Last night we finally got to see "Iron Man," and I'm so glad we didn't wait too long and miss seeing it on the big screen. (I realize that many people have those enormous flat-screen TVs in their homes, but we don't, so if we miss the theatrical release of a movie and end up having to wait a year for the DVD rental, we end up watching it on a regular old 29" TV—not so great for movies with lots of special effects and such.)
I was probably the only person in the cineplex who knew nothing about "Iron Man" going into it, other than that it was an action movie starring Robert Downey—and getting great reviews. I didn't know anything about the plot and hadn't even seen a trailer, which is the way I like it. Well, I loved this movie. It was exciting, fun, and way cool. I have always loved Robert Downey, and I think he's just terrific in this.
Pete is dying to see this movie, but we've decided he's not old enough yet. If it were just the comic-book violence (of which there is plenty), I'd let him. But I think the PG-13 rating stems from more than a couple of scenes involving torture and terrorism and mass murder, all perpetrated by real humans, not fantasy superheroes. Indeed, even as Iron Man, Downey's character is not a superhero, he's just a brilliant engineer who can create machinery beyond what anyone else can even imagine—with computers and other gadgetry that puts 007 to shame.
Like action? Enjoy supercool special effects? Get a kick out of clever repartee? Love Robert Downey? Think Gwyneth Paltrow is cute as a button? Want to see Jeff Bridges as a bald, bearded bad guy? Go see "Iron Man."
I have heard from many students that it's a great movie. However, I don't always trust what the teenagers say!
Posted by: Margaret | May 18, 2008 at 08:06 PM
How old is Pete? My husband and I saw Iron Man last week - we loved it, but we decided that my stepson (age 8) shouldn't see it yet, for the same reasons you mentioned. However, he took my 13-year-old stepdaughter to see it yesterday. (He and the boy saw Speed Racer today. Better them than me.)
Posted by: Florinda | May 18, 2008 at 09:31 PM
I won't go. I don't think anyone - child or adult - should find entertainment in "torture and terrorism and mass murder, all perpetrated by real humans, not fantasy superheroes".
Posted by: Amy | May 18, 2008 at 10:05 PM
I should have made myself clearer: The "real" violence was not at all gratuitous. It was all perpetrated by very obvious "bad guys" -- terrorists in Afghanistan who had gotten their hands on American weapons. Downey, who plays the owner of the weapons manufacturing company, sees the error of his ways and vows to stop producing weapons that will end up killing the very people he imagined he'd been protecting all this years (innocent civilians, American soldiers). The message is made very clear in the movie -- I just didn't relay it well!
Posted by: Karen | May 19, 2008 at 07:50 AM