Movie Review: Iron Man

I hesitate going to movies of comic book heroes I enjoyed as a youngster, because some of the movie adaptions have been just horrible. Case in point: the Batman movie with George Clooney. Ugh! And last few Christopher Reeves Superman's. Zzzz! Then one of my all time favorites... The ThunderBirds. What a disaster! So, with Iron Man being one of my all-time favorite characters (I had over 250 issues of Iron Man starting from #6), I was a bit worried about what Hollywood would do to Tony Stark's armor.

I've seen the Iron Man movie twice now. And it was just as good the second time around. In fact, Excellent! Great job of staying true to the original origins of Iron Man, yet updated to the issues and current world economy. Originally Tony Stark is injured in the Viet Nam war (in comic book land), and invents a chest plate to keep his heart beating. In the movie it's Afghanistan. And it's the original grey armor. Nice! Once back in the States, Tony perfects his design with the classic gold and scarlet titanium armor. With the villain of the piece, Obadiah Stane creating the massive 'War Monger' battle armor. Great storyline. Very realistic.

Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the womanizing booze hound, yet electronic genius of Tony Stark was spot on. The quick witted humor and jabs were fast paced, and nonstop.

The flight scenes were amazing, and perfect for the big screen. I couldn 't get enough of them.

Gweneth Paltrow brought a softness to the character of Pepper, which in light of Tony's brashness was a good counterbalance.

The second time through I did stay past the credits to view the 20-30 second bonus clip, but wasn't sure if it was really worth it. I've never been a fan of Nick Fury, nor the Avenger's. This snippet appeared to be a teaser for an upcoming Avengers movie, which doesn't especially excite me. I'm anxiously waiting Iron Man II however!

Grade: A! I loved it!

McDoogle

PS. Your challenge: Get down in that basement tonight, and build a battery powered suit of armor. Include a searchlight, terrain following radar, and a Heads Up Display (HUD). Post pics of your creation in the Comments section.

Review of Anansi Boys

Enjoyed this Gaiman novel quite a bit. But not as much as 'American Gods', which I felt had more mystery and suspense. Both books have the same concept. You have a regular guy as your main character who discovers he's related to god-like beings. The novels revolve around those revelations and how the main characters adjust to their new founds 'roots'.

In Anansi Boys, Charlie discovers his father is actually the spider god - Anansi. Anansi who is a trickster, and whom all the other animal gods have found themselves as the butt of his devilish pranks from time to time. Anansi also owns all of the stories, due to weaving more creative upbeat yarns than Tiger, which creates conflict for Charlie further down the road. Anansi also enjoys singing and Karioke.

Alas! Anansi is no more. Charlie makes these discoveries after his father's funeral, at the home of some eldery old women still haunting Charlie's old neighborhood.

The crux of the story however is when they reveal to Charlie, that unbeknowst to him, he also has a brother - Spider, who apparently inheriated all of the Godlike genes of the family. Spider comes to pay his long lost brother a visit, and doesn't leave. Not only has Spider attached his monsterously large dream room to Charlie's closet for the long haul, but he's also stolen Charlie's fiance - Rosie (who can't tell the two apart).

It's a fun globel romp romp from there, as Charlie tries to put back the pieces of his former life.

One thing I liked about the ending <* spoiler alert - close your eyes! *> was that Charlie decided to remain his current self and not to merge back with Spider. Both 'Charlies' had grown in positive ways through the story and it was nice to see continue on in their separate ways.

Overall, I enjoyed the book.

Grade: B

Pirate Name?

My pirate name is:

Iron Sam Rackham

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
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