THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN (Lions Gate/Marvel)
What a difference a director makes. While I’m not going to dump on the effort Bob Richardson did with the Ultimate Avengers series, the director on Iron Man is Frank Paur. Paur’s resume includes Gargoyles, Batman: TAS and X-Men: Evolution. In other words, he’s one hell of an animation showrunner.
Like UA1 and UA2, there’s some interesting retconning of the origins story going down. Probably the biggest is moving the story out of Viet Nam to China, then tying it all to a particular villain Iron Man fans will automatically associate with the country. Another key difference is the introduction of one James Rhodes to the cast of characters. As long as fans are willing to swallow these critical changes, the rest is very easy to accept.
From there, one just has to tip the hat to Paur and main scriptwriter Greg Johnson. For his part, Johnson comes up with an interesting script that fuses ancient Eastern mysticism to modern Western corporate warfare with some international politics for flavor. From there, he’s managed to stay fairly loyal to what makes these characters some of Marvel’s most stalwart. Tony Stark is still the damaged goods who hides under a cavalier facade. Rhodey is also his favorite loyal doormat. Probably the most refreshing is the too few times Pepper makes the scene. The only really criminal omissions are Jarvis and Happy.
As for Paur, his work is exceptional throughout. While his blending of 2d with CGI sometimes could use a little more work, the overall character and background work is exceptional. The action sequences are all incredibly smooth and fluid, while the action timing is faultless (and to be honest, Paur’s work on the Dr. Strange preview looks even better).
In all, this is the strongest release yet from Marvel’s direct-to-DVD program. If this is any indicator, we should hope Paur sticks around for some time to come.
or iron fistHow did some of you see it already? Another country? Me, I can't wait for this, I know I'm going to love it, and I hope they have sequels!!!
It's going to tide me over until I see the live action film, and some of the time the animated features are better than the live movies. t:
Not that I'm saying the Robert Downey movie won't be good, I'm sure that'll rock too!
Woo Hoo! Ironman finally gets his due, that's all I mean. Out of all the Marvel characters that don't get enough of the spotlight, they are finally getting some of that spotlight. Like Ghostrider and now Tony Stark!!!
Now if only they could give Daredevil another chance or make a DD animated movie aswell.