Finally

[sigma7]

Tonight's the night we've all been waiting for. Tonight the Democratic primaries end. Obama's going to win South Dakota and Montana -- I'm guessing 53/47 and 59/41 respectively -- and if not by then, then as soon as those results are in, expect the superdelegates to (finally) mass and carry him across the proverbial threshold. (Huh, AP suddenly agrees. I'm not sure where they're getting their numbers to call it...*now*, but I don't disagree.)

Not sure where the Clintons go from here. I'm not even convinced yet that they admit defeat tonight. Not that it matters. The race is still as over after tonight as it was two months ago. The difference is neither the Clintons nor the Republicans can perpetuate the illusion that the finish line hasn't been crossed. The most promising sign for the Obama camp has to be that the RNC and McCain haven't been able to land a solid blow on Obama during this prolonged primary -- that's got to give them a boost coming into the general election. The Obama/McCain polls are probably as close now as they'll ever be, I'm afraid.

In less relevant but much more entertaining news, my discoveries on the second screening of Iron Man:

-- Tony Stark has a Wii. I imagine he's written a JARVIS interface, and JARVIS's Mii looks very similar to Edwin Jarvis.

-- At least at one point -- before crashing the party he wasn't invited to -- the voice recognition is just a bit precognitive, transcribing the words before they were spoken. Now that's efficiency.

-- Between this, V for Vendetta and Batman Begins (and, to a lesser extent, Hellboy), we're finally in an age of solidly good comic book movies. There will be the occasional misfire (Ang Lee's Hulk, Daredevil) and catastrophic celluloid atrocity (Catwoman), but there's some pretty solid work being put into these movies, now. (The Spider-Man series has about one and a half really good movies in it.)

Strange thing is I think Iron Man holds together tighter than V or Batman, especially on multiple watchings, if only because it's fun, in a way the old comics certainly never were. (Mark Millar did a decent job in ramping Tony Stark up to 11 in both mainstream and Ultimate Marvel continuity. If I ever use the phrase "Mark Millar did a decent job" again, get me off the meds.) I think a lot of that is the medium -- it's quite a bit easier to show that frivolity and festivity on the screen than it is in print; print somehow paints it as being obnoxious or careless. Lot of it is the skill of the moviemakers -- Favreau made sure the scenes fill in the characters in exactly the right way unless he's looking for a deliberately ambiguous shade. The actors are all approaching their tasks with no lack of skill (I do have a newfound appreciation for Clark Gregg), and they're obviously having fun. And that brings us full circle again -- the movie can draw us back in again because unlike Evey or Bruce, Tony's all about the upside of life, the perks and the smiles, being the playboy Bruce Wayne only pretends at.

I told my nephew if he didn't like the movie he could kick me in the face. I'm not going to make that promise to everyone, but I will say it's the best summer popcorn movie I've seen in a long time. Muchly recommended.

Comments

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

JARVIS is more of a golfer. (Fanfic link involving Tony's Wii.)

[beeform]

Y'know, I went into this movie expecting to tolerate it. Previews made it look stupid, but it looked like a good "guy movie" that I would be willing to sit through.

Was NOT expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. FINE summer movie! :-)

[patchsassy.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see you and beeform survived the hail storm. You can blame me. Both times I've left the state, it was almost instantaneous bad weather, so brace yourselves. :P

(P.S. It was 70 degrees here today. I LOVE THIS PLACE!!! Oh, and the wonders of getting to cackle evilly at my father when he told me it was 106 in Texas yesterday.)

[kateshort.livejournal.com]

Iron Man was indeed a hell of a lot of fun. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark put something into the role that made me actually believe in him and care about him. Normally, I wouldn't give two cents about Iron Man.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

After seeing it for a third time -- and after watching the trailers -- I'm beginning to appreciate it on more levels instead of seeing its flaws. It's a tightly-edited movie. Formulaic, sure, but it really moves from scene to scene with gusto, and there's not much downtime. Entirely appropriate. There were interesting scenes in the trailers that didn't make it into the final cut (discounting the Pepper-kisses-Tony scene), and they make me think of an editing process that cut right down to the marrow.

And after reading some of the comics? The movie was much, much better. It's my new guilty pleasure.

[jateke.livejournal.com]

--So I DIDN'T make up that precog bit! I was sure I'd seen the words come up before he spoke them, but it was over so fast I second-guessed myself.

--You don't think Hulk ranks right up there with Catwoman? At least the latter had Sharon Stone's hilarious awfulness on its side.
I may never ever forgive Ang Lee. Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly haven't made up for it yet, either.

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Ang Lee might be a wonderful director, but that movie was directed by someone who didn't read comic books in a style which they thought comic books were. What Nolan and Snyder got in Batman Begins and 300 Lee just didn't get. That's the movie you leave off your resume, unless you're Daniel Dae Kim.

I'm hearing crazy-good things about Ed Norton's Hulk, but I'm not sold yet. Certainly not enough for an opening-night showing. But enough to keep hope alive.

Also, yep, the Captain America shield is in Tony's workshop, and Gwyneth has no earlobes.