Bad news for Amy because early reviews for Iron Man have been overwhelmingly positive. Watching the trailer a few weeks back I was nervous because I thought it, like most comic book adaptations, could be really great or oh-so-wrong. Critics tend not to fall on the side of nostalgia so I have to believe that the movie is worth seeing on the big screen. I read a lot of comic books in my past, and Iron Man was one of the staples. I would like to add that casting Robert Downey Jr. as the alcoholic Tony Stark was pure genius. I doubt that gets played up in the movie though.
I also have had the great fortune to catch one the best movies of all time, Conan the Barbarian, on cable a couple times in the past few weeks. I think I could watch it from beginning to end a dozen times without getting tired of it. Paired with The Terminator, this blows away the rest of Arnie’s catalog. Well, maybe not Twins or Kindergarten Cop.
Anyway, I understand that there’s a remake in the works. One question: why? The original is perfect, the sequel couldn’t have been much worse. I am sincerely hoping that this is just another Conan movie and not a sequel per se, just like how Batman Begins was not a sequel to the other barfy series.
I have read very little of Robert Howard’s Conan, but what I’ve read is a wonderful guilty pleasure. Like most comic book characters, Conan has an enormous mythology to mine for a decent existing storyline or (tremble) to write a new one. From what I understand, Conan the Barbarian was cobbled together from a number of different story lines, but it works as a cohesive whole.
Making another Conan movie is a huge risk regardless because there’s only one Arnie. Let’s hope that they don’t screw it up too badly…
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6 Comments
Just saw Ironman and with out a doubt it is the best of the comic book genre. I really enjoyed it and didn’t get the “computerized feel” that I felt in Spidey and it is way better than the Superman dribble. It is on a par or a little better than the Batman genre and you,re right, I think Robert Downey Jr. was a perfect fit for the lead.
Later – in less than 2 week actually!
The Conan sequel actually *was* much worse. It’s terrible. Have you seen The Whole Wide World? It’s a biopic about Howard. Pretty good.
I’d argue with you about Arnie’s catalog though — if you’re talking about his best work, clearly you need to mention Predator and The Running Man. They should certainly be in the discussion anyway. For my money both of those are better than Terminator and Conan (though admittedly I haven’t seen Conan in a looooooooong time).
Every time I hear rumor of another Conan movie I remember the travesty that was Kull the Conqueror. Whatever might be wrong with a new Conan movie, at least it won’t have Kevin Sorbo in it.
What I’ve read about Iron Man and Robert Downey, Jr. smacks of the brilliance of Johnny Depp in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Downey and the director apparently made up much of what went into Tony Stark on the fly, trying to emphasize how jaded the guy is–much in the way that Depp and Gore Verbinski deliberately emphasized the freak in Jack Sparrow. That should make for a great Iron Manmovie, but an awful, trying-too-hard-to-do-it-again sequel.
John, I think I worded that weirdly: the Conan sequel is right up there with the worst movies ever made. Predator is obviously a classic, but I haven’t seen The Running Man in forever, and I think I’ve only seen it once or twice besides. Netflix Conan the Barbarian and give it another shot, because it’s the bee’s knees.
Both Kull and Krull, as well as Red Sonja, went a long way in killing the sword & sorcery genre in film. Although I recently saw Peter MacNicol of Ally McBeal fame in Dragonslayer, a movie that was much worse than I remembered. But then again I was like 7 when I saw it…
I broke the news about Iron Man to Amy. She said, “Who’s Iron Man?”
Oh, perhaps I just read it wrong. Looking back now, what you said is pretty clear. We agree anyway–The Destroyer was awful.
I probably will re-watch Conan at some point in the near future. Some friends of mine have been planning a regular double-feature series (the other day we watched Robocop and 16 Candles), and someone suggested we put Conan on the list of future features.
Do give The Running Man another look. It’s great satire, and holds up rather well. It’s somewhat diminished by some of the cheesy lines Arnie is made to say, but overall it works pretty damn well.
Conan is one of the best movies ever made.
I saw Iron Man yesterday and thought it was amazing. Simply amazing. I couldn’t believe how good it was, actually.
quite a surprise.