Iron Man Review

Hello and welcome to the 15th episode of the

MWire Movie Weekend Review. Today we're going

to be discussing Iron Man in our Marvel Spotlight.

I am TF2 and Mike and as usual I am joined by

Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello. How are you? Uh,

semi -tired. Semi -tired? Yes. Yes. Um... Let's

see what's been going on. I've got... All my

re -records and stuff are done as far as the

previous ToonCast episodes. I finally got ToonCast

20 recorded with Ron Algarwatt and Matt Robotham

of the Sarcastic Voyage podcast. The sound on

that, on our actual discussion, is a little bit

wonky, but I think that was Skype screwing up

that night. Because when we were actually talking,

it sounded fine. But for some odd reason... On

playback, it sounded like... It wasn't complete

and total crap where we needed to re -record

it, but it was, you know, breakups here and there.

I don't know. Let's see what else is going on.

I've got... Not ToyCast. ToonCast episodes 21

and 22. Actually, 21 will be the Jetsons and

the Flintstones, which I'll be recording Saturday

morning with the Televixen. And... TuneCast 22

will be our Halloween episode. It's the Great

Pumpkin Charlie Brown, which I will be recording

with Michael Wilson Friday evening. Yeah, it's

kind of backwards. Plus, by the time this episode

airs, I will have already recorded the Halloween

episode for TuneCast and probably in the midst

of recording the Jetsons episode. Oh, Lord. I

just love scheduling conflicts. Yes. Yes. I also

want to bring up the fact that, what are the

numbers for this show? Do you remember? Yeah,

like I know that off the top of my head. Give

me a second. Okay, so, yeah. The reason why I'm

asking Steve for the numbers is because of the

simple fact that if we have, like, more than

ten people that are subscribed to this show...

I'm not telling like a prude or a prick or a

jackass or whatever. Why the fuck aren't you

people leaving us feedback on iTunes? I just

checked the iTunes feedback. 30. Okay. There's

30 subscribers. Now, whether you have people

actually listen to the show or not, I don't know.

But please leave us feedback. Almost every other

show that we do, I think. Yeah, I think every

other show that we do, except for the ones that

we have yet to be released, has feedback on.

So, you know, we're always up for new ideas,

changing stuff around, whatever. If the show

feels slow to you people, let us know. We'll

work it around it, so please leave us feedback

in iTunes. And on that note, we're going to get

into Iron Man. We'll be right back. Mr. Stark,

you've been called the Da Vinci of our time.

What do you say to that? Absolutely ridiculous.

I don't pay no attention. What do you say to

your other nickname, the Merchant of Death? That's

not bad. They say the best weapon is one you

never have to fire. I prefer the weapon you only

need to fire once. That's how Dad did it. That's

how America does it. And it's worked out pretty

well so far. To peace. Is it cool if I take a

picture with you? Yes. It's very cool. I don't

want to see this on your MySpace page. Please,

no gang signs. No, throw it up. I'm kidding.

You have till tomorrow to assemble my missile.

I should be dead already. Unless it was for a

reason. I just finally know what I have to do.

That doesn't look like a missile. What are you

building, Star? I'm working on something big.

is a 2008 American superhero film based on the

Marvel Comics character of the same name. Directed

by Jon Favreau, the film stars Robert Downey

Jr. as Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist

and master engineer who builds a powered exoskeleton

and becomes the technologically advanced superhero

Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow plays his personal

assistant, Trevor Motz. Terrence Howard plays

military liaison James Brody Rhodes. and Jeff

Bridges plays Stark in district executive Obadiah

Stane. The film was in development since 1990

at Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox, and New

Line Cinema. Before Marvel Studios reacquired

the rights in 2006, Marvel put the project in

production in its self -financed film. Favreau

signed on as director aiming for a naturalistic

feel, and he chose to shoot the film primarily

in California, rejecting the East Coast setting

of the comics to differentiate the film. from

numerous superhero films set in New York City

-esque environments. During filming, the actors

were free to create their own dialogue because

pre -production was focused on the story and

action. Rubber and metal versions of the armors

created by Stan Winston's company were mixed

with computer -generated imagery to create the

title character. This movie, okay, you know,

I will say this, and I will only give it one

exception. Outside of The Dark Knight, This was

the best film. Yeah, I think this was actually

better than The Dark Knight in my opinion, but

that's because I'm more of a Marvel fan than

a Batman fan. Yeah, I'm not going to get into

the whole compare and contrast between the two

because they are basically two very, very different

monsters as far as that, but this is easily the

best film. that Marvel's put out since 06. Oh,

yeah, no doubt. The last three years, Iron Man

is, you know, you can give the Incredible Hulk

all the praise you want to or whatever, and,

you know, if you're like Double D, you know,

you can, you know, if he chooses to like the

Hulk more than Iron Man, that's more than fine.

But, you know, in my opinion, it, Iron Man, I

was more excited for Iron Man than, uh, Transformers

this year. I mean that's just how I was last

year. I was ready to see Iron Man on the screen.

And a majority of my Iron Man knowledge does

come from the 1994 cartoon. And I noticed a lot

of things that I don't think they intended to

call back to the cartoon at all but some of them

kind of reminded me of the cartoon. I don't know

why they just did. So what are your initial thoughts

on Iron Man? Definitely impressed. The casting

seemed to be pretty great. The acting was pretty

much spot on with how the characters act in the

90s Marvel show. Exactly what I would have picked.

Much better than what I initially thought. Oh,

yeah. Yeah, you know, and we'll get to the characters

eventually, but I'm just going to say this now.

Downey Jr., he is Tony Stark. I mean, he pretty

much, for me, he took the character from the

cartoon, and again, the majority of my knowledge

is from the cartoon. Yes, I know there's, you

know... what, 40 years, 50 years of Iron Man

comic history. But for me, he basically took

the Tony Stark from the cartoon and put him,

you know, to live action, and it was really,

really cool. Yeah, he pretty much embodied the

Tony Stark persona. Oh, yes. Very, very much

so. You know, the last... I guess... We're going

to kind of change the format of MR just a little

bit, not really to speed it along, but to actually

have more discussion and less of reading through

crappy wiki plot synopses. To basically summarize

this film, you have Stark, who is this, you know,

engineering genius, and, you know, his math is

always right, you know, graduated magna cum laude

from MIT when he was 17 and all this and everything

else. You know, he's always working. He's always

playing, actually. Because in the very beginning

scenes, they were going to give him an award.

And, of course, he's at the craps table. You

know, basically, I would say to give a brief

summary of the film, he is a weapons manufacturer

who believes that, you know, You should only

have to fire a weapon once to get the job done.

And then he ends up going overseas for this weapons

demonstration, ends up getting almost assassinated,

getting captured, escaping with this giant Mark

I Iron Man suit that he built, comes back and

changes everything around, and eventually has

to go up against his... supposed friend Obadiah

Stane and now enemy. You know, there's tons of

cool scenes in this film. Oh, yeah. I mean, the

action for this was just awesome. I don't know.

What was one of your favorite scenes? Of just

any point in the movie? Yeah. Well, One that

stood out to me, one of the many actually, is

when he went over to the Middle East, blew away

all the guys that held him hostage, and handed

over the one guard to the townspeople, and then

he got shot by a tank, and then he shot that

little tiny missile. It looks like a little dart,

and then he walks away. and then you see the

tank explode and a big fireball behind him. Yeah.

That was actually in the trailer shots of the

original, I don't know if it was the official

theatrical trailer or if it was in the teaser.

And, of course, Black Sabbath's song, Iron Man,

like the guitar riffs from that song were playing

in the background. That scene was just so, so

awesome. Some of the medical stuff in the beginning,

because actually this film starts off very differently

than almost any other Marvel film previously.

It starts off where you have him, he's already

finished the weapons demonstration, but obviously

as, you know, going into this film, we don't

actually know that, but I mean, for me, I've

seen it like, I don't know, I've watched it like

twice today. Right before we recorded this, I

had just finished it for like the third time

or whatever. But it starts out with him riding

with these soldiers. And, you know, they're joking

around, joking around. Next thing you know, missiles

come inbound. And all three soldiers get killed.

And then he ends up outside of the thing trying

to text somebody or do something with his phone.

And he sees one of his own missiles, Stark Industries

missiles. come up, and basically it almost blows

into Kingdom Come, and then of course you do

the cut thing where it's cut 36 hours earlier.

And I don't know if I like that with a film.

Sometimes I like it with TV, which is fine, but

I don't know, I guess they needed a way to break

you into the, like to pull you into the story.

Oh yeah. Like go back, and and give you backstory

of how you... I don't know if I like that, though.

I mean, it's a good, you know, full -on action

scene, especially with ACDC's back -in -black

playing in the beginning. But overall, I'm really

not a fan of that type of storytelling, usually.

But for this, it works. Yeah, I definitely like

how they translated and updated this story for

a modern time. yet kept it very true to the original.

Oh, yeah. And we should also mention, I don't

know how the sequel's going to go as far as the

title sequence, but this one was very different

from all the other Marvel films' title sequences

because Iron Man isn't someone, Tony Stark isn't

someone who got mutated. He's not Spider -Man.

He's not Daredevil. I mean, you know, Daredevil...

He does have superhuman powers, like with the

other senses, you know, heightened. But I guess

the only way I can really compare them to is

like Spider -Man and the X -Men. Stark isn't

one of those. Stark is basically Marvel's version

of Batman. Although he's not as dark and brooding

as Batman. And I like that, but... You know,

you didn't have that unique title sequence like

you had with Spider -Man 1, 2, and 3, or X -Men,

or Daredevil. You just had... I mean, I like

it for it being simplistic. You just had Iron

Man, like, after one scene, and then it goes

into the rest of the film. Oh, yeah. I... I like

he goes, I think that's going to be a new catchphrase

for people when he's testing the Mark II after

he's home, after he's rescued and everything

else. He's testing the Mark II. And he's telling

his computer Jarvis to, you know, check weather

conditions and everything else. And Jarvis is

like, sir, it's not, you know, it's not advised

to. go ahead and do a test flight. And he goes,

Jarvis, you've got to run before you walk sometimes.

So, you know, it's kind of like with great power

comes great responsibility. What do you think

of some of these comedic bits in this film? Well,

like, one of the memorable ones, I'd have to

say, is definitely when Stark was building parts

of the suit. His one drone kept using the fire

extinguisher on him. Oh, yeah. And he told him

that he was going to turn him into basically

a toaster. Yep. That and where he goes to the

meeting after he says, I'm not going in there

until I have a cheeseburger, a real American

cheeseburger, and he comes in with Burger King

and sits down on the little step. Yeah, I don't

think I've ever seen a press conference like

that. No. She's just like, eh, what the hell,

I almost died, I can do whatever the hell I want.

I wonder if any of the presidents would ever

do that kind of thing. Probably not. Yeah. Probably

not. One of the cool things about this film is

the way that they made the armor, the way how

pretty much all... pretty much all moves. Every

single part of it. It's almost like a transforming

suit really. Because almost every piece of it

moves for the most part. And I like how that

they got the repulsor things in his hands. I

like the effects on that. And of course the chest

piece. There is one scene that I really really

have to get up and walk away while it's playing,

and that's when he calls Pepper down to replace

the Mark I chess piece with the Mark II chess

piece, and she pulls it all the way out, and

the pus and the, oh, God. That's just one scene

I can't really watch. It wasn't that bad. No,

it wasn't that bad, but, yeah, I've got pretty

much a low gag reflex when it comes to stuff

like that. But I do remember thinking, Oh, wow,

it's Operation, because she did hit the sides

and shocked him. That was kind of funny. And

then, of course, you have, you know, we find

out that Obadiah is the one that had him almost

assassinated and wants this armor for himself.

And actually, it's funny, in the production notes,

script here, it says that the Mark I suit that

Tony built was a very first prototype of what

the Iron Monger suit would later become. Because

obviously for Iron Man you want a sleeker, more

agile design so he can move more freely. I like

the sound effects on the repulsors when he's

flying. Like when he's just hovering. Oh yeah,

that definitely was pretty cool. Yeah, I thought

that was really, It actually almost, sometimes,

you know, when I watch this film, it's like after

the scene where Iron Monger throws him into a

truck and blows it up or whatever, and he goes

flying, and then, of course, he corrects himself

and he starts hovering. I don't know, it always,

I know Iron Man and Tony Stark are not God, but

it kind of, he looks very godly in that position,

with his arms down, his feet all the way down.

The relationship between him and Rhodey, they

really did good bringing that in from the comics

and I think from the cartoon as well. Because

Tony's like, oh, you need to loosen up, and of

course Rhodey's like, oh, I'm not going to loosen

up. And then, of course, by the end of the film,

you have Rhodey finding him and finding the suit.

I believe he saw the Mark II. I think that's

what it was, and he said, next time, baby. But

to me, when I saw that, I don't know, maybe it's

because I've watched the film so much this week,

at first I thought that was more of the War Machine

style of suit, even though I know it was the

Mark II for the Iron Man suit. At the end, when

I looked at it, it almost looked like what I

remember the War Machine armor to be from the

cartoon. Yeah. Without the blue, obviously. But

you just know that he's going to turn that into

the... Oh, yeah. The suit for War Machine in

this movie, if not the next one. I think it'll

be this one, though, that we'll see War Machine

show up. Yeah, War Machine's going to show up

in the second one. And we'll get to that whole

controversy a little bit later. What did you

think of the ending? basically refuting that

it's a bodyguard. Now see, me, I never knew.

Like, from watching the cartoon, he always kept

from everybody except for Rhodey and Julia and

the Force Works guys, he always kept his identity

a secret. And in this film he goes, yeah, I am

Iron Man. What did you think of that? I just

thought that was like the ultimate badass move.

Now, did you watch all the way through the credits?

Yes, I did, because I heard when I went to go

see it that there was a clip at the end. See,

I knew that there was, but I didn't really pay

any attention to it at first until actually tonight.

I fast -forwarded through all the credits, and

I watched the end clip. Of course, you have the

end clip is. Tony comes into the house, and lo

and behold, who should be there? Samuel L. Jackson

as Nick Fury. He wants to talk to him about the

Avenger Initiative, which, of course, as everybody

knows, the Avengers is coming up, I believe,

2011. I think that's when that's going to be

released. I think Captain America is 2011, Avengers

is 2012. I don't know off the top of my head

here. I have no clue. You know, I think overall

it was a great story that they told. It was a

great way to basically incorporate all of his

origin without actually having to go into extreme

great detail. I mean, they kind of do, but they

pretty much hit the nail on the head as the story

is what they have. They don't really have to

go any deeper than that, especially with Donnie

Jr. portrayal. I mean, he basically put it on

the map for being Tony Stark. Yeah, this is definitely,

though, a really good movie. I actually can't

wait for the next one. Won't have to wait too

long. Next year. Yep. Coming up. Going into the

cast, again, Robert Downey Jr. as Anthony Tony

Stark slash Iron Man. Sorry. You know, Downey

Jr. has had a very sketchy acting career. I've

thought, I know he's been in other stuff, but

before this came up, the only thing I remember

him in, and you're too young for this because

it came out a year before you were actually born,

but there's a movie called Chances Are with Civil

Shepard. He's a young... a man named Louie who

is actually her husband reincarnated. And that's

really the only role that I remember Robert Downey

Jr. from outside of this film, outside of Iron

Man, obviously. And you've got to wonder, you

know, do you think he would ever feel typecast

now that he's done this role? Because for me,

when people do superhero roles, you know, that's

who I see as a superhero. Now, once we, you know,

I know we're in the Marvel spotlight now, once

we eventually get into the DC spotlight, the

volume one spotlight that got set up down the

line for the Batman films, Batman changed frequently

in the original Batman form, you know, that came

up back in the, you know, late 80s, early 90s.

I think the only one of those that I really could

not stand was George Clooney. Other than that,

You know, just great casting for Tony Stark and

Iron Man for Downey Jr. Oh, yeah. They matched,

you know, Downey Jr. perfectly for that role.

Yeah. Of course, you have Terrence Towers, Lieutenant

Colonel James Rody Rhodes, who... Unfortunately,

we'll not be back for Iron Man 2. They've recast

that role as Don Cheadle, and I am severely pissed

at that. I understand that the reason why was

he just wasn't... Howard and Marvel Studios weren't

agreeing on prices, money and all that, but I

don't know. It's not going to be the same role.

And I either watched a YouTube clip or I read

somewhere that because Cheadle is taking over

the role in Iron Man 2, he tried to pretty much

make the role his own, but pretty much took every

cue that he could from Terrence Howard. So I

just, I don't know, I'm going to reserve final

judgment on it, but as of right now, I just can't

see Cheadle as War Machine. No, he just doesn't

have that look. He doesn't have the look, and

he doesn't really have, well, really, neither

one of them have the voice, because I'm so used

to Uncle Phil, James Avery, being the voice of

War Machine from the cartoon, but, I mean, obviously,

you can't fit Uncle Phil into a War Machine suit.

True. You have Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane,

Stark's business second -in -command. Bridges

read the comics as a boy and liked Favreau's

modern, realistic approach. He shaved his hair

and grew a gray beard for the role, which was

something he had wanted to do for some time.

Bridges Googled the book of Obadiah, and he was

surprised to learn retribution is a major theme

in that particular book of the Bible, something

which Stane represents. Many of Stane's scenes

were cut out to focus more on Stark, but the

writers felt Bridges' performance allowed the

application of less is more. The character was

called Ironmonger in the comics, but the codename

is only referenced in the film when Stane describes

himself and Stark as Ironmongers. You know, you

don't foresee Jeff Bridges in a superhero film.

but I think he pulled it off very well. And did

you fall asleep? Nope. Well, here's where you're

supposed to give your own opinion. Jeff Bridges?

Yeah. He seemed like a pretty decent guy at the

beginning of the movie, and then as he progressed

through the movie, you could see that he was

just mostly powered by green and was looking

to basically... kick Tony off the top and take

over as head honcho. Yep. Just proved that he

was a bigger douchebag than what you thought.

I do like that one piece of techie carrying around,

though, the thing that paralyzed people. That's

pretty cool. I want one of those. Yeah, I can

think of a number of uses for that. Use it on

your dogs. No, I wouldn't use it on them. There's

some people I could use it on. Oh, yeah, like

that guy at the car dealership, that one guy

that you don't like working with. There's a lot

of people I don't. Then you had Gwyneth Paltrow

as Virginia Pepper Potts, Stark's personal secretary

and budding love interest. Paltrow asked Marvel

to send her any comics that they would consider

relevant to her understanding of the character.

who she considered to be very smart, level -headed,

and grounded. She said she liked that there was

a sexuality that's not blatant. Favreau wanted

Potts' and Stark's relationship to be reminiscent

of a 1940s comedy, something which Paltrow considered

to be fun and sexy in an innocent way. I don't

know where they could possibly take this outside

of them getting married or being in a... I don't

know how I like the two of them. Again, coming

from the Iron Man cartoon, I'm so used to him

and Julia Carpenter, Spider -Woman, being an

item. And I know that Pepper Potts is, you know,

she's basically in the comics, and she's basically

the one that's always been there, but her performance

was good for the role that she had. Yeah. She,

I mean, she had a little part. for the most part,

but she did serve some useful plot purposes.

Then, of course, you had Sean Taub as Dr. Yinsen,

Stark's fellow captive. In the comics, Yinsen

is Chinese and a physicist, but in the film he

comes from an Afghan village called Romera, which

is one of the aspects of the modernization of

the Iron Man ethos for the movie. They did stay

very true to Jensen's character from the cartoon

as well, I believe as well as the comics. I remember

from that first scene in the very first episode

of the Iron Man cartoon where they're showing

the origin of how Mandarin caught Tony Stark.

and got captured, and Yinsen was there. So they

stayed really true to the way that the role was

supposed to be. And I cannot pronounce this name

whatsoever. The dude that played Raza, the leader

of the Ten Rings, Tahir is a fan of the comics

and wanted to bring humanity to the henchmen.

I tried to find ways to show that although he

may be the bad guy, there might be a moment or

just a hint of vulnerability at times where he

hasn't made the right calculations and there's

a certain amount of doubt. John was very receptive

to that kind of player. Again, he's just... The

main villain here is obviously Obadiah Stane

and the alter ego of Iron Monger. This other

guy really... He just captured Tony Stark and

tried to kill him for Obadiah. I really didn't

care for his character at all. Yeah, I didn't

care for much of the... villainous characters.

Yep. Then of course you have Paul Bettany who

voices Jarvis Stark's personal artificial intelligence

computer program which assists him in the construction

and programming of the Iron Man suits. The name

of the character is a reference to the comic

book character Edwin Jarvis in Stark's Butler.

Bettany did the part as a favor to Favreau having

worked with him on Wimbledon and claimed he did

not know what film he was recording the lines

for. Huh. You'd think that they'd let him know.

Yeah. You know, then you have Leslie Bibb as

Christine Everhart, who is a reporter for Vanity

Fair. Of course, that was just one of Tony's

love affairs, or little reasons, or whatever

you want to call it. Clark Gregg appears throughout

the film as Agent Coulson of S .H .I .E .L .D.,

and Samuel L. Jackson appears as their head,

Nick Fury. credits. Jackson's face was used with

his permission to model for that of the versions

of Nick Fury in Marvel's Ultimate Marvel imprint.

Other cameos include Iron Man co -creators, from

Stark to Stakes, now that scene was funny. The

Stan Lee scenes in almost every Marvel film,

they're either funny or like, you have to do

a double take to try to find them. You know,

I've always associated the Stan Lee scenes in

the Marvel films like Where's Waldo. It's like,

where's Stan? Where's he going to pop up this

time? Yeah, this one, he was seen at the party,

and Stark says, hey, Hef, looking good, or something

like that. And Stan turns around and puts a cigar

in his mouth. He's like, oh, what, huh? And director

Jon Favreau is Stark's bodyguard and chauffeur,

Happy Hogan. Audio slave and Raging Against the

Machine guitarist Tom Morello, who provides additional

guitar music for the film, has a brief cameo

as a terrorist guard. Jim Cramer, star of CNBC's

Mad Money, appeared as himself commenting on

the investment opportunities sell, sell, sell

of Stark Industries. Rapper Ghostface Killick

cameoed in a scene where Stark briefly stays

in Dubai while returning to Afghanistan, but

was cut from the theatrical release for pacing

reasons. Overall, this is... I'm going to have

to go back and listen to the other Marvel films

that we've reviewed. I think this is probably...

I can't be correct on this or not. This could

be probably the only Marvel film so far that

I'm going to give a 10 out of 10 on all aspects

because, you know, it's just the best one that

they've done so far. Oh, yeah. I definitely can't

wait to see what else. comes from the Marvel

Studios. I did see the Wolverine movie, and while

it was good, it still doesn't hold as good to

the Marvel Universe as this movie does. And,

of course, the big difference with that is, of

course, that 20th Century Fox owns the rights

to the X -Men characters. So that's the issue

with that. And, you know, of course, Sony owns

Spider -Man. But, I mean, Sony, for the most

part, they know what they're doing. Yes, I will

agree that Spider -Man 3 was kind of, eh, wasn't

the best one and could we have done without it,

sure, but it was good for what it was, I would

say, in my opinion. You know, but I think that

unless you absolutely have these properties at

Marvel, you're not going to get the best representation

of the characters. Yeah. Now, hopefully, even

if the rights eventually do revert to Marvel

Studios, as far as X -Men and Spider -Man go,

hopefully they will still keep the same actors,

because, as I've said before, I don't think I

could see anybody else as Wolverine other than

Hugh Jackman. any of the other characters that

have basically made the live -action versions

iconic just as much as the cartoon versions and

comics, obviously. But back to Iron Man, the

Mark I design, as I said, was intended to look

like it was built from spare parts, particularly

the back is less armored than the front, as Stark

would use his resources to make a forward attack.

It also foreshadows the design of Stain's armor.

The Mark II resembles an airplane prototype with

visible flaps. Iron Man comic book artist Adi

Granov designed the Mark III with illustrator

Phil Saunders. Granov's designs were the primary

inspiration for the film design and he came on

board the film after he recognized his work on

John Favreau's MySpace page. Saunders streamlined

Granov's concept art, making it stealthier and

less cartoonish in its proportions. And that's

one thing I did really enjoy about it. The suit

in this film looks like something that is real.

Looks like something any of us, well, any of

us people who are skinny enough can actually

fit into it. And it just looks super, super cool.

Yeah. Yeah. Going into the music, composer Ramin

Didwadi. He's an Iron Man fan and has issues

of the comic from the late 1970s through his

older brother Amir. He's also into heavy metal

music since the early 1990s. While he normally

composes after watching an assembly cut, DiGiotti

began work after seeing the teaser trailer. Favreau

clearly envisioned a focus on heavy guitars in

the score, and DiGiotti composed the music, that

instrument, before arranging it for orchestra.

The composer said Downey's performance inspired

several Iron Man themes for his different moods,

as well as Stark's playboy leitmotif. DeJuadi's

favorite Iron Man theme is the kick -ass because

of its rhythmic pattern and its hook on its own,

very much like a machine. The other themes are

not so much character -based, but rather plot

-based that carry you through the movie. Guitarist

Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave,

who has a brief cameo in the film. as a guard

contributed additional guitar work to the movie's

soundtrack. Now, I have the soundtrack. It's

awesome, like I just read. Of course, the heavy

guitar riffs and stuff, I like those more, and

I will have some of the stuff at some point throughout

this episode. I don't know where I'm going to

put it yet. It's either going to be at the beginning

or the end. I haven't decided. But very, very

cool. What did you think of the music? I mean,

did you even notice the music as far as the movie

progressed? Oh, yeah, definitely. It was pretty

kick -ass, and it got you motivated, too. It

just got you pumped up for the rest of the movie.

Oh, yeah. The main thing I remember is in the

scene where he's creating the Mark I, when he's

doing the sledgehammer thing against the metal.

It's like, duh, duh, and the music's in the background.

That reminds me of the Season 2 theme of the

Iron Man cartoon, but you can hear the theme

in the background of the hammering, and I thought

that was really, really cool. As far as marketing

goes, Marvel and Paramount modeled their marketing

campaign for Iron Man on that of Transformers.

Sega released a video game based on the film,

which included other... iterations of the character.

A 30 -second spot for the film aired during a

Super Bowl XLII break. 6 ,411 stories in the

United States helped promote the film, and LG

Group also made a deal with Paramount. Tesro

created figures of Armors from the film, as well

as Titanium Man, who appears in the video game

Armor from the World War I. Worldwide, Burger

King and Audi promoted the film. Jon Favreau

was set to direct a commercial for the fast food

chain as Michael Bay did for Transformers in

the film. Tony Stark drives an Audi R8 and also

has an American cheeseburger from Burger King

after his rescue from Afghanistan as part of

the studio's product placement deal with the

respective companies. Three other vehicles, the

Audi S6, sedan, Audi S5 sports coupe, and the

Audi Q7 SUV also appear in the film. Audi created

tie -in website, as General Motors did for Transformers.

Oracle Corporation also promoted the film on

its site. Estimates for the cost of marketing

Iron Man range from $50 to $75 million. And that's

just on marketing. Damn. Yeah. Iron Man received

highly positive reviews from film critics on

May 1, 2008. The film was... identified as the

best -reviewed film of the year so far by Jen

Yamato of review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes,

with the site reporting that 93 % of critics

had given the film positive reviews based upon

218 reviews, and this rating has held its place

as of November 2008. Among the major trade journals,

Todd McCarthy and Variety called the film an

expansively entertaining... Special effects extravaganza

with fresh energy and stylistic colors. Kind

of looking through here to see if our jackass

of a critic has said anything. I don't see Mr.

Ebert anywhere. No, I don't either. Oh, wait,

there he is. Roger Ebert and Richard Corliss

named Iron Man as one of their favorite films

of 2008. Oh, that's... Wow. Something. than what

they usually post. As far as the whole meaning

of the film, it was released on DVD and Blu -ray

disc on September 30th, 2008 in North America.

Its scheduled release date was October 27th,

2008. The image on the newspaper Stark reads

before he announces he is Iron Man was altered

because amateur photographer Ronnie Adams filed

a lawsuit against Paramount and Marvel using

his on -location spy photo in the scene. Oh,

jeez. A Walmart -exclusive release included a

preview of Iron Man Armored Adventures. DVD sales

were very impressive, grossing $93 million in

the first week of release. Since its release,

DVD sales, not including Blu -ray, have accumulated

total sales of more than $160 million. Overall,

as I said before, 10 out of 10 for this film.

There were multiple exclusives, multiple store

exclusives for the DVD. There was one that gave

you, I think, Iron Man Halloween mask or some

sort of mask that looked like the helmet. There

was one that the actual DVD case was the Iron

Man mask that opened up, kind of like those transforming

DVD cases for Transformers. And the FYE exclusive,

which is the one that I have, is a Steelbook

edition of the... of the DVD, and I really, really

enjoyed it. It's the two -disc edition. The second

disc has, like, I don't know, over, it's probably

over five hours of special features. There's

like a six -part or seven -part journey as far

as how they made the film. There's a nine -part

comics history as far as Iron Man through comics.

Just overall, you know, on the front of it, it

has Iron Man, On the left -hand side of it, it

just has the helmet from the right with his eye.

On the back, it has a full, like, torso shot

of him. And, yeah, I'm glad I got this one and

not any of the other exclusives. And you sound

like you're falling asleep over there, Darth

Vader. Yeah, well, it's not exactly falling asleep.

It's that my nose is plugged and my allergies

are acting up. Kind of sucks. Freaking weather

change. So what are your final thoughts on Iron?

Definitely I'd give this a 5 out of 5 or 10 out

of 10, whatever scale we decide to use this week.

Definitely something to watch and pretty much

kind of like what we've said with most of the

Marvel films. The characterizations are very

spot on for the most part, especially Tony Stark

and the Iron Man character. The armor design

is simply awesome. Just the action and the sound

placement and everything else, everything about

this whole movie has been very well put together,

enough so that it was pretty much neck and neck

with the Dark Knight throughout that summer.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. You know, and we will get

to The Dark Knight eventually on MWire. Actually,

it's funny. When I was marking out the schedule

for this show, I intentionally wanted Iron Man

to be episode 15 and The Dark Knight to be episode

30. So that's what those will be. You know, I

completely agree with you. You know, just...

an overall best comic book film for what it is.

I really don't have a bad thing to say about

it. The story was great. The action was awesome.

So, yeah, I think that... Oh, wait. Okay, wait,

wait, wait. Now, I know the Kids' Choice Awards

are obviously for stuff that kids are going to

choose, but... Iron Man was nominated for Favorite

Movie at the 2009 Kids' Choice Awards, but lost

to High School Musical 3. Wow. What are these

children smoking? Tons and tons of crack. Uh,

yeah. Oh my god. So anyway, thank you for joining

us here on Movie Week in Review. There are several

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the Marvel Spotlight the Fantastic Four films.

For now, I am TFG1 Mike with... Steve Megatron

Phillips. Singing the words of Douglas Coughlin,

beer is for breakfast. Around here, drink up

or be gone. Thank you for listening. The truth

is... I am Iron Man. Jarvish. Welcome home, sir.

I am Iron Man. You think you're the only superhero

in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of

a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet.

Who the hell are you? Nick Fury. Director of

S .H .I .E .L .D. I'm here to talk to you about

the Avenger Initiative.