Iron Man 3 Review

Does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

Robert Downey Jnr soars into Iron Man 3 with ease, boasting his best one-liners yet as the ever-charismatic Tony Stark. He who breathed life into The Avengers, an otherwise overwrought outing, returns with wit and charm to suit up in iron-plated armour once again. By his own ingenuity and use of whizz popping gadgetry, Tony Stark along with an army of robot soldiers must face two mastermind villains to help save the world. As he fights to protect the woman he loves, he finds the answer to a lingering question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

The American billionaire shows his human side in Iron Man 3 as he suffers from anxiety attacks following a near death experience. With a target on his back, he comes up against The Mandarin (played by Ben Kingsley), a terrorist who poses a threat to the US president and Aldrich Killian (played by Guy Pearce), a scientist once snubbed, now hell-bent on revenge. Killian develops a radioactive serum called Extremis to cure his own debilitating disability giving him regenerative healing qualities and the ability to generate extreme heat – at one point he breathes fire. Even for a comic book movie sci-fi elements such as these feel farfetched. Then again, this is coming from the Marvel franchise that featured an attempted alien invasion in its last instalment.

The confused plot is bolstered along by strong performances from Robert Downey Jnr and Gwyneth Paltrow whose chemistry is enticing enough to bring it over the finish line with quick laughs, a touch of drama and a tonne of action. In one spectacular set piece, Tony Stark’s cliff-top house in Malibu is attacked by a series of explosions that leave him battered, bruised and left for dead. Another action highlight sees Iron Man rescue 13 people in mid-air who have fallen out of a plane. The special effects, although extraordinary, are overused and there is more than a few suit-up moments that feel tech-indulgent.

Director and screenwriter Shane Black replaces Jon Favreau who retains an executive producer’s credit and returns in the role of Happy Hogan, Stark's former bodyguard and chauffeur. Black’s robust script shows a skill for smart dialogue that includes jokes about Downton Abbey. Fans won’t be disappointed by comedic banter that comes fast, snappy and well delivered by the leading cast.

In comparison, Pearce’s character, the villain of the piece feels frustratingly one-dimensional and is a major drawback of the film. His motivations are weak and his overall plan for worldwide domination remains unclear. The final half hour verges on Transformers territory with a lot of clanging metal as robots hit other robots creating a mash of thoughtless chaos.

Although a lot sleeker and less self-regarding than other Marvel ventures, Iron Man 3 won’t win any new converts. As the main drawcard, Robert Downey Jnr is benefited by a decent script which blends comedy with a good dose of action, even if it includes one too many instances of deus ex machina. 

Warm Bodies Review

A zombie apocalypse but with a twist: the zombies aren’t dead. Well, at least not really.

An undefined virus or plague has ravaged the world’s population and caused zombie-like creatures to take over large sections of the city, which is now divided by a berlin-like wall. In a barren airport, we meet R (played by Nicholas Hoult), an oddly introspective zombie who wants deeply to connect with people. He can’t remember his name, his parents, his job or even how he came to be a zombie, ‘although my hoodie would suggest I was unemployed,’ he says. Little quips such as these, and smart uses of wry humour make Warm Bodies enjoyable, even if the temperature is only lukewarm at best.

Directed by Jonathan Levine, Warm Bodies can be described as Twilight meets Edward Scissorhands meets the zombie apocalypse. What we end up with is a story about a girl, named Julie (played by Theresa Palmer), who falls in love with a zombie despite his eccentric tendency to eat brains. Slowly but surely, R regains his humanity thanks to the magical power of love. No, seriously.

It all starts when R spares Julie in a zombie raid on a human gathering party and takes her back to his home - an airplane cabin - to keep her safe. As daughter of the leader of the human survivors, Julie is strangely okay with being held under house arrest by a starry-eyed zombie. What makes this predicament even more baffling is that R is responsible for the death of Julie’s boyfriend Perry (Dave Franco) just moments earlier. But if Twilight has taught us anything, it is that love is complicated.

The Romeo and Juliet references are obvious, from the star-crossed lovers names to a rendition of the classic balcony scene.  It isn’t as painfully romantic as Twilight, nor is the coupling spot on, which is a shame given that the lead performances are decent. Nicholas Hoult is especially good at playing dead and his internal dialogue is wry and witty.

Warm Bodies’ biggest downfall is its weak zombie mythology and problematic definition of what a zombie really is, or lack thereof. The ‘rules’ of zombie lore are left at the doorstep and replaced with a watered-down premise that has been softened around the edges. The movie imagines a world where zombies can peacefully coexist with humans if they are accepted into society, at which point their hearts start beating again. The message, although ridiculous, wouldn’t be so reprehensible had they not introduced a super species of zombie called ‘bonies’, that are, for all intents and purposes, traditional flesh eating mindless zombies that have lost all traces of humanity and are irretrievably doomed to scour barren apocalyptic wastelands, hunting anything with a pulse.

So let me get this straight, zombies are curable unless you’re a super zombie in which case bad luck? That hardly seems fair.

Maybe they are saving a plot twist for a sequel where a teenage girl falls in love with a boney to discover that he was just misunderstood? After all, they are kind of handsome in their own, skeletal, flesh eating way…

Obviously Warm Bodies is not interested in zombie-lore. What it is interested in is a young romance that plays largely to a teen audience. As a rom-com with an indie sensibility and elements of old gothic romance, it succeeds better than most.

Danny Boyle goes for style over substance in hypnotic heist thriller Trance

Danny Boyle flexes his filmmaking muscles in Trance, serving up a mind-bending heist thriller that exercises every cinematic trick in his repertoire. Previously known for his directorial work on Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 hours, he is on his way to becoming one of the most reputable English directors. In Trance, his visually vivid style descends into the world of mind and memory in the same vein of Christopher Nolan’s Memento and Inception. A pet project more than anything else, it may be a case of style over substance and it doesn’t measure up to the success of his previous efforts but manages to be an entertaining mind-game throughout.

In Trance James McAvoy plays Simon, a fine art auctioneer who teams up with criminal gang leader Frank (Vincent Cassel) to steal a valuable Goya painting. When the heist goes wrong Simon receives a blow to the head and wakes up in hospital with amnesia. In a desperate effort to find the painting before Frank does away with him, Simon turns to hypnotherapist Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson) to help him remember were he has stashed the coveted painting. A love triangle soon emerges between Elizabeth, Simon and Frank stirring paranoia and confusion as to who is loyal to whom. McAvoy, who continues to prove his range and maturity gives a strong performance and Cassel is smartly cast as the sometimes villainous, sometimes playful Frank.

Beginning as a heist film, the plot becomes overly convoluted and goes off the rails in the second half when twists and turns are dealt in ten fold. Suspense is hard to sustain when the direction of the narrative changes in almost each and every scene, playing like a mosaic of memories and fantasies that may or may not be happening. Outbursts of nudity and bizarre hallucinations of violence take place – most notably a head is blown off but keeps talking - as it becomes increasingly difficult to decipher whose trance are we in.

It is a problem of the film that the more we learn about the three main characters, the less likable they become. A power trip between lovers results in a dog-eat-dog fiery conclusion of violence and passion, which includes a car being doused in gasoline and set on fire. As the knot unravels and secrets are exposed, no one is what they seem. At the end of it all, we are left debating whose actions were the most shameful? The plot is somewhat hollow and lacking in human connection, but the performances are strong and the cinematography stylish enough that we are inclined to overlook the gaps in narrative.

Danny Boyle’s direction elevates the material from a puzzled rehash of inception-like thrillers into a stylish and compelling film that plays as a psychological thriller with hints of erotica and neo noir. Trance is a visual treat that is sometimes intriguing, other times bewildering, and an enjoyable cinematic pleasure if not taken too seriously. When dealing within the dreamscape of hypnosis plausibility wears thin, but who cares when it looks as good as this does.