Daily Archives: September 27, 2013

My Review: Iron Man 3

Movies

I’m a casual fan of the Iron Man movies. I think they are grossly overhyped despite Robert Downey Jr. being a great Tony Stark. The films would be nothing without him.

Iron Man 3 fixes one of my biggest complaints with this series, the action scenes. They’ve all been teases until this movie. It’s like once something great was happening, the fight ended. Here, the action scenes last more than 35 seconds and are really satisfying. The plane rescue is a real knockout and they came up with some really wild in-suit, part-in/part-out suit action that was really inventive. Special FX remains top of the line ILM work, they make knock out stuff that integrates so well with practical work.

I real surprise for me was how little Iron Man is actually in this. It’s all Tony. He’s full bore IM for a small percentage of the movie. There’s a really great story arc for Stark here where he is suffering from PTSD from the events in Avengers He’s a real mess in the beginning. he goes through even more terrible stuff (which his ego asked for) and at the end he’s much more than a guy in a really expensive suit. He IS Iron Man.

Solid villain work here too (something IM 2 completely botched), with great set up, villainous follow through and a good amount of scenery chewing.

But there is a ton of suspend your disbelief logic and physics here. They acknowledge it at times, but it’s ridiculous. The same people that moan about Batman surviving huge falls and getting back to Gotham in a day better be crossing their arms at the nonsense pulled off here too. At one point the parts of his suit fly to Stark over 800 miles in maybe 2 minutes. That basically requires time travel to work. But I digress, it’s still a good movie and easily the best Iron Man.

Dexter ~Fin~

TV

The best times of Dexter was many seasons ago. After the Trinity Killer, it was an uneven, poorly written show that managed to hang on to a series finale. While there has been some moments that proved Dexter’s entertaining value, it too often did a header into a pile of freshly shoveled dirt (the end of season 6 in particular).

The series finale is just a disappointment for me. They knew it was the end, they had plenty of time to come up with a satisfying and cohesive narrative for Dexter. The finale really felt rushed. I find it hard to believe that Showtime would be forcing them to get that last episode wrapped in 55 minutes. Dexter is basically the flagship show for the network. It was a defeatist ending too, which made it feel worse to me. There was nothing satisfying about seeing Dexter, who is a very strong character, basically give up. Plus, there are so many loose ends that force you to fill in the blanks. Stuff that is just convenient writing that ignores real world observation and common sense to get to their desired end (which has been a big problem for the show). Needless, poorly handled death and bizarre, kneejerk abandonment don’t go over well with me.

It’s a bummer to see a once great show roll over and die with very little intact of what made it so great in the beginning.