Don’t waste your time on Iron Man
I COULDN'T disagree more with the Leia Petty's review of Iron Man ("Iron Man seeks redemption").
Better to get a few gallons of gas than to spend your money on this film. While both will feel like a rip-off, at least pumping gas won't also waste over two hours of your life (and you won't have to pay for a babysitter on top of it!).
The first hour-and-a-half was not only excruciatingly long and boring, but outrageously racist in its depiction of the bad guys in Afghanistan. Even Gwyneth Paltrow, not known for her wildly emotive performances, was sold short in a role that seemed written for a paper doll in stiletto heels.
Not just not an antiwar movie, it is in fact a pro-war movie. I found it odd that torture techniques like waterboarding are shown to be what makes the bad guys so bad, even though the tactics are now linked indelibly to the U.S. military and Homeland Security, who in the film are portrayed as the only untainted, unconflicted good guys in the film.
I found it sickening that the film has Iron Man saving innocent villagers from the "bad guys"--that is, the warlords who are in bed with Starck Industries--when in reality, the biggest murderer of civilians, and the biggest arms dealer and funding source for warlords around the world is the U.S. military.
Do I expect a Hollywood movie to depict an anti-imperialist, anti-racist superhero in a fancy metal suit? No. But neither do I expect to be encouraged to see dull, plodding dreck like Iron Man from reviewers for Socialist Worker.
Cindy Kaffen, Los Angeles
