movie review - Iron Man
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-eight years and a million words
I was put off by the trailers for this movie, then more so by the incredible success of it. So it was somewhat reluctantly that I watched this on a flight between Tokyo and Vancouver. I've never been able to sleep on planes and I was something of a captive audience. The movie centers around an unlikable "billionaire genius" who makes weapons for sale to the Pentagon. Along the way he's captured and held hostage in Afghanistan. Now with a chest full of shrapnel, he's being kept alive by a rudimentary machine powered by a car battery. Using nothing more than what's lying around the place he constructs a new power cell that's small enough to fit into the cavity in his chest (which doesn't kill him) and then improves that power cell to the point that it can power a suit with weaponry, which he again constructs out of what's available.
He fights his way out, then has to claw his way back into control of the weapons giant that he formerly ran.
All the while, we're supposed to work past the fact that we don't resonate with the egomaniacal "hero" and somehow care. I didn't.
Not recommended. (Which won't matter, everyone and their dog will wind up seeing this.)