OH, JON FAVREAU, NO!

[thebitterguy]

Well, it was pretty much inevitable. After the initial wave of Geekgasm following IM's release last Thursday, there's been rumblings of discontent over the fact that, yes, Iron Man fights 'bad guys' in Afghanistan, and they happen to not be white.

Now I, as a brown man, didn't really care. Iron Man needs to be kidnapped by the enemies of America, and Yinsen has to sacrifice his life to help him escape.

Over the past 40 years, Iron Man's origin has shifted to accommodate the times. In the beginning, it was Vietnam (or occasionally 'somewhere in southeast asia'), and these days, it's Afghanistan (or possibly Iraq). I think for a short, regrettable period in the '80s he was injured during the invasion of Grenada and held hostage by Fidel.

The Ten Rings, the group that's holding him, is pretty much the most inoffensive group of evildoers ever. The second in command is a veritable teddy bear, even if he does take a bit of excessive glee in playing "dunk the billionaire", but who among us?

In any case, the groups methodology and tactics are pretty obviously secular poop disturbers. If you know the character of Iron Man at all, it's pretty obvious what they're up to, especially with the leader's affection for Genghis Khan.

Personally, I'm more offended by the trailer for Zohan than I was by the entire Iron Man film.

Comments

Speaking of Ho Yinsen

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I noticed a couple of interviews with Eliot Brown, he of the comics-technology artwork these last 25 years, over at Newsarama re: the new edition of the Iron Manual. He refers to Ho Yinsen as "Ho Linshen". Is that meant as the same sort of difference in transliteration as between "Peking" and "Beijing", I wonder?

And yeah, "Ten Rings" and the Genghis Khan thing...definitely clues to What's Coming Next.

[stop-no-dont.livejournal.com]

In talking with a friend about it yesterday, it dawned on me that the more you think about the film, the more the flaws start to come out.

Start with the relationship Tony has with Pepper and Rhodey. Basically, they're both enablers, even before he puts on the Suit. "This is not the worst thing you've caught me doing," while delivered for laughs, might be a little foreshadowing of its' own.

Then ... well, let's be honest. Prior to his "awakening," T. Stark is a bit of a prick. Downey was able to dull that a bit by sheer force of personality, but the Vegas sequence and give-me-a-fucking-break-quick "seduction" of the reporter played out like Cribs on HGH. Which, hey, is true to the character. This was the movie Tony Stark would have made about himself, and that's why it ultimately worked.

[frabjousdave.livejournal.com]

I wholly agree with your final remark.

Where do you see this insane reaction to IM? I thought it handled the modernization of the "threat" reasonably welll.

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

I agree wholeheartedly.

I wonder if they will save the Mandarin for The Avengers film, and if so, who might they team him up with? (I can hardly imagine a world with SHIELD that doesn't have something like HYDRA in it). I was also wondering if they might introduce Ultron as a Stark creation rather than Henry Pym's handiwork. He's a great Avengers sort of villain.

[patrick roberts (from livejournal.com)]

Iron Man was practically flawless as a super hero flick; its makers drop some pretty obvious sequel hints too... i'm thinking the next one should be equally great

[athelind.livejournal.com]

There's an Ant-Man movie coming up.

Boy, that'll get'em packing the aisles.

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know the Ant-Man feature is on Marvel's agenda, but not actively in development at the moment. My understanding is that it was going to be action adventure, but with some lighthearted elements along the lines of the Irredeemable Ant Man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant-Man_%28Eric_O%27Grady%29) (Eric O'Grady to be played by Simon Pegg), rather than the Hank Pym character).

Clarification: The last word on the script for Ant Man is that it includes Henry Pym, Scott Lang, and Eric O'Grady as major characters, with Pym as Ant-Man in the 60's in Tales to Astonish style, and a flashforward to Lang as Ant-Man's successor in the 80's/90's, and then finally to the deviant yet lovable Eric O'Grady of contemporary times.

Re: Speaking of Ho Yinsen

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

And yeah, "Ten Rings" and the Genghis Khan thing...definitely clues to What's Coming Next.

(SLAPS FOREHEAD) Of course!

[angusabranson.livejournal.com]

One of the things I liked about the Ten Rings as a villain group is they made the group international and not just out of Arabs. Remember the scene where Yinsen said he couldn;t understand two of the guards because they were speaking Hungarian?

I really enjoyed the film and certainly had no trouble with some of the action being set in Afghanistan as it's a major modern conflict. I certainly preferred having it there than in Iraq in anycase!

Re: Speaking of Ho Yinsen

[kynn.livejournal.com]

And yeah, "Ten Rings" and the Genghis Khan thing...definitely clues to What's Coming Next.

Oooh, oooh, I know!

It is an offensive racist stereotype (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_%28comics%29)??

Re: Speaking of Ho Yinsen

[thebitterguy]

Got it in one!

Re: Speaking of Ho Yinsen

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

I was telling my wife that Iron Man's arch-nemesis' name basically translates to "High Level Public Servant" - oooh scarey!

[dewline.livejournal.com]

That just might work.

Something else

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I did some digging on Genghis Khan via Wikipedia. Seems the gentleman had a direct, military interest in the neighbourhood we now call Afghanistan among many other places. Fought a war of his own there and apparently won.

Perhaps not so much an extrapolation to have his self-proclaimed heirs among comics characters take an interest of their own in the region in the here and now?

[thebitterguy]

This was the only one I saw, but there will be more. I am disappointed in the lack of condemnation for the film's sexism.

[thebitterguy]

That was actually strange; You'd think they'd all have a common tongue, otherwise they have some significant tactical problems. "Someone tell Sergei we're going up the hill. What, no one here speaks Yugoslavian?"

[singealiene.livejournal.com]

Okay, really, who the fuck is rumbling? I went to the most hypersensitive race/feminist/queer department of film studies in the country. I consider The Lion King to be one of the more racist mainstream films ever made, and Transformers sent me into convulsions.

I saw nothing racist in Iron Man. No, NOTHING. And I see "racist" in everything.

Really, this is just an easy fucking target! How about we have something actually relevant for a change? How about this is the ONLY MOVIE I've ever seen where innocent Islamic bystanders were actually being PROTECTED? How about THAT unusual eventuality, huh? HUH? Tell me how many movies where you see that shit!

And fuck the shit out of Zohan and Mike Myers the fucking white guru. Iron Man had balls for even admitting Afghanistan exists on a military scale.

[singealiene.livejournal.com]

I did find it ironic that our film's hero is an unapologetic womanizer, while the villain actually seems to have visible respect for women. Not only does he not womanize, but that little speech to Pepper about "being a rare woman"? There was respect there!

Whaddya trying to tell us, movie?

Re: Speaking of Ho Yinsen

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

Aren't high level public servants everyone's enemies, though?

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Sexism transcends cultural boundaries and therefore isn't usually worth condemning, somehow.

[thebitterguy]

Well, he did taunt Tony with her life later on.

[singealiene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but that felt rather gender irrelevant to me. It wasn't that he was taunting her because she was a girl, it's cause she mattered to Tony. But hey, damsel in distress happens to be a damsel, whaddya gonna do.

High Level Public Servants

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Not our current Auditor-General, judging by her track record.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Assuming we can include non-US films made for TV? Peacekeepers, 1997, on CBC TV. I assume there's an entry on IMDB for it. If I remember correctly, it was set in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Not sure if it's ever been released on DVD or tape for sale.