IRON MAN / IRON MAN 2 Movie Posters, Trailers, Pictures, Set and Casting updates and more.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

IRON MAN MOVIE: Who will dethrone the Iron King?

So who are the contenders?

It has been almost a month now since the theatrical release of the Iron Man movie (it was released in the US on May 2nd - it seems so long ago now, huh?). Honestly, it was an awesome movie-going experience for me and many more thousands of comic book fanboys worldwide. Now it is time to look ahead and wonder: 'what will be the likely Super Hero movie successor to Iron Man this summer at the box office?'

Well, looking down the list, there are a few likely candidates; Just let me prefice this by saying that , in my book, Indiana Jones does NOT qualify as a super hero flick, okay?

So, who's up to bat first? A big batter: the Incredible Hulk movie. This one is a Marvel movie, but it just doesn't seem to be getting the kind of natural buzz that Iron Man benefited from. It probably doesn't help that there was recently a dispute between Hulk star Ed Norton and Universal Studios over the final cut of the upcoming movie (June 13th). A ramification of this was Norton reportedly refusing to do any PR work for the movie. That could explain some of the lack of 'pop' for this film so far. It might do well but it won't recapture the Iron Man buzz.

June 27th sees the release of the Angelina Jolie , Wanted movie. This is based on a great comic mini-series from Mark Millar, so it is acomic based effort but not really a super hero flick - it's actually quite an anti-hero kind of film. Either way, this one is not getting anywhere enough buzz at this point for me to give it much of a 'shot' (sorry) at being the next hero flick with legs.

On July 4th we have something interesting: Will Smith's pseudo super hero Hancock movie. It might be about a character with no existing history, but when you put Will Smith and Summer blockbuster together it usually equals a strong box office, so this one could be acontender.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army is sceduled for release the following week but it has less chance of being a nother huge Summer hit - it should do ewell enough just not on the scale of Iron Man.

Okay, here is the one that I will be waiting for and watching the early boxoffice performance of most carefully: Batman: The Dark Knight. It overcame adversity (set fires) and tragedy (the death of Heath Ledger) and still was completed as intended. this one has been slowly building up buzz after the release of the latest trailer (shown before Iron Man ironically) and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

So there you have it: the successor to Iron Man's title of reigning Summer box office super hero may just be the longtime competition: DC Comics and their iconic Dark Knight, the Batman.

When I go to see this one, I might just go with a smile.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Iron Man movie: After the Storm

So I saw the Iron Man movie on Monday night, and what can I say? I was blown away.

I went in knowing it was going to be spectacular, I mean we had all seen the trailers so I was ready to be impressed. But still: I can't believe how often during the film I either caught myself laughing out loud at something (intentionally) funny on the screen or thought to myself 'yeah1 That rocks!' Despite my preparation I was still surprisingly impressed.

So where do we go from here?

Everybody has heard by now tha the film is a real big success sofar, raking in over $100 million in the US during its opening weekend, and possible over $200 million worldwide.

Ka-Ching.

On Monday Marvel came out with the bold announcement that there would in fact be a sequel to the Iron Man movie. This is not as surprising an announcement as many might think: even if the film had not been such a huge opening weekend success the intention to make a sequel was there. I already read aweek ago that Robert Downey Jr. had signed on for a three picture deal with Iron Man. Of course even the first Hulk movie had a decent opening weekend but subsequently dropped off due to negative word of mouth. Marvel still felt confident to green light a Hulk sequel, though.

The most interesting tidbit for me, however, was the pay-off received for sitting through the Iron Man closing credits.

** SPOILER ALERT **

Okay, if you haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to leave now just so that I don't ruin anything for you. At the close of the credits,us fanboys were treated to an extra scene featuring Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD! This was anice set up for the sequel, as well as an introduction to the concept of the Avengers in the future.

The next stop on my Summer movie roster will probably be the Incredible Hulk movie, in large part because of the heavily rumored cameo by Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark. If only William Hurt had not given this one away already in an interview, it would have made for one Hell of a surprise, eh?


All in all, and at the end of the day, I would have to say that Iron Man was that most rare of super hero movies: a very pleasant surprise. Nest stop: Hulk!