Once again I caught a movie that I definitely should have seen on the big screen (darn Speed Racer, anyway). Iron Man positively ranks up there with my all-time favorite superhero movies (need I say which is number one… and it is NOT Howard the Duck).  I knew absolutely nothing about billionaire industrialist Tony Stark and his alter ego going in which made the movie even better.

I really appreciated the fact that Mr. Stark (played brilliantly by Robert Downey, Jr.) was a man who had conflicts.  He is in the beginning the swinging, drinking, womanizing heir to a fortune which he inherited from his father.  Tony acted as if he could care less about the company which provides state of the art weapons to U.S. forces.  However after a life and death struggle at the hands of Afghan forces, his view begins to change.  While being held captive, the brilliant spoiled rich kid develops the prototype to a new weapon that allows one person to become a nearly indestructible fighting force and uses it to escape his captors.

After returning to society, the industrialist vows to use his technology to fight evil.  However, there are sinister forces that will stand in his way.  Once again, a film in which no one can be trusted.  The supporting cast was also well developed.  Jeff Bridges is memorable in his role as is Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark’s executive secretary, Pepper Potts.

Following the movie, I saw that my favorite superhero movie and its first sequel were playing on TVLand.  However, I decided to break out my DVD collection instead.  I do not like to watch great movies interrupted by commercials.   Now it is time for the sequel.  Have a Super night.  And is it just me, or is Stan Lee quickly becoming the Alfred Hitchcock of this generation by appearing in most of the movies based upon his comic book creations?

I don’t know what kept me from seeing The Incredible Hulk when it was in theatres last summer.  Maybe it was the fear of being disappointed a la the original film.  More probably, it was the fact that I was in a show and was really busy, because I read some reviews and got excellent work of mouth.  However, seeing it on video I was FAR from disappointed.  The sequel had EVERYTHING the first film lacked in abundance.  It was almost a marriage of the comic book and the television series with homages paid to both.

The Incredible is so much closer in tone to the series while at the same time remaining faithful to the comic book.  Bruce Banner is on the run forever searching for the cure to his transformation into the not-so-jolly green giant. However, he may just come to realize that curing it is not necessarily the answer.  Along with him is his former fiance Betty Ross daughter of General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross.  General Ross is bent upon capturing Banner and using his alter-ego as a military weapon.  Another important figure derived from the comic series, Major Emil Blonsky (a rather power driven soldier) is introduced.

Yet, what made the movie so special (in my opinion) are the gentle nods to past incarnations of the character.  In most Marvel Superhero movies, Stan Lee (creator of The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, and a whole list of other heroes) makes an appearance.  Lou Ferrigno (the ORIGINAL, original Hulk) has a cameo as a security guard as he did in the first film (and in a very cool vocal appearance).  There is also a nice reference to Bill Bixby (the original Dr. Banner) near the beginning of the film.  There is also a cameo of the original closing theme of the television series (“The Lonely Man”) .  Plus a mention of a certain investigative reporter.

Everything about The Incredible Hulk made it so much better than the first movie.  Everyone involved knew exactly what they were doing and made one monster of a tale.  It even included a cameo from a character  that  foreshadows a follow-up feature film.  So much for fans of the comic as well as those who remember the television series of the 70s-80s.  An Incredible film.

The comic book.  When people today think of comic books, usually superheroes come to mind.  With the introduction of Superman in 1938, this trend grew through the golden years and later with dozens of superheroes created.  Big names like Stan Lee come to mind, who has become so big he was given his own reality show, Who Wants to be a Superhero? which lasted for two seasons.  Many comic-book heroes have made their way to the TV screen in the form of cartoons and live-action shows, and have been making it big in movies as well.  Within the last few months we have had Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and the much-anticipated soon-to-be-released Dark Knight (Batman).

However, superheroes are just one of many genres of comic books.  Among the years westerns, war, sci-fi and fantasy, detective, horror, and many others have had some big hits and long-running series over the years.  While I have read several different genres as a kid, one really stuck with me, or maybe they are a couple different ones.  Harvey comics, which brought us the likes of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich are of a genre which you might call funny comics.  I don’t know the true genre name for these but they were close to my heart growing up.  Another series I have always enjoyed was kind of a genre unto itself, though others have tried to duplicate its success.  Like many superhero comics, this series has been going strong since the golden age of comics.  It has spawned some cartoons, at least one live TV series (plus a pilot that never got off the ground), and even a movie.  The series I’m talking about is the Archie comic book series.   Since 1941, readers have been able to follow the high-school antics of Archie and his gang, which has periodically changed to fit the times.  The most recent incarnation made the characters more anime-like.

Recently, while at the library I encountered two DVD collections of the old cartoon series.  One set was for Sabrina the Teenage Witch from the early 70s, which unlike the later cartoons and TV series actually resembled the Sabrina I know from the comic books.  It was actually not shown on its own originally, but part of The Archie Comedy Hour.  I also found a DVD collection for the original cartoon, The Archie Show.  The latter was apparently a smash hit 40 years ago in 1968, before I was born.  Each cartoon contained a new dance move and a new song from The Archies, a band that was put together for the show not unlike The Monkees, but instead of becoming a band unto themselves they hid behind the cartoon faces of Archie and friends.  This one show apparently cornered a whopping 55% of the viewership when it was on.  In any event, I wound up checking both of them out and just finished watching the Archie DVDs (and not too soon, as it is on reserve and not able to be renewed- it’s due today) and two of the three Sabrina DVDs.  As typical for cartoon series of the time they were done on the cheap with static backgrounds that when made to move like when a character is walking or running will repeat, and a few voice actors doing all of the voices.  Okay, these sort of things are still done, even with the voice actors in hits like The Simpsons, but they are still done to keep the costs down.  Some of the voices the actors came up with left something to be desired in my opinion.  I really didn’t like Jughead’s or Veronica’s voices.  A couple others, like Archie and Mr. Weatherbee grew on me as I watched, and still others I had no problem with at all.

Now that I am nearly finished with these two collections I look forward to being able to watch other series, except maybe the recent Sabrina cartoons which were actually a spinoff of the 90s TV series, which in turn was a modern remake.  I haven’t read the recent anime-style comics for the same reason I didn’t enjoy the TV series, and for that matter don’t enjoy the modern Battlestar Galactica- nostalgia.  They are simply not the same characters I grew up with.  The ones I do want to watch range from Archie’s TV Funnies, US of Archie, and Archie’s Fun House from the same company that brought us the two I watched (Filmation); to later incarnations like the New Archies and Archie’s Weird Mysteries which may or may not be relevent to my nostalgia.  I also would like to pick up any Richie Rich cartoons I might find, and any other Harveytoons which are like the comics I read, and any comic collections that are released on computer similar to MAD’s CD set from about ten years ago.  I understand there is one for Archie now that can be had at archiecomics.com.  When I have some income again I will have to pick it up.

Every once in a while a remake is made of a movie. Most of the time it is because the first movie was very good, and they think the remake will be as good. Such movies that come to my mind are “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1999 and 1968) and “Oceans Eleven” (2001 and 1960). Today I saw a remake of an different sort. One that was made because the first movie wasn’t everything it could be. Today I saw “The Incredible Hulk” (2008).

I’m going to try very hard not to give any big spoilers, I won’t tell you the end or anything about the big battle we all know I HULK movie should have. I just want to talk about what was done right this time. The original HULK movie was one I barely mention that I saw. From somebody who really likes comic book movies (see other posts — shameless plug for my own writing), The first Hulk really does not exist for me other than a bad dream.

So what did the 2008 version of the HULK have? Let’s start with the most important need of any movie. It had a very good story line and plot. The action of the plot drove the characters. The characters seemed to react and not act. All the characters, from the leads to the cameos and the supporting to the CGI actors were believable. Could I tell it was a CGI character, sure, but that did not detract from the movie (Its about a comic book, should that really make a difference?) But the CGI characters were believable. They had expression and enough realism to be considered as other parts of the story. This had a lot to do with the quality of the story in addition to the quality of the actors.

Now on to the characters. I’ve seen most of the main characters in at least one other movie. Some of these movies were very memorable. I didn’t see those characters in this movie. Again this is one of my best compliments to actors and writers. I don’t want to see an Elf princess as a respected scientist, love interest in a movie that has no elves. I don’t want to see an illusionist as a studious scientist either. I didn’t see that. They became their characters, and the story drove them, or they drove the story. This would have been a good movie even if the comic never existed.

My rating —- This will be one I see again in the expensive (stadium seating) theater. That, of course, means the DVD will join my collection.

Slight spoilers… Things I liked because I liked the campy TV show…. And I like comics

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Bruce Banner’s eyes when he changes to the Hulk look very similar to the old TV show.

The lab equipment that is used to create the Hulk also looks a lot like the old TV show.

At the beginning of the movie, Bruce Banner is watching TV, a clip from the old Bill Bixby TV show “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” is on.

Bruce Banner using the line or trying “You won’t like me when I’m angry”

Lou Ferrigno’s cameo and his being the Voice of the Hulk.

Stan Lee’s Cameo.

Tony Stark showing up during the movie.

The super soldier serum from WWII is mentioned.

There were others, but I can’t remember them now.