I just got back from seeing it myself. I loved it. And I ended up loving the back-and-forth between Stark and the liberal reporter. Because it actually was a back-and-forth instead of her simply haranguing him. Whoever wrote that script understood both sides of the liberal peacenik/conservative warmonger cultural divide and could accurately represent them both.
(Which probably means they were a conservative, but I digress...)
Tony Stark had nothing to apologize for and accurately defends himself and the American military - of course his words fall on deaf ears since the bimbo reporter had her mind made up for her in college. Which Tony also picks up on.
And I think the really brilliant thing about the movie is that a liberal can see it as "Tony Stark decides to be a good person and stop making weapons" and a conservative can see it as "Tony Stark gets pissed because his weapons were somehow ending up in the wrong hands".
I think the really brilliant thing about the movie is that a liberal can see it as "Tony Stark decides to be a good person and stop making weapons" and a conservative can see it as "Tony Stark gets pissed because his weapons were somehow ending up in the wrong hands".
One other thing - when defending his company Stark mentions that he runs a GE crop project that saves people from starvation. It's a throwaway line, but it seemed like a nod to Norman Borlaug. If it was, whoever wrote that script REALLY did his research.
[i]I hope you waited till after the credits to see the final scene. [i]
Goddamnit...
I was going to (as DC/Marvel movies have a habit of putting in scenes after the credits) but I had to go to the bathroom too badly (dang 42 oz. sodas...)
Anyway, yeah, the movie was pretty good. There are a few things I'd have tweaked, but overall it was extremely good. And it's making me wish I had a suit like that...
What...the invulnerable flying super suit? I think the desire for that is simply genetic, and kicks in when you're 4.
Yeah, but I didn't know about Iron Man until I heard about the movie, since I didn't read any comic books as a kid (nowhere to get them locally).
And while every kid wants an invulnerable suit....the one Iron Man had is actually capable of existing. PopSci had an article about a guy in Utah who is building an exoskeleton that comes freakishly close to what Iron Man has, except it's not invulnerable (no armor plating yet), self powered, or capable of flying.
>>building an exoskeleton that comes freakishly close to what Iron Man has, except it's not invulnerable (no armor plating yet), self powered, or capable of flying.
LOL!
I love the irony!
It's freakishly close, except it doesn't work independently in any way.
As a sidebar, the powerplant issue is the biggest barrier to a lot of applications we could otherwise build today.
Science fiction tends to either whiff on the issue altogether, or briefly mention the equivalent of a beer can sized unobtanium reactor with some handwaving, but back in the real world, enough batteries or electrical generating gear oomphy enough to to anything interesting with comes with its own larger than vehicle sized infrastructure attached, and AFAIK, there's nothing on the horizon.
Like rockets, you have to strike a balance. To get longer run time, you need bigger batteries. To haul the batteries, you need a bigger motor, which requires a bigger battery, and so on.
The same thing applies for any gas powered hybrid strategy, although you're adding fuel tank pounds rather than battery pounds.
As it stands, any sort of exo armor suit *might* startup and run for a minute or two with any suit carryable power source, which might be just long enough to burst into the bad guy's lair and shout "Aha! no one expects the Spanish inquisition!" before being frozen into place for the bad guys to torch you out at their liesure, if they don't care to simply leave you there to decorate their den.
Am I the only one who saw Randian images in the first third of the movie?
Ayn, not James "The Amazing".
A brilliant engineer captured by thugs is told he will use his talents to their ends. Under their very noses, he designs and builds the instrument of their doom. Which he then unleashes on them.
Oh yeah!
Note:
All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost;
references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
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JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2008/05/iron-man-rocks.html (10 comments)
Tentative mapping of comments to original article, corrections solicited.
I heartily agree. This may even be my first re-watch in theaters. The whole movie was full of awesome.
I hope you waited till after the credits to see the final scene.
I just got back from seeing it myself. I loved it. And I ended up loving the back-and-forth between Stark and the liberal reporter. Because it actually was a back-and-forth instead of her simply haranguing him. Whoever wrote that script understood both sides of the liberal peacenik/conservative warmonger cultural divide and could accurately represent them both.
(Which probably means they were a conservative, but I digress...)
Tony Stark had nothing to apologize for and accurately defends himself and the American military - of course his words fall on deaf ears since the bimbo reporter had her mind made up for her in college. Which Tony also picks up on.
And I think the really brilliant thing about the movie is that a liberal can see it as "Tony Stark decides to be a good person and stop making weapons" and a conservative can see it as "Tony Stark gets pissed because his weapons were somehow ending up in the wrong hands".
Needless to say I saw it the second way :)
I hope you waited till after the credits to see the final scene.
Uh, no?
CRAP!
Well, good excuse to go see it again!
I think the really brilliant thing about the movie is that a liberal can see it as "Tony Stark decides to be a good person and stop making weapons" and a conservative can see it as "Tony Stark gets pissed because his weapons were somehow ending up in the wrong hands".
Needless to say I saw it the second way.
As did I!
One other thing - when defending his company Stark mentions that he runs a GE crop project that saves people from starvation. It's a throwaway line, but it seemed like a nod to Norman Borlaug. If it was, whoever wrote that script REALLY did his research.
[i]I hope you waited till after the credits to see the final scene. [i]
Goddamnit...
I was going to (as DC/Marvel movies have a habit of putting in scenes after the credits) but I had to go to the bathroom too badly (dang 42 oz. sodas...)
Anyway, yeah, the movie was pretty good. There are a few things I'd have tweaked, but overall it was extremely good. And it's making me wish I had a suit like that...
>>And it's making me wish I had a suit like that...
What...the invulnerable flying super suit? I think the desire for that is simply genetic, and kicks in when you're 4.
What...the invulnerable flying super suit? I think the desire for that is simply genetic, and kicks in when you're 4.
Yeah, but I didn't know about Iron Man until I heard about the movie, since I didn't read any comic books as a kid (nowhere to get them locally).
And while every kid wants an invulnerable suit....the one Iron Man had is actually capable of existing. PopSci had an article about a guy in Utah who is building an exoskeleton that comes freakishly close to what Iron Man has, except it's not invulnerable (no armor plating yet), self powered, or capable of flying.
>>building an exoskeleton that comes freakishly close to what Iron Man has, except it's not invulnerable (no armor plating yet), self powered, or capable of flying.
LOL!
I love the irony!
It's freakishly close, except it doesn't work independently in any way.
As a sidebar, the powerplant issue is the biggest barrier to a lot of applications we could otherwise build today.
Science fiction tends to either whiff on the issue altogether, or briefly mention the equivalent of a beer can sized unobtanium reactor with some handwaving, but back in the real world, enough batteries or electrical generating gear oomphy enough to to anything interesting with comes with its own larger than vehicle sized infrastructure attached, and AFAIK, there's nothing on the horizon.
Like rockets, you have to strike a balance. To get longer run time, you need bigger batteries. To haul the batteries, you need a bigger motor, which requires a bigger battery, and so on.
The same thing applies for any gas powered hybrid strategy, although you're adding fuel tank pounds rather than battery pounds.
As it stands, any sort of exo armor suit *might* startup and run for a minute or two with any suit carryable power source, which might be just long enough to burst into the bad guy's lair and shout "Aha! no one expects the Spanish inquisition!" before being frozen into place for the bad guys to torch you out at their liesure, if they don't care to simply leave you there to decorate their den.
Am I the only one who saw Randian images in the first third of the movie?
Ayn, not James "The Amazing".
A brilliant engineer captured by thugs is told he will use his talents to their ends. Under their very noses, he designs and builds the instrument of their doom. Which he then unleashes on them.
Oh yeah!
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>