The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Pumping Iron Man

5.21.08 @ 12:01AM

RAVE REVIEWS
Re: James Bowman's "Iron Man":

James Bowman's review of Iron Man seems to forget that the movie can not claim a literary heritage. It remains true to the comic that it is derived from and the comic was warped the comic book code of the 1950's and 1960's.

The "vaguely left-wing and pacifist sort" of politics was built into the comic by the cultural watch dogs of the comic publication industry when the comic originated. Except for choosing this as a movie project, in this one instance Hollywood is nearly innocent of injecting additional hippy-dippy politics. It was already there. I'm just grateful that they abandoned the infantile "secret identity" dramatic device.

As an adult I would prefer to see Hollywood make Tuxedo Park into a film. Charlie Wilson's War is probably as close as Hollywood is to get to a story of that sort.
-- Gregory Franke

Would someone please tell James Bowman to lighten up?

Iron Man is fun, entertaining, action-packed, and very well acted. In short, it's great movie, even for folks who aren't fans of the comic or of comic-book movies in general. As I am both, I feel qualified to offer an unequivocal "thumbs-up" to Marvel Entertainment, Jon Favreau, and Robert Downey Jr., who was the perfect choice to portray the brilliant yet deeply flawed Tony Stark (who was himself based on Howard Hughes).

Is it a perfect movie? No. Does the plot have a few holes? Of course! Is the pacifism angle a tad too "Code Pink"? Maybe. But then again, let's not forget that Stark, as IRONMAN, does spend a great deal of time in this film delivering a major beat-down to Muslim terrorists! When was the last time that Hollywood "dared" to do that, Mr. Bowman?

In short, perhaps Mr. Bowman should stick to reviewing small, art-house type flicks, the kind that film critics drool over, but that induce somnolence in the rest of us. When I spend upwards of $40 to go to the movies, I don't want to be lectured to, sermonized, or exposed to some obscure Finnish director's angst and emotional pain. I want to be entertained. And Iron Man delivers.
-- Gavin Valle
Peapack, New Jersey

For Gosh's sakes this is a movie about a Marvel Comics hero, not some treatise on politics people! Why is it that conservative movie reviewers cannot simply tell us if a movie is good or bad, but have an irresistible urge to delve into the politics of the movie? Especially when the movie isn't about politics! I saw the same thing happen with X 3: The Last Stand when a conservative reviewer went on a rant about the supposed pushing of the gay agenda because of the way the character of Angel looked; since he was a somewhat effeminate teenaged male, that was taken as a sign that the "gay agenda" was being pushed. And here we have a reviewer ranting about the politics of Iron Man because of a couple of little lines that he disagrees with. As much as we conservatives accuse liberals of politicizing everything, we sure aren't innocent of it ourselves.

Look, this is a summer movie that is aimed at tweens, teens, young adults, and those like me who loved comics as a kid and always wanted to see what the characters I loved would look like on the silver screen. It is why I took my son to see the all the recent comic-based films, and probably Iron Man as well. The movies are supposed to be fun, they are supposed to be a couple of hours where we get to suspend out disbelief and put the worries of real life out of our heads. And as much as the reviewer wants to go on and on about political messages in a Marvel Comics movie, I just have one question:

Was the movie any good?
-- Eric Edwards
Walnut Cove, North Carolina

I really tried to appreciate your online magazine. I really did. But it's clear that you employ angry mental defectives. Indeed, you give them a forum.

It would be a total waste of my time to refute this idiotic review on a case-by-case basis. I'll simply let you know that I'm 40 years old, fiercely conservative in every way, and that this is, by no small margin, the worst review I have ever read...
-- Neal F. Guye
Coos Bay, Oregon

Paul of Tarsus wrote, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Well, sometimes it is fun to take out childish things again. Dude, Iron Man, is a summer movie based on a comic book. Chill!
-- Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

H-O-R-S-E
Re: Jeffrey Lord's The Party of the Weak Horse:

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Foreign Policy, Trade, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Economics, Environment, Hollywood, Movies, Law, Military, Iran, Russia, Israel, North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, Oil