Ok, I suggested this because how ridiculously one sided that fight would be. However, on further thought, this could actually make a damn good movie. Here are my thoughts: First, yes, this fight would be completely one sided, especially when you consider how movie Tony is dependent on a magnet in his chest to keep him alive. Even if he built some sort of plastic/ceramic suit, he still couldn't fight Magneto. However, Magneto, being the skilled badass he is, has the ability to remove the shrapnel with his powers, making Tony's live easier. Also, if I recall correctly, Magneto wants to overthrow the government (the one that spent the entire last moving trying to screw Tony over) and install a pro-mutant one instead, something that wouldn't be too hard for Tony to rationalize. So, effectively, Magneto has both the biggest possible carrot and stick to use on Tony. If this comes after the Avengers movie (which it should), Magneto would then have a spy inside the Avengers, and things are looking bad for the good guys. Then you have Tony face some hard moral choices, figure out he's playing for the wrong team, and have him use his magical genius powers to figure out how the hell he's going to fight Magneto and save the day.

You remind me of my friend who was seriously pissed at the end of Avatar the Last Airbender as she for once wanted evil to win. It didn't help that she loved Azula

go watch "Megamind".  You'll see why evil shouldn't win.

It's just once it wins,we consider it "good".

I wouldn't agree that you can only have Iron Man vs big suit or Iron Man vs many suits. There's a story in the comics where Iron Man causes a plane to crash and finds himself at odds with the US government (and military). With this kind of story, you have a powerful adversary that Iron Man can't just punch or blow up since he'd be hurting fellow patriots, as well as an adversary that undercuts Tony Stark since his company and resources are under attack.

The second movie sort of sets this up in the sense that the government are starting to lose patience with Stark (that senator in particular). I really hope the third movie goes this route.

This would also be an opportunity to further establish SHIELD - their tech, their structure etc.

We discuss Shane Black quite a bit in the upcoming Iron Man 2 commentary.  We will discuss Nolan quite a bit when we go screaming through the Batman filmography, though I will say its not enough to just say "Nolan's batman is badly written," you have to be a bit more specific if you make that claim.  The notion you propose that comic books and superheroes is inherently unrealistic is a bit of a straw man, bordering on ad hominem.  Is Maus, the only comic to ever win a Pulitzer, unrealistic because it anthropomorphizes mice in lieu of holocaust survivors?  Technically yes,  but I would submit that it gets at a deeper truth.  This is to say nothing of comics like Pedro and Me, Don't Go Where I Can't Follow, Daytripper, Pride of Baghdad, and Strangers in Paradise which portray relationships in as real of a way as any other medium.  If you don't cotton up to capes and cowls too much, I understand, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

...and by the way, as a new father, can I just say what an awful expression that is?

Makes sen, if they are going in the direction I think they're going.  If you're familiar with Bane, you get what I'm saying.

Those reviews are of questionable quality themselves; most of his points boiling down to "It's different than other Batman stuff and I won't abide it!" and his TDK review spends paragraphs detailing why it's bullshit that Joker had no plan based solely on the fact that Joker says so, never considering that Joker might be, you know, lying.

I'm not going to say the Nolan Batman films are brilliantly written -- the "you either die a hero" line makes me want to scream, too -- but I do watch a lot of movies and they are certainly in Sturgeon's 10% of not-complete-crap. If he loves the animated Batman that much, Nolan's not going to break into his house and take the DVDs away from him.

I joked at one time that in the next Batman movie we'd discover that Bruce's parents actually committed suicide and it was Bruce's fault, because Nolan does that ALL THE TIME. I just watched Batman Begins again and was stunned to realize that Bruce really does blame himself for his parents' death.

NO BRUCE. You blame CRIMINALS. That's WHY you become a COSTUMED VIGILANTE!

Same here.    For me, Batman is an example of our "no such thing as a bad premise" theory because, wow - taken at face value "Guy dresses up like a bat and fights crime" sounds about as bad as it gets.  So I could argue that the only "real" Batman is the Adam West high-camp TV version, because that's the one _I_ grew up with, and because there's just no way to treat a premise like that seriously. 

It's also amusing that the author seems to be using the Tim Burton Batman as an example of a better "take" on Batman, I gather he wasn't around for the Batfan outrage that erupted at the time, when it was announced that the director and star of Beetlejuice were going to do Batman.   Come on, Michael Keaton?  Really?  And the director of PeeWee's Big Adventure?  Get out!   And then when it came out, and the "true" fans saw how cartoony it was - oh, the horror!

But Burton-Batman worked okay for me because it took place in that loopy Burton universe.   Somewhere offscreen in Burtonworld there are probably astronauts who dress as kangaroos and underwater dentists and stuff.  Batman fit right in there.

What impressed me about Nolan's Batman is that it takes such a cornball idea so darn seriously and still makes it (mostly) work.  Batman Begins I can take or leave, but Dark Knight is one I can watch repeatedly and enjoy it, all somehow without thinking "bat-man... what a silly premise".  To me, that's quite an achievement.

EDIT: to bring this sorta back on topic, I'll add that Iron Man was a character about which I knew nothing before I saw the movie, other than the name and what he sorta looked like.  (I had a vague idea that he was an alien, or maybe some kinda X-Men-style mutant.)  But the movie showed me who Iron Man was, and why he was cool, and then told a fun story about him.   And really, that's all any movie should be expected to do.

Last edited by Trey (2011-11-23 21:10:13)

I can't stand the dialogue.

I believe it was Teague who complained about the writing in the Spider-Man movies and that the characters didn't talk like real people, saying what they're thinking all time, etc. Well, I have the same complains about Nolan's Batman films. The characters in those movies don't seem like real people to me... they seem more like puppets for exposition. I don't believe in any of the characters.

"Fans of the Batman franchise complained when they heard of Michael Keaton's casting. However, no one complained when they saw his performance" - Alison McMahan, The Films of Tim Burton: Animating Live Action in Contemporary Hollywood.

Uh? Fans loved the film when they saw it in 1989. It was Batman finally portrayed seriously and dark.  Keaton & Nicholson nailed it... as well as Danny Elfman whose theme for the film became "The Batman Theme." The 60s tv show was now a thing of the past. Nobody walked out of the film, complaining that it was "cartoony"... it's a comic book movie!

Thank God for the Tim Burton movie because it was so extremely darker than anybody had seen Batman before in any kind of mass media. - Bruce Timm ("true" fan), co-creator of Batman: The Animated Series

http://gothamalleys.blogspot.com/2011/0 … ovies.html

"While today the movie isn't shocking with its dark tone and approach, and the Gothic macabre and some camp is more lighthearted, one must remember that before this movie the only superhero movies were the 1960s Batman TV series, Superman movies ,Flash Gordon, Supergirl and Disney's Condorman. All very colorful, lighthearted and family friendly movies. Batman was the first superhero movie which showed a gun pointed at a child, charred corpses, implied sex scene, implied torturing and its visual results (Alicia) and even visible shotwounds to the face. It's impact and influence was felt instantly, when it was followed by such superhero/comic book movies as R rated The Punisher, much darker than expected TMNT and Darkman."

I'm the opposite. I watch Begins/Dark Knight and all I'm thinking "this is just silly... this is not believable." I don't have that problem with the Burton ones because those movies don't try to rationalize the irrational and justify the premise of Batman into reality...

I'm more impressed with a comic book movie that resembles a comic book in terms of tone and visual impact... that embraces the fun, goofy, fantasy while still taking itself seriously.... like Burton's Batman. Actually, Burton's Batman films takes themselves very seriously, more so than most superhero movies, like Iron Man. You can almost call the Iron Man movies comedies. One of the disappointing aspects of Iron Man 2 is how they handle Tony Stark's alcoholic problems. It's a big deal in the comics but it's barely an issue in the movie... it's pretty much played for laughs.

Burton did that, and much more impressive I must say... Burton acknowledges that Batman is f*cking insane. Nolan portrays Batman as just another well-meaning do-gooder in a suit. It's too bad, because Bale knows how to play crazy... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/

Ironically enough, Burton's version of Batman would have fit in the more drab Nolan universe (let's face it, if a guy dressed as a bat popped up today in New York or Los Angeles kicking mugger asses, he'd totally have a few screws loose to say the least), while Nolan's more traditionally heroic Batman would have been believable in Burton's stylized comic book world...

Last edited by Xtroid (2011-12-02 02:19:33)

Iron Man costume made from balloons.