:  Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green

Photos below are Metro station promos for Prometheus

I saw Prometheus at the midnight showing on opening night in a big IMAX 3D theater, along with a fairly good size audience but not a packed house as was the case with Avengers.

This film is a little difficult to follow unless, I suppose, you are an Alien/Ridley Scott fan. It expects a lot out of the viewer. The screen play makes the assumption that you are going to be able to knit together the broken pieces of the story that the editor has left in the final cut based, one assumes, on your knowledge of the previous films. The assumption is ambitious at best. Three are a lot of visuals without any dialogue where the viewer is left to interpret the parts of the story that are never verbalized. Even so, it does hold its own as a stand alone film, as it would need to, since most movie goers were not even born when Alien was released way back in 1979.

Alien is, without a doubt, a Sci-Fi classic as is Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (although I'm not so much a fan of the that film) and Ridley Scott is as good as any when it comes to this genre. Alien was fresh and groundbreaking when it unleashed its horror on Sigourney Weaver in the 70s. The trailers for Prometheus didn't mention the 'Alien' connection but the relationship is obvious. Prometheus is in fact a prequel to the Alien franchise and it is also obvious that the intent is to  extend and expand the franchise with the Prometheus prequel and its sequels. Hopefully Scott will do a better job than Lucas did with the Star Wars prequel/sequel franchise.

The star of this film is most certainly the special effects, set designs and costumes and the MVP would have to be the non-human, David (Michael Fasabender). Prometheus didn't really work all that well for me, I expected more suspense more character development. I love the H.R. Geiger designs and the Scotland and Iceland locations were great choices. 

I wanted to like this film (loved Alien) but it seemed like they felt a need to compete with the effects and action of the day i.e. 'Transformers' et. al. whereas Alien relied on innovation, characterizations and story. The heroine here, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her main squeeze, Dr. Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) is a milk-toast lap dog to Shaw, they are both such touchy-feely, liberal do-gooder, religious devotees to Darwinism with 'Pollyanna' expectations of their man-god Engineers' good will to all mankind that it makes them both so unsympathetic, you just want to see some nasty alien smack some sense into the both of them.  Her surgery scene is a 'first' for the moves.

At the other end of the spectrum are David (Michael Fassbender) and Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron). He is a robot with an obsession for Peter O'Toole's Lawrence of Arabia. She is so cold and lifeless that she is questioned by the crew as to whether she is human or a robot like David. Fassbender shines in his role, the others...ehh...not so much. Guy Pearce is more or less wasted in his cameo appearance.
Prometheus, in the long run, is a worthy effort. I have expectations that some of the sequels will hit a higher mark.
Buy all things Prometheus/Alien (click here)

Synopsis:
Visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott returns to the genre he helped define, creating an original science fiction epic set in the most dangerous corners of the universe. The film takes a team of scientists and explorers on a thrilling journey that will test their physical and mental limits and strand them on a distant world, where they will discover the answers to our most profound questions and to life's ultimate mystery.

The Plot of Prometheus:
Archaeological findings suggest that our "Gods" have left us an invitation to come find them in ancient cave paintings. Dr. Elizabeth Shaw and Dr. Charlie Holloway lead the expedition as being the main scientists on board who initially discovered the finds and linked the paintings to a star map.
 
It is the year 2093, December 24th - right at Christmas time when the USCSS Exploration Vessel Prometheus enters the Zeta 2 Reticuli System. The crew wake up from cryo sleep and begin mission prep for landing on a moon named "LV_223" which they believe has the ability to support life.

The ship lands on the moon on what looks to be a "run-way" which leads to a series of pyramid-like structures surrounded by a wall/blockade to protect it from the elements. They later discover that these Pyramids are creating a new atmosphere inside, essentially Terraforming the planet. Once inside, the crew discover many hidden passages and rooms which contain Alien technology far beyond our comprehension.

It is upon discovering one room which contains the mysterious giant head that the crew find that they have upset the atmosphere in the room and have now triggered some kind of alarm - which causes these Urn-like objects to leak black, organic fluid.

The crew leave the temple but two crew members get lost and find themselves in that same room later on. The Black organic substance has mutated a couple worms into giant, snake like creatures known as "Hammerpedes" which resemble a similar look as that of the "Facehugger" seen in ALIEN. One of them attacks one of the crew, killing him and the other crew member gets infected by the black organic substance as well - which later mutates him into a mindless killing machine.

The story continues on to explore the reasoning behind these temples and the destructive organic materials the crew discover. We learn that these Engineers had planned on coming to Earth with this dangerous material 2000 years prior to the events of this film and that something went wrong which prevented them from completing their mission. We never truly understand just what exactly caused this - but we can assume an outbreak occurred and a dangerous Alien species was unleashed inside the complex - killing most of the Engineers working inside.
The plot thickens and reveals more questions along the way. Questions which will soon be answered in one of the many Prometheus sequels to follow. But what we do know is that LV_223 is not the Engineer home world and we know that there is a lot more out there to discover; like where the Engineers came from and why they planned to exterminate us 2000 years ago.

Elizabeth Shaw's (Noomi Rapace) special friend (above)

Below are some clips form behind the scenes.

Ridley Scoot gives direction to  Noomi Rapace

         Cast: (partial list in credits order)

Noomi Rapace.................Elizabeth Shaw
Michael Fassbender..........David
Charlize Theron...............Meredith Vickers
Idris Elba........................Janek
Guy Pearce......................Peter Weyland
Logan Marshall-Green.......Charlie Holloway
Sean Harris......................Fifield
Rafe Spall........................Millburn
Emun Elliott.....................Chance
Benedict Wong.................Ravel
Kate Dickie.......................Ford
Branwell Donaghey...........Mercenary 1
Vladimir 'Furdo' Furdik.......Mercenary 2
C.C. Smiff........................Mercenary 3
Shane Steyn....................Mercenary 4
Ian Whyte........................Last Engineer
John Lebar.......................Ghost Engineer
Daniel James....................Sacrifice Engineer
Patrick Wilson...................Shaw's Father