Iron Man, Speed Racer, The Fall

Iron Man

Directed by Jon Favreau

"Iron Man" is your standard superhero introduction script, elevated by the charismatic and constantly sharp and entertaining performance by lead Robert Downy Jr. It is him that ends up making the movie memorable-not the story, not the effects, not even the hero himself. As Tony Stark, Downy Jr. is able to play his wise cracking and charming self, and at the same time is able to blow things up and fly around in the air. Despite its rather slow start, "Iron Man" is quite an entertaining introduction to both the character, and the summer at the movies. Downy Jr. plays Tony Stark as if he's been doing it for years, providing enough of a mediation of wit, sarcasm, and even a mild amount of warmth to make it believable. Other than that, the script is really the standard superhero story-the telling of how the hero came to be, a few comical scenes involving the hero trying to figure out all of the powers they have, and than finally the introduction of the villain. In this case that is the Iron Monger, played by Jeff Bridges, who, of course, is the long time friend of Tony Stark who obviously thinks that business comes first. This is pretty much the meat of the film-the theme of big businesses being quite a villain worse than anything could imagine, and Tony Stark-at the start a powerful weapons creator-really does see the errors of his ways. But that aside, the performance is great, the action scenes are mostly terrific, and its enough fun to forgive the fact that we've seen these origin stories before. If all the elements remain in place for the sequel, than a more original story will prove to be something even more special.

*** of ****

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Speed Racer

Directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski

On the other side of the spectrum is the headache inducing 'Speed Racer." Remember in the late 90's when a bunch of people in Japan suffered a seizure from that episode of "Pokemon?" Well, those that were fine at the end of that incident will be screwed here, as "Speed Racer" is one flashing light and sparkling color after another, while also combining some rather awful dialogue, acting, story, and a similar message as "Iron Man," except presented in terrible fashion. We have our Speed Racer, who has always dreamed of being fast just like his brother Rex, who long ago died in a freak accident after beginning to race underground. The Racer family has always been interested in things that go fast, right down to Pops Racer owner his own garage (played by John Goodman, who is always the highlight of the everything-Walter Sobcheck anyone?) Older, Speed Racer looks to be following in his brothers footsteps, until he is introduced to Mr. Royalton, who has to throw the concept of money into the equation to try and rid the heart out of racing and turn it all into business. First of all, the Wachowski's don't seem to know what they want this to be-a children's movie, a film for younger adults, or a throwback to the world of anime, so it tries to be all three. We have our children's movie-complete with an annoying young brother and his monkey-a film for younger adults-complete with many many many sexual innuendo's-and than our anime-where the bright lights and flashing headache inducing colors come into play, as does the constant green screen which I'm sure the entire movie was shot against. Emile Hursh, who got acclaim from last year's somewhat overrated but good "Into the Wild," throws that credibility out the window here, as does most of the "talent" involved. The Wachowski's just manage to do everything wrong here, including being extremely long in length. There is about a forty five minute halt somewhere in the middle here, and by the time the final race comes along (which some folks have mentioned gave them the "chills,") you just stop caring. The Wachowski's throw in an obvious twist at the end of the film which does give hope for a sequel, but I highly doubt we will see the racing world again, at least not for a long while.

*1/2 of ****

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The Fall

Directed by Tarsem

"The Fall" is beautiful to look at, highly imaginative and creative, and very ambitious to boot, despite having its pretentious moments here and there that become just a little showy. I haven't seen the first film by Tarsem, "The Cell" from a few years back, but I hear that it was as highly experimental as this one. Taking place in 1920's LA, "The Fall" tells the story of young Alexandria (played by the wonderfully natural Catinca Untaru), who suffered a fall and is recovering in a hospital. While looking for things to do, and while not being under the watch of the kind and beautiful Nurse Evelyn, Alexandria meets Roy Walker, a Hollywood stunt man also recovering from an accident. He begins to weave to Alexandria a fantastic tale about the evil Lord Odious, who is being hunted by a slew of characters including Charles Darwin, an explosives expert, a hunter, an ex-slave, and finally a mysterious masked man that looks like Roy quite a bit. In exchange, Roy gets Alexandria to sneak into the closets and steal him some morphine in his attempts to kill himself, which keep failing. As Roy's life gets darker and darker, it reflects in the story as he begins to kill character after character.

Tarsem shot this film in eight-teen different countries, and takes advantage of some really beautiful shots that certainly deserve to be seen on the big screen. But it is at times where his attempt to blow the viewer away through the visuals ends up getting in the way of finding real heart into the characters. Our two leads Untaru and Lee Pace (who suddenly has been popping up in everything since "Pushing Daisies") do find some naturalness in their on-screen relationship. One touch I really liked a bit was having Alexandria say things at times to which Roy doesn't understand, causing her to repeat it, which is certainly realistic considering both the age and language barrier between the two. But Tarsem's script is a bit all over the place, trying to infuse too many things into one movie-the story within the story, the outer story, and than the throwbacks to Hollywoods and such. There were a few parallels between the the two stories that I haven't been able to catch on because I do not think Tarsem highlighted that section enough. At times the film does get a bit arty-such as the slow motion black and white opening credits with Beethoven's 7th (as beautiful as it is) playing in the background. But "The Fall" ends up being a special experiment and event that deserves to be seen, on as big a screen as possible, to wash into the beauty that Tarsem tries to infuse in every shot. I just wish he threw more effort into the other aspects of the film, as "The Fall" could have been something more masterful-and it should have been.

**1/2 of ****