Suit Up

With the release of Iron Man 3 this past Friday, Marvel studios officially kicks off their much-awaited "Phase Two", a series of films that leads up to 2015's anticipated sequel The Avengers 2. Starting the ball rolling with Iron Man and making it work was very important for two big reasons. First, Robert Downey Jr.'s irreverent interpretation of Marvel's "genius billionaire playboy philanthropist" is easily the most popular of its superheroes, widely out-grossing the still-successful films featuring fellow Avengers Captain America, Thor and the Hulk at the box office. Second, while the newest sequel is seen more as a followup to Joss Whedon's excellent The Avengers than it is to the previous Iron Man titles, it still carries the stain of coming after 2010's terrible Iron Man 2, easily one of the worst released that year. And so Iron Man 3's co-writer/director Shane Black (taking over from the departing Jon Favreau) upped the ante by introducing Iron Man's strongest foe (The Mandarin, played by Ben Kingsley) and one of the original comic book's most famous stories, as the movie is loosely based on Warren Ellis' 2005-2006 Extremis storyline. Top it off with more Iron suits than one man could possibly have use for (or so one would think) and you have all the makings of a potentially amazing Iron Man sequel.

This is his indoor attire.

Following the events of The Avengers, Tony Stark (Downey) is trying to get back into his daily routine as a billionaire inventor with a great girlfriend in Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and an amazing gig as famous world-saving superhero Iron Man. But he's having difficulties sleeping, his worldview irrevocably changed by the events in New York City, and exacerbated by the terror attacks of The Mandarin (Kingsley), an international criminal guilty of bombings around the globe. When one of those attacks hits a little close to home, Stark gets it in his head that he will handle the menace, exposing himself and everything he holds dear to urgent danger. But everything is not what it seems, and soon his past comes back to haunt him. Surrounded by enemies, Stark must rely on his wits if he wants to survive what comes next.

However, he cheats at Rock Paper Scissors

Shane black does an excellent job pulling together his own rendition of an Iron Man story while melding it with the existing cinematic mythos. His signature black humor fits in nicely with where Favreau had gone before, and his history with Downey (the pair worked together on the cult favorite Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) makes great use of the tongue-in-cheek storytelling that comes from their pairing. Black has a great feel for directing - as much as Downey does playing - Tony Stark, one of the few superheroes more interesting in his everyday manner than he is in costume, unlike "mild-mannered" Clark Kent or boring entrepeneur Bruce Wayne. In fact, the whole second act of the film features Stark without working armor in the middle of Tennessee (sans southern accents, strangely) and teamed up with a precocious brat (Ty Simpkins), and it's the best part of the whole movie. Black's ability to avoid cliched pitfalls works wonders for his star; Stark is eccentric and confident and yet plagued by demons, as three-dimensional as a character in comics can get these days. And that's even BEFORE he straps himself into a flying tin can and fights evil. To that end, The director also does a great job humanizing Stark's world and pits him against more grounded villains, while still keeping the supernatural and super-powered elements of the Marvel universe.

Might be time for a tune-up.

Black also does an excellent job directing the required action scenes, especially considering his relative lack of experience. Sure, he carries a massive special effects budget behind him, but had he failed he certainly wouldn't have been the first director to balk under the pressure of a major production. Instead the visual effects are flawless, the fight choreography is well-done, and there always seems to be a reason behind every action. The action sequences, from my personal favorite of Iron Man attempting to rescue seventeen people thrown from a plane to a battle royale between dozens of automated armored suits and an equal number of super-powered baddies, are expertly conceived, and while not everything works perfectly it does manage to at least match the intensity of what we've come to expect from this franchise.

You never see a good performance from him coming.

Unfortunately, while Downey is amazing as Stark, his side characters leave a lot to be desired. In most cases, it's an example of incomplete character development rather than lack of acting talent that sabotages these roles, though in the case of Rebecca Hall it manages to be both. Sadly, Paltrow wasn't much better, despite being a perfect down-to-earth foil for Downey's perfectly flamboyant performance. She's simply not given enough to do, and when she is the results are underwhelming. The same can be said for Don Cheadle, whose return as the military equivalent of Stark can be summed-up in two words: "paint job." Favreau also returns in an acting role, and shows that the expansion of his character wasn't remotely necessary. The villains are definitely better, with Guy Pearce once again showing that he should have made it to the big time years ago. But while Pearce is great, moreso is Kingsley, who terrifies despite relatively little screen time. Both make excellent bad guys, although if there is a failure it's that their motivations are never fully made clear. Still, it's better than the plain silly villain we sat through in Iron Man 2. That was just insulting.

And now, the ultimate test of her antiperspirant.

There are also some storytelling gaffes, not the least of which are the murky goals of the bad guys or the pointlessness of the secondary characters. Besides that, Iron Man 3 gets a little... dark in the latter half, with Tony Stark becoming a bit more amoral than most of his superhero bretheren (actually, he's about on par with Christopher Nolan's Batman, and not in a good way). While that might not be the best side-effect of Black's command, at least it can be forgiven by the fact that it matches the mood of the scene. Also, minor plot threads such as Tony's supposed post-traumatic stress disorder and relationship woes with Pepper are introduced in the first act, only to be resolved without explanation by the end of the second. Okay, they might have been a bit out of place (especially the PTSD) in a family-friendly action flick, but in that case why introduce them at all? There's also a nice, probably unexpected twist that might upset a few fanboys, but audiences ought to get a kick out of it. Finally, the ending is a bit TOO clean, to the point where an opening isn't left for potential future sequels. When we were introduced to this new Marvel movie universe, our understanding was that heroes would continue on, with or without their original actors. If this is Downey Jr's last Iron Man flick, Black and company definitely didn't leave it open for anybody else to take up the reigns in the future. And when the future shows at least two more Avengers pictures, that's an odd oversight.

Poker night's going to get a bit rowdy.

In the end, Iron Man 3 is easily the best movie we've seen in 2013, though that was admittedly an easy task. In some ways it's the best of the current Marvel crop, and in others it doesn't quite match up with the fun and intensity of the first Iron Man. Still, while it's still no match for The Avengers, it a great movie and a major step up after the Iron Man 2 debacle. Yes, you'll probably have to go back and rewatch all of those movies to understand what exactly is going on, but is that really such a bad thing? Iron Man is fun, funny, action-packed and simply amazing. Hopefully this won't be the last time we get to see Downey don the red and gold, but if it is at least he goes out on a spectacularly high note. This is as close to "must-see" as summer blockbusters get, despite even its most glaring flaws. If you're even remotely interested in comic books, explosive action and expressive humor, this is your jam.

Sick Day

Trusty film sidekick Anne and I have had a running joke in recent weeks. On the days or nights when we would go to the theater, we would inevitably see a trailer for the new Steven Soderbergh thriller Contagion. No matter how many times we came across it, our thoughts were the same: "It's the film that stars EVERYONE!" This isn't a generalization on our parts, either; besides the big-name stars like Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard and Laurence Fishburne, the trailer alone was full of recognizable actors from Just Shoot Me's Enrico Colantoni to Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston to Winter's Bone's Acadamy Award nominee John Hawkes. Despite the topical deadly virus story being sold, it was obvious in just under three minutes what the problem with Contagion would be, as the only reason so many big names actors would be rolled out was to camouflage a story that itself was not worth the paper on which it was written. Still, it had an enormously successful opening weekend, and you just can't ignore a film with such a huge pedigree behind it. While Anne hung back in the Reel Cave with a plate of fruit and a looping BSG marathon running, I braved the crowds and elements to find out whether Contagion was SARS come to invade our cinema or a mere throat bug.

Rule #1 of surviving a virus outbreak: avoid hospitals

While returning home from a business trip to China, Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) comes down with what she and everyone else assumes is jet lag. The next day, when she collapses at home, a visit to the hospital eventually confirms that it is not jet lag, but an advanced variation on bird flu that has contaminated her body. Highly infectious, this soon becomes a global epidemic, with cities all over the world suffering the deadly effects of this new disease. The Center for Disease Control, led by Dr. Ellis Cheever (Fishburne), attempt to isolate, contain and cure the outbreak, and the Department of Homeland Security is worried that the virus is the product of a terrorist attack. The race is on to save humanity as a whole, but the question is not whether the mysteries of the virus will be solved, but how much politics and red tape will prevent that from happening.

The least-sexy plastic suit of all time

This is definitely as talented a group of actors as you can expect to find attached to any movie title. With legitimate stars like Damon, Kate Winslet et al, you expect that they'll be at the top of their game. This is true in almost every instance, but the problem with Contagion is that the characters these big stars are hired to play are barely people at all, only suits and skirts designed to fulfill narrative obligations. Each person barely display more than one motivation, and often if they change their minds it is in the most inane way possible. For all the hard work Damon and Fishburne pour into their performances, their characters are remarkably one-noted and interesting only in their intensity. Jude Law taps into his asshole quotient nicely, though his independent reporter making a name (and more than a few bucks) on the back of this epidemic is not a stretch from his usual boring roles. I've only ever liked Law in Sherlock Holmes, and I think he needs to work across from superior actors to force him to raise his game to their level. That isn't present here, and he never really shares the screen with the more talented members of the cast. Paltrow and Winslet are completely wasted in bit parts with no lasting impact on the main story, and I was speaking of Cotillard's character when I was complaining of inane character choices. Some of the smaller roles actually work out well, as Colantoni, Cranston, Hawkes and Elliott Gould do some good in a small amount of time. While there are several talented actors in this film, the best character belonged to somebody you may not recognize, as Jennifer Ehle runs away from the pack as a risk-taking lab doctor who kicks ass in just about every imaginable way.

As if things weren't bad enough, Winslet just learned about the Netflix price restructuring

Of course, Soderbergh only intended one character to be multifaceted, and that was the virus itself. Learning, mutating, growing; this virus did more than any single character in the entire film could claim to have accomplished. In reality, Soderbergh's story can be simply described as dropping the virus in amongst a group and studying what happened. In this you can see the best of his work, as its obvious he left no stone unturned in determining what would happen if person A became sick but did this, this and this before meeting person B. It's almost like looking back at Soderbergh's earlier career when similar films Traffic and Erin Brockovich were mega-hits following other topical situations, garnering critical acclaim and box office records in the process. Since that time Soderbergh hasn't exactly had a lot of success getting either of those, with only the Oceans 11 remake and its subsequent sequels being the obvious exceptions. If Contagion is successful, that might be more remembered than any actual detail of the story herein.

At the Apocalypse, don't worry! Cell reception will be as strong as ever

That's because unfortunately the story tends to get as flat as its characters. For the entirety of the film we're being told that this is a bad thing, and to make sure you are careful with what you interact, otherwise there could be deadly consequences. Reasonable enough, but that this message goes on uninterrupted for just under two hours gets quite a bit boring, and since the film portrays an extreme case situation this message probably won't be heeded by most viewers anyway. Sure there's a little bit in there about the evils and flaws of man in a time of crisis, but that is almost glossed over under the seemingly mistaken impression that these are not problems we can fix. On top of that, after going the entire film without having it revealed what caused the virus in the first place, the finale features Soderbergh going right back to day one to spell out exactly how it happened, making borderline racist commentary in the process. It was a completely unnecessary gesture, one which was probably suggested by brain dead test audiences or confused studio executives rather than anything resembling a logical process.

Well, what can I say? Jude Law isn't a great actor

In the end, I managed to make it through almost the entire screening without being too bothered by the flaws, which was far better than I had expected. Only the ending and the poor character design were serious bummers, though the story as a whole wasn't helped much otherwise. A merely okay film, this is hardly the stellar Soderbergh many people seem to think it is. Instead of a riveting biological drama, it's a political and societal statement, one barely interesting or even intellectually argued. I'm not sure I can recommend Contagion to anyone to see in the theater, though it certainly deserves more attention than the latest entries in the Scream, Pirates of the Caribbean or Transformers franchises, all of which I enjoyed to some degree. Contagion carries itself firmly to the middle of the pack as far as 2011 goes, another forgettable film in a year of epically forgettable films.

A Lot of Country, Not a Lot of Rock & Roll

When I first saw posters for the country music drama Country Strong, I'll be the first to admit that I was not looking forward to this particular release. For one, I'm not a big country music fan, and the film seemed tailor-made for fans of the style. Second, Gwyneth Paltrow hasn't had pulled off a notable role since 2005's Proof, and Tim McGraw in an acting role simply reeks of more sentimentality than sense (though it should be noted he was acclaimed for his performance in the 2006 family film Flicka). Finally, the whole concept seemed to hearken back a year, when Jeff Bridges came out of nowhere to win awards for the role of Otis "Bad" Blake in Crazy Heart. Country Strong seemed like a weak opportunity to capitalize on the huge strides Crazy Heart had paved already, and it wasn't until I glimpsed a theatrical trailer that realized that the movie actually looked somewhat entertaining and also noticed Garrett Hedlund here for the first time. Hedlund was the young actor who pretty much took over Tron: Legacy and ran with it. I'll admit it, the trailer really carried me off and so while it wasn't with overwhelmingly positive expectations that I walked into the theater to see Country Strong this week, I certainly was expecting a better show than I thought it would be when I first saw those posters.

Do all country stars wear such short skirts? I might have to attend a few concerts to investigate

Two months after suffering a drunk and disorderly charge from being wasted at a major show in Dallas, six-time Grammy Award winner Kelly Canter (Paltrow) has been taken out and prepared for a comeback tour run by husband/manager James Canter (McGraw). Kelly, who has been removed early and is still emotionally unstable, insists on bringing young unknown music artist Beau Hutton (Hedlund) as an opening act, while James wants to open with former beauty queen turned country pop singer Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester). The tour creates conflicts between all involved, culminating with the make-or-break return of Kelly to Dallas, where she seeks redemption and strength.

"Thank you, Rednecks!"

While the story and themes presented here are a bit reminiscent of last year's superior film, Country Strong doesn't feel inauthentic in it's portrayal of alcoholism, depression or frayed relationships. The conflicts between every major character are believable and create a realistic symmetry of love/hate between each personality. For instance, James obviously loves Kelly, but more for what she was before than for what she is now. He doesn't really trust her anymore, and this mistrust helps found her subsequent relations with Beau and Chiles. Each character undergoes these types of interactions with one another, and the feelings change throughout the course of a film that plot-wise meanders a bit but mostly manages to maintain its story coherently.

"Hey, I can see my house from here!"

Acting-wise, the film has a surprisingly strong cast of well-cast vocally talented actors in its retinue. Paltrow puts on her strongest performance in years as the film's lead. Kelly Canter's emotional problems might hearken back to Bad Blake quite easily, but what she does with the performance is create an honestly sympathetic former superstar's redemption and it doesn't hurt that she puts on amazing musical performances as well. It takes a while to get to the big productions at the end of the film, but even early on she is believable in small scenes of her writing songs with Beau or attending a Make A Wish meeting to meet a young fan. Her performances of songs like "Country Strong" and the award-nominated original song "Coming Home" are simply amazing, and her charisma comes through as naturally as they would a career musician. McGraw is great as Kelly's husband James, a man who loves Kelly and wants her to recover, but is going about it the wrong way and can't bring himself to trust her implicitly. I thought McGraw would be one of the film's weak links, but he acquits himself nicely, especially in some emotionally-charged scenes with Paltrow and Hedlund.

Paltrow puts on one of her best performances in the film and on stage

Speaking of Hedlund, there's a star in the making; I thought so in Tron and the idea reaffirms itself here. Hedlund not only has amazing acting range, but backs it up with natural vocal talents that would put some professionals to shame. He's perfectly cast here as the protective Beau, and I can't wait to see more of him in the future. Meester doesn't have the vocal talents of her peers (you can tell the auto tuner is working overtime here) but still has enough charm to act alongside her fellow actors. Her occasionally stage-frightened pop princess may be billed as the new Carrie Underwood, but her character is actually allowed to grow from this narrow setting and grow, and that makes Meester's efforts notable, if not so much as her co-leads.

McGraw is the film's true surprise

As I said before, the story meanders a little and the story seems derivative of what's come before. It's a bit rote and not a little predictable, especially in the final act. The lack of polish could be due to inexperience: writer/director Shana Feste has only directed one film before this, the largely-unknown 2009 film The Greatest. The simple fact that Kelly Canter was inspired not by a country superstar like Faith Hill or Sugerland's Jennifer Nettles but by Britney Spears speaks to perhaps the lack of thought really put into the character's creation. That said, the film does have a healthy respect for country music as a whole, perhaps even more than Crazy Heart did. With amazing songs including the Hedlund/Meester duet "Give In to Me" and Sara Evans' "A Little Bit Stronger", not to mention the aforementioned "Country Strong" and "Coming Home", the soundtrack legitimizes what might have been a much poorer film. The film is really worth seeing in the theaters for two reasons: the amazing acting performances and the even more astounding music. True, you COULD buy the soundtrack if you wanted the music, but since it doesn't have the Hedlund/Meester "Give In to Me" recording it's not really worth the price. This movie is worth more than you probably realize, and if you missed Crazy Heart you'll probably be happier with Country Strong than most. But if you remember last year's Best Actor winner, you'll probably be better off going back to re-watch that than spend more money on this.