Iron Man vs Steel

If you have not read any of my previous “VS” articles, you will find more here:
Hulk vs Doomsday
Batman vs Daredevil

When you think of a genius in robotics who just so happens to love pounding bad guys into the ground with his armored plated fists, no one comes to mind more than….Well both Iron Man and Steel, depending on if you are talking about the Marvel or DC Universe.

Steel:  When John Henry Irons was saved by Superman, he decided to devout his life to being like Superman.  He wanted to “live a life worth saving” as Superman had told him.  When the genuine article died at the hands of Doomsday, several new Supermen showed up in Metropolis, one of them being Steel.  With the power of flight, enhanced strength, and a giant steel hammer, Steel can handle himself against the best of them.

Iron Man:  Tony Stark is very different from John Henry Irons.  Tony Stark is a rich playboy with an ego problem.  Though he becomes a better person as time goes on, and learns to fight for the right reasons, he certainly has his share of demons to deal with.  Iron Man has had many different suits of armor, sometimes built specifically to handle a certain situation.  He has most of the same abilities as Steel, just with a bigger arsenal.

The Fight:  As I mentioned before, Tony Stark has the bigger arsenal of weapons.  This gives him a distinct advantage against Steel.  His armor also makes him stronger than Steel.  In many ways, Steel is just a poor man’s Iron Man.  He isn’t weak by any means, he just isn’t on Iron Man’s level.  Considering Steel comes from the Superman universe, this is odd, but it’s how it is.

It would be a tough fought battle, both guys would give it their all, but in the end Iron Man comes out with the victory.  Iron Man is just too strong, smart and durable for Steel to finish off.  Both of these guys can hang with the heavy hitters, Iron Man just hits a little harder and has more experience.  He also has longer range weapons that pack more of a pop.  The only way Steel could win was if he ran into Iron Man on a day where he was struggling with alcohol or something of that nature.

The Winner:  Iron Man

Marvel Studios Producer on Iron Man 3

Marvel Studios producer Kevin Feige recently spoke about the direction of Iron Man 3:

“It’s not a serious movie, but we seriously dig into exploring more of Tony. The trick is just trying to make great movies. We try to make them all great, all different and all fresh. What you’ll see in Iron Man 3 is some very unique directions that were taken.”

Director Shane Black also commented:

“We’re not aiming for bigger, necessarily. We’re aiming for different and fresh and new. It’s all about capturing that lightning-in-a-bottle feel, about trying to get as much into this as we can. We’re looking to get a ton of thrills into a short space, to make a nice little stew for you.”

Robert Downey Jr. also weighs in:

“You can dissect why [The Avengers] was the right movie with the right people and the right director at the time. But we feel the same way about Iron Man 3 now.”

Iron Man 3 Official Trailer

Looks great!

The Iron Man 3 Sneak Preview

Short clip, doesn’t show much, but here it is!

Official Synopsis for Iron Man 3

Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale with Jon Favreau and Ben Kingsley, Iron Man 3 is directed by Shane Black from a screenplay by Drew Pearce and Shane Black and is based on Marvel’s iconic Super Hero Iron Man, who first appeared on the pages of Tales of Suspense (#39) in 1963 and had his solo comic book debut with The Invincible Iron Man (#1) in May of 1968.

Iron Man 3 is presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures and DMG Entertainment. Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige is producing and Jon Favreau, Louis D’Esposito, Stephen Broussard, Victoria Alonso, Alan Fine, Charles Newirth, Stan Lee and Dan Mintz are executive producers. The film releases May 3, 2013, and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Chris Hemsworth on Thor: The Dark World

On director Alan Taylor:  “I love the way he adds an incredibly organic element to the fantastical world of Thrones, and I think that’s what Thor could benefit from. It’s grounded in reality, no matter how mythical or science-fiction-like it becomes. There’s a truth to it all. Certainly, working with him now, you can see he doesn’t want Thor or the Asgardians to seem like some distant race or god-like. He still wants them to be relatable.”

On into getting into character:  “For Thor there’s a lot of ongoing reading and rereading of the script. I have a guy that I work with a lot who’s a voice coach, but also far more than that. We pull scripts apart and go into who these people are; his whole attitude of approaching a character is, instead of trying to mimic something or work out technically how you do that, it’s more why does someone speak like that. What’s in your personality or nature, or your past that has moulded you into sounding like this? That then raises a whole lot of questions about the character – which is great. You do that all the way through the film, even afterwards it’s hard to switch off sometimes.”

On why Thor has an English accent:  “For whatever reason, it just seems to fit that world. Probably for no other reason than that it’s the way it’s been done in history. We associate Shakespearean speak [with god-like beings] because so many British actors have done it over the years. It resonates with the audience. Also, we had Anthony Hopkins, who is Welsh but has similar tones. I certainly couldn’t play him as Australian because people would think, “That’s Crocodile Dundee!”

The first Thor was a movie I didn’t expect a lot from but ended up being pleasantly surprised.  The change in directors is a little worrisome because you never know what you are going to get.  It could be better but it could be worse as well.  It doesn’t seem like this one takes place on earth at all, but deals more with Thor’s realm.  This is fine with me since Thor has already come to earth twice to deal with problems.

Guillermo del Toro on the Hulk TV Series

“Right now all I know is the official word I was given is that there’s a writer they want,” says del Toro. “They are very interested in me meeting with him. He’s very, very busy. The official word is we are holding, but I don’t know… After ‘Avengers’ having the success it had, perhaps the fate of the project may change. Right now officially what I know – and I’m not hiding anything off the record or anything – is that we were told we were waiting for this writer, and we were going to do it with him.”

I have heard about this Hulk tv series for a while now but I am not sure why they would develop a tv show instead of a movie.  The Hulk stole the show in the Avengers and is one of the most popular characters in the Marvel Universe.  Not to mention a tv series would be pretty expensive to produce.  Also, would it be separate from the Hulk in the first movie and the Avengers or would it be following the same version?  I hope they drop this idea and proceed with the Hulk 2 instead.

Iron Man 3 Trailer to Debut on October 23

The teaser trailer for Iron Man 3 will be release on October 23rd at 12:01 a.m.  I will be curious as to the feel of the film since it will have a different director than the first two Iron Man movies.  Of course with three appearances on film already, Iron Man has already been established, so the director, Shane Black, can just stick with that.

Robert Downey Jr. suits up on the Iron Man 3 set

What do you guys think?  I’m not sure I like the new Armor very much but it might look better on film.

The Avengers

With the release of The Avengers on DVD/Blu-ray this week, I have decided to review the summer blockbuster.  The basic plot revolves around Loki, the brother of Thor, working for a mysterious alien and leading an army to earth so he can rule.  To counter this attack, a secret Government organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. assembles the earth’s mightiest heroes.  Pretty much everyone loves this movie and I like it as well.  It’s a big, fun, summer popcorn flick and there is nothing wrong with that.

Marvel has taken years to build up to this film by making movies about the individual characters first.  This was a very wise plan.  Team movies with big casts tend to have the problem of trying to develop all of their characters in a 2-2.5 hour time span.  By having one or more individual movies come out first, everyone is already familiar with all of the characters in the movie.  This allows them to move straight into the action.

The only real complaint I have about The Avengers is that I didn’t care for the Governments technology very much.  Besides Iron Man, who is supposed to be way ahead of his time, the technology that had been shown in the previous films was basically what we have in real life.  But S.H.I.E.L.D.  has flying air craft carriers and all sorts of crazy gadgets, it just felt like watching a G.I. Joe cartoon from the 1980s.  This isn’t a big deal, I haven’t even heard anyone else mention it, so it’s probably just me.

Each of our heroes gets plenty of screen time and fight scenes.  For the first half of the movie they are fighting each other more than the bad guys.  Once they finally all come together and face off against the alien force at the end, it’s nothing but a huge free for all.  I never really felt like the world was in danger from this threat but New York was.  Apparently you shouldn’t live in New York because it’s always under attack by super villains in the movies!

It’s during the last third of the movie that the Hulk really steals the show.  Everyone loved this character and his use as comic relief.  It surprises me that Marvel hasn’t already put the Hulk 2 into production.  Perhaps they will soon.  After the credits we get a hint at who the bad guy in the next one will be, and he is a big one.  For people who don’t follow the comic books and were wondering who “the purple guy” was, his name is Thanos and he is a major threat to anyone.  Thanos is a guy who can beat even powerful beings like Thor or the Silver Surfer in a one on one fight.

Like I said before, The Avengers is a big, fun, popcorn flick and there is nothing wrong with that.  I give it 3 out of 4 stars.

Iron Man To Face The Ten Rings In Sequel

Remember when Tony Stark was captured by the terrorist group in the first Iron Man movie?  Well it looks like they are back.  A photo of the crew’s production hat has been released and it has the logo for The 10 Rings on it.  Also at the San Diego Comic-Con, Ben Kingsley was shown wearing rings on his fingers in character as The Mandarin.  It’s kind of a cool idea to bring those bad guys back since they did take the time to build them up previous.

More Marvel Movie Logos Released

Ant-Man is the only new character out of these three films.  In the comics he is one of the founding members of the Avengers.  He can change his size, but even if he shrinks down to the size of an ant he still maintains the same strength he had as a full sized human. 

I would have liked to see a Hulk 2 announced, especially after how popular he was in the Avengers. 

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Logo Released

Marvel has release the logo for the Guardians of the Galaxy film, coming in 2014.  What do you think about this choice for one of their new properties?  I don't think most average people know much about this comic as compared to many others like The Hulk, Avengers, Iron Man, etc.

There have been a couple of different versions of this team so I do not know exactly what the movie will be about but the original Guardians of the Galaxy was about a team of superheros from the 31th century in an alternate time line in the Marvel Universe.  It will be interesting to see how they tie into the Avengers and the other Marvel heroes in the already established movies.