Showing posts with label Ben Kingsley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ben Kingsley. Show all posts
Anthony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), whom the world knows is the hero Iron Man, issues a challenge to a terrorist known as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and shortly after Stark's cliffside house is demolished by missiles. Another threat is posed by one Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), who has developed Extremis technology that gives human beings explosive and fiery super-powers that can easily get out of control. Are Killian and the Mandarin working together? The Mandarin in this movie is nothing like the character in the comics, but the business with Extremis was taken from relatively recent Iron Man stories. Iron Man 3 is entertaining [although non-comics fans may wonder what the hell is going on] and generally fast-paced, although it can be awfully talky at times. The action scenes are pretty well-orchestrated, and the two best scenes detail the attack on Stark's house and a knock-out sequence when Iron Man rescues eleven people who have been sucked out of an airplane [surely some of them would have died from terror?]. The climax has Iron Man and Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle) -- formerly known as War Machine -- rescuing the president and having a knock-down drag-out with a super-charged Killian. Iron Man 3 has a little too much humor and comes dangerously close to camp at times. Downey gets across the movie Stark's flippancy, but not much else. Guy Pearce steals the picture as Killian, easily giving the most impressive and intense performance. Don Cheadle is miscast, but Gwyneth Paltrow is fine as Stark's girlfriend and associate Pepper, and there are notable turns by Rebecca Hall as Myra Hansen, James Badge Dale as Savin [both associates of Killian's], and Ty Simpkins as little Harley, who helps Tony midway through the picture. Ben Kingsley is also good as the movie's rather weird reinterpretation of Iron Man's arch-enemy, the Mandarin. To read more about the comic book adventures of Iron Man, see The Silver Age of Comics.
Verdict: Iron Man fans may scratch their heads but otherwise enjoy this. ***.
 |
| T-Rex and time travelers |
In the future Travis Ryer (Edward Burns) works for an outfit that sends wealthy clients back in time to hunt dinosaurs, the animals' slayings timed to occur just before they would have died anyway. This is done to prevent anything screwing with the time stream and affecting the future. Travis meets a lady scientist, Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), who claims she not only helped create the time machine and was shut out of enjoying its success, but that Ryer and his associates are endangering the world with their time jumps, on one of which something comes back from the past. This happens because boss Charles Hatton (Sir Ben Kingsley) wants to save money by turning off the energy-using screen that would prevent this. Because of this anomaly, the world is affected by time waves that create new "prehistoric" animals and even begin affecting the human race itself. Can Travis and Sonia manage to set things right in a world beset with dangerous monsters, hysterical humans, and weird sweeping changes to the landscape and everyone else at all the wrong moments ...? A Sound of Thunder has a great idea and is entertaining for the most part, and some scenes are rather well-done (a struggle with a hungry underwater creature, for instance) but there's just something off about the movie. By no means as bad as, say, a Syfy Channel Original, there's still something second-rate about the entire enterprise. Edward Burns, who often makes and stars in smaller personal films, seems uncomfortable in the role of action hero, although Kingsley is more on the mark as slimy Hatton [although you still have to wonder what he's doing in this movie]. McCormack and the other cast members are all professional and then some. The effects are uneven, although there are a host of good-looking futuristic baboon-dinosaurs, and most of the other monsters are at least well-designed. Ultimately the movie isn't terrible, just unconvincing. Hyams has directed better movies, such as Outland and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, and Kingsley has appeared in worse movies, such as Thunderbirds.
Verdict: Interesting disappointment. **1/2.