Iron Man 3 or Star Trek Into Darkness? Head to Head
So which movie won the battle of the blockbusters?
*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS**SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS**SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS**SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS**SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*
Just to clarify, do not continue reading until you've watched both films ok?
Cool, just one final warning
There may be *SPOILERS* in here. In fact, just go watch both films now to make sure you've definitely seen them.
Ok, let the head to head begin!
Plot.
Star Trek.
This is a true action film. Alot of plotlines going through this, with Jim's struggles with leadership, the corruption of Star Fleet, Spock's emotions, John Harrison's terrorism, John Harrison's origin, John Harrison's crew, John Harrison's deception, etc, etc. Right from the off, the film never slows down. You don't get a chance to breathe or relax, it keeps flying at warp speed (sorry) and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was genuinely exhausted at the end. Alot of suspense and it was great to see the Enterprise in some situations that I seriously didn't think they were going to walk away from. There's been alot of criticism about the last 15 minutes of the film being a direct replica of The Wrath of Khan movie which I could understand would be distracting for fans, but I'm just judging this as a standalone film. Slightly weak ending for a villain as epic as John Harrison, but nice to see Spock take a leading role. A bit obvious what was going to happen though when Bones was experimenting with Harrison's DNA which took away from Jim's sacrifice sequence.
Iron Man
Fire breathing, self destructing, super powered humans? Yeah, ok maybe in theory but I seriously think the people affected by Extremis were out of place in this film. Focusing on Stark's anxiety was a great move after The Avengers movie. Having his obsession lead him to create an Iron Army was a stroke of genius too and even going as far as replacing himself with a remote control suit when meeting Pepper was excellent. The Mark VLII itself was one of the best things about the film. A weakened and almost comically lame suit, stressing how Tony can't rely on the armour to make him who he is. The Mandarin twist (discussed later) was bold, bad guy was generic and Iron Patriot was a bit pointless. My main problem with this film was that the trailers made it look like an EPIC. A story about terrorists that would be bigger than anything Tony could handle, with his anxieties threatening to tear him apart. We were meant to see him in his lowest point and instead Shane Black takes all these possibilities and cheapens them. Stark, in the random town with the kid, doesn't really seem too affected by anxiety, choosing to keep making quips and dickish one liners. Pepeer, the 'one thing he can't live withou' DIES and yet he's barely affected! She miraculously comes back from the grave and what does he say? 'I've got nothing.' SHOW EMOTION! The President's in the Iron Patriot suit, oh dear. The Mandarin is... well. The Mark VLII actually shows the most emotion in the film by just flying back on its own and yet it gets 'hilariously' knocked to pieces on arrival.
Never believed Tony was in danger and as soon as Pepper was injected with the virus and it was announced that her body was in the phase of choosing wrther to accept it or not, her death scene and 'return' was completely predictable, in the same crime as Star Trek's.
Oh and the whole film's about how Tony doesn't need Iron Man in his life to define himself. He blows up all his armoury, shocking Pepper (and also completely stole from the end of The Dark Knight when the sonar device self destructs in front of Fox), even has the chest piece removed from himself to physically separate himself from association with Iron Man and yet the final line is 'I AM IRON MAN.' What?!!!!!!
Winner
Plot Lines Into Darkness
Heroes.
Star Trek
Let's face it, you care more about the villains section don't you? Well there's not much new here from the previous films in either franchise so I allow you to go to villains and come back here after. Star Trek has a really nicely rounded cast. Kirk's still reckless, but starting to come to terms with how hard it is to lead, especially as he was handed his captaincy without training and didn't have to work for it at all, being literally in the right place at the right time. My only criticism is that he's the same character at the end as at the start (we'll get to you soon Stark.) Spock on the other hand is the star. Well acted, this Sheldon-esque social clown is fantastic throughout and when he actually shows emotion at the end? Wow. KHHHHAAAAAANNNNN!!!!! Great chemistry between Kirk and Spock. Uhura feels a bit pointless as the main relationship is Jim and Kirk, she's a bit of an afterthought. Simon Pegg makes another claim that he's a serious actor with some pretty emotional stuff from him too, as well as a nice added touch of humour. Bones is.... I don't know, I just can't take Karl Urban seriously when he talks. Maybe that's the point. Russian guy's funny again, Asian guy's nice and serious to make sure the fun doesn't get out of control and yeah, overall a nice, well rounded team of heroes.
Iron Man
Did you like Robert Downey Junior in Iron Man 1, 2, Incredible Hulk and The Avengers? You did? Good because you're in for 2 and half hours of the same. Yep, even when Tony's at his lowest point. Having an identity crisis, distraught with self doubt, being crippled by anxiety and even losing his girlfriend at one point, the film is still made up entirely of RDJ one liners and being a cocky jackass to every living person and thing, even when it would be incredibly more powerful if he tried acting for a change. It's ok to be quiet and look sad sometimes too, you know?! I'm bored of this act now, if you're going to put Stark in the most difficult position of his life and not have him reflect this in his performance, then my time with Marvel movies may be coming to an end.
Winner
The Enterprise Into Darkness
Villains
Star Trek
Ok so we all know who John Harrison is now? Well my only experience of Star Trek is the last JJ Abrams film so I'm just going to judge this incarnation of the character and not go into how faithful he is to the older version.
You really can't deny just how great Benedict Cumberbatch is. Go on, try. You can't.
We all knew what was coming but when he revealed who he was and was all like 'I AM KHAN,' I think I wet myself I was so excited. His voice! 'Shall we begin?' That is terrifying. And when he's running through the city at the speed of light or taking hits from Captain Kirk and not even reacting, just wow. This is a real villain. Only complaint is that he maybe went down a little too easy at the end. And of course he had no real lasting impact on our heroes. They literally seal him up and that's him forgot about.
Iron Man
My problem is not that the villain was a hoax. Heck I love it when films do something different to surprise me. But this was a step too far, a kick in the crown jewels. You take this epic looking, really interesting, cyber terrorist, with one of the best voices the world has ever seen and then replace him with generic, bland, sleazy business man Guy Pearce. I wouldn't care as much if you at least made Aldrich Killian have a personality or a slightly less stereotypical James Bond villain appearance. And the way they did it. Yeah it's ridiculous and I think there's a political message that America isn't scared by terrorists and that's why they replaced this laughable imposter with a suit, implying the real threat is at home, corporations etc, whatever, fine. But you can't have Ben Kingsley actor, who knows he's playing a figurehead for terrorism and have him joking about, completely without a conscience. Nope, not for me. Plus, I bought Khan's super powers over Killian's fire breathing.
Winner
Benedict Cumberbatch Into Darkness
Lens flares
Star Trek
Seriously, everywhere. I mean I'm just watching a drama of blue lines talking to each other. Look out for Alice Eve's big speech, in which JJ Abrams saw fit to replace her face with a nice big lens flare. Better actor? Debatable.
Iron Man
Well I didn't notice anything, in particular? Imagine JJ Abrams directed this, all of those suits with glowing centres? It would be like a shining a neon light at a disco ball.
Winner
Lens Flare Into Darkness
I could go into special effects, humour, action scenes, most pointless bit of female nudity and any amount of categories but there's no point because Star Trek wins them all.
All that's left to do is announce the winner, so without further ado....
WINNER
IRON MONEY 3
Iron Man has already made $1.1 BILLION at the box office already, while Star Trek is struggling to stay high on the charts. Iron Man appeals to people of all ages. And while it isn't the deepest, smartest or best film out there, it certainly got us all to go see it. Just shows you what you can do with a misleadingly epic trailer and an actor at the top of their game that you just exploit. So yeah, Star Trek IS the better film. It doesn't mock itself or undermine serious issues and some actual thought has went into the characters, with the film not just being different and scandalous for the sake of being different and scandalous, but at the end of the day, Robert Downey Iron Man Jr achieved exactly what it set out to do.
So which movie won the battle of the blockbusters?
*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS**SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS**SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS**SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS**SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*
Just to clarify, do not continue reading until you've watched both films ok?
Cool, just one final warning
There may be *SPOILERS* in here. In fact, just go watch both films now to make sure you've definitely seen them.
Ok, let the head to head begin!
Plot.
Star Trek.
This is a true action film. Alot of plotlines going through this, with Jim's struggles with leadership, the corruption of Star Fleet, Spock's emotions, John Harrison's terrorism, John Harrison's origin, John Harrison's crew, John Harrison's deception, etc, etc. Right from the off, the film never slows down. You don't get a chance to breathe or relax, it keeps flying at warp speed (sorry) and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was genuinely exhausted at the end. Alot of suspense and it was great to see the Enterprise in some situations that I seriously didn't think they were going to walk away from. There's been alot of criticism about the last 15 minutes of the film being a direct replica of The Wrath of Khan movie which I could understand would be distracting for fans, but I'm just judging this as a standalone film. Slightly weak ending for a villain as epic as John Harrison, but nice to see Spock take a leading role. A bit obvious what was going to happen though when Bones was experimenting with Harrison's DNA which took away from Jim's sacrifice sequence.
Iron Man
Fire breathing, self destructing, super powered humans? Yeah, ok maybe in theory but I seriously think the people affected by Extremis were out of place in this film. Focusing on Stark's anxiety was a great move after The Avengers movie. Having his obsession lead him to create an Iron Army was a stroke of genius too and even going as far as replacing himself with a remote control suit when meeting Pepper was excellent. The Mark VLII itself was one of the best things about the film. A weakened and almost comically lame suit, stressing how Tony can't rely on the armour to make him who he is. The Mandarin twist (discussed later) was bold, bad guy was generic and Iron Patriot was a bit pointless. My main problem with this film was that the trailers made it look like an EPIC. A story about terrorists that would be bigger than anything Tony could handle, with his anxieties threatening to tear him apart. We were meant to see him in his lowest point and instead Shane Black takes all these possibilities and cheapens them. Stark, in the random town with the kid, doesn't really seem too affected by anxiety, choosing to keep making quips and dickish one liners. Pepeer, the 'one thing he can't live withou' DIES and yet he's barely affected! She miraculously comes back from the grave and what does he say? 'I've got nothing.' SHOW EMOTION! The President's in the Iron Patriot suit, oh dear. The Mandarin is... well. The Mark VLII actually shows the most emotion in the film by just flying back on its own and yet it gets 'hilariously' knocked to pieces on arrival.
Never believed Tony was in danger and as soon as Pepper was injected with the virus and it was announced that her body was in the phase of choosing wrther to accept it or not, her death scene and 'return' was completely predictable, in the same crime as Star Trek's.
Oh and the whole film's about how Tony doesn't need Iron Man in his life to define himself. He blows up all his armoury, shocking Pepper (and also completely stole from the end of The Dark Knight when the sonar device self destructs in front of Fox), even has the chest piece removed from himself to physically separate himself from association with Iron Man and yet the final line is 'I AM IRON MAN.' What?!!!!!!
Winner
Plot Lines Into Darkness
Heroes.
Star Trek
Let's face it, you care more about the villains section don't you? Well there's not much new here from the previous films in either franchise so I allow you to go to villains and come back here after. Star Trek has a really nicely rounded cast. Kirk's still reckless, but starting to come to terms with how hard it is to lead, especially as he was handed his captaincy without training and didn't have to work for it at all, being literally in the right place at the right time. My only criticism is that he's the same character at the end as at the start (we'll get to you soon Stark.) Spock on the other hand is the star. Well acted, this Sheldon-esque social clown is fantastic throughout and when he actually shows emotion at the end? Wow. KHHHHAAAAAANNNNN!!!!! Great chemistry between Kirk and Spock. Uhura feels a bit pointless as the main relationship is Jim and Kirk, she's a bit of an afterthought. Simon Pegg makes another claim that he's a serious actor with some pretty emotional stuff from him too, as well as a nice added touch of humour. Bones is.... I don't know, I just can't take Karl Urban seriously when he talks. Maybe that's the point. Russian guy's funny again, Asian guy's nice and serious to make sure the fun doesn't get out of control and yeah, overall a nice, well rounded team of heroes.
Iron Man
Did you like Robert Downey Junior in Iron Man 1, 2, Incredible Hulk and The Avengers? You did? Good because you're in for 2 and half hours of the same. Yep, even when Tony's at his lowest point. Having an identity crisis, distraught with self doubt, being crippled by anxiety and even losing his girlfriend at one point, the film is still made up entirely of RDJ one liners and being a cocky jackass to every living person and thing, even when it would be incredibly more powerful if he tried acting for a change. It's ok to be quiet and look sad sometimes too, you know?! I'm bored of this act now, if you're going to put Stark in the most difficult position of his life and not have him reflect this in his performance, then my time with Marvel movies may be coming to an end.
Winner
The Enterprise Into Darkness
Villains
Star Trek
Ok so we all know who John Harrison is now? Well my only experience of Star Trek is the last JJ Abrams film so I'm just going to judge this incarnation of the character and not go into how faithful he is to the older version.
You really can't deny just how great Benedict Cumberbatch is. Go on, try. You can't.
We all knew what was coming but when he revealed who he was and was all like 'I AM KHAN,' I think I wet myself I was so excited. His voice! 'Shall we begin?' That is terrifying. And when he's running through the city at the speed of light or taking hits from Captain Kirk and not even reacting, just wow. This is a real villain. Only complaint is that he maybe went down a little too easy at the end. And of course he had no real lasting impact on our heroes. They literally seal him up and that's him forgot about.
Iron Man
My problem is not that the villain was a hoax. Heck I love it when films do something different to surprise me. But this was a step too far, a kick in the crown jewels. You take this epic looking, really interesting, cyber terrorist, with one of the best voices the world has ever seen and then replace him with generic, bland, sleazy business man Guy Pearce. I wouldn't care as much if you at least made Aldrich Killian have a personality or a slightly less stereotypical James Bond villain appearance. And the way they did it. Yeah it's ridiculous and I think there's a political message that America isn't scared by terrorists and that's why they replaced this laughable imposter with a suit, implying the real threat is at home, corporations etc, whatever, fine. But you can't have Ben Kingsley actor, who knows he's playing a figurehead for terrorism and have him joking about, completely without a conscience. Nope, not for me. Plus, I bought Khan's super powers over Killian's fire breathing.
Winner
Benedict Cumberbatch Into Darkness
Lens flares
Star Trek
Seriously, everywhere. I mean I'm just watching a drama of blue lines talking to each other. Look out for Alice Eve's big speech, in which JJ Abrams saw fit to replace her face with a nice big lens flare. Better actor? Debatable.
Iron Man
Well I didn't notice anything, in particular? Imagine JJ Abrams directed this, all of those suits with glowing centres? It would be like a shining a neon light at a disco ball.
Winner
Lens Flare Into Darkness
I could go into special effects, humour, action scenes, most pointless bit of female nudity and any amount of categories but there's no point because Star Trek wins them all.
All that's left to do is announce the winner, so without further ado....
WINNER
IRON MONEY 3
Iron Man has already made $1.1 BILLION at the box office already, while Star Trek is struggling to stay high on the charts. Iron Man appeals to people of all ages. And while it isn't the deepest, smartest or best film out there, it certainly got us all to go see it. Just shows you what you can do with a misleadingly epic trailer and an actor at the top of their game that you just exploit. So yeah, Star Trek IS the better film. It doesn't mock itself or undermine serious issues and some actual thought has went into the characters, with the film not just being different and scandalous for the sake of being different and scandalous, but at the end of the day, Robert Downey Iron Man Jr achieved exactly what it set out to do.
Comments
Post a Comment