Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Yes, guys, this will be the second time that I end up doing a themed marathon for this series. And this is a marathon that I did last year, so I figured why not do it again? Once more, for the next two months, I'm gonna be dedicating this marathon to covering comic book related movies. And I'm gonna kick things off with an animated film from 2013. That movie is "Iron Man: Rise of Technovore".
Now, this film is gonna be a rather unique experience for me. Because, as some of you probably already know, I am a fan of most of DC's direct-to-video animated movies. I believe that they are some of the better things that DC and Warner Bros. have put out for quite a few years now. But then I happen to remember that Marvel also put out their own direct-to-video animated movies. And what's strange about all this is that a lot people don't ever really seem to talk about them as much. They usually just focus on whatever fad movie that gets put out by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A recent example of that would be "Spider-Man: No Way Home". Of course now that I've typed that example, it's probably gonna end up being very dated long after this review gets put out. But, oh well, I don't really care. Point is, I don't see a lot of people ever mentioning Marvel's animated movies, but I'm gonna change that by taking a look at one of them tonight.
Now, I know several things going into this movie. The first thing is that I know that this movie was made by Madhouse. And Madhouse usually puts out some awesome-looking movies and TV shows. I'm curious, though, as to how they'll be able to handle translating their animation with a Marvel Comics property, such as Iron Man. That will be rather interesting to see. The second thing I know about this movie is that, according to one source I read up online, this movie is somehow a tie-in with "Iron Man 3". Now, I should mention that I haven't seen "Iron Man 3" yet. And considering how average "Iron Man 2" was, I'm still not that interested in checking out the 3rd installment. So, any comparisons with this movie to "Iron Man 3" are going to be completely irrelevant. Also, I don't know even know if that source I read about how this thing ties in with "Iron Man 3" is accurate or not. But again, I'm not gonna worry about that when I start watching the movie.
The other thing that I do know about this movie is that it's premise is kinda similar to a DC animated movie that I've seen before. Now before I explain which movie I'm referring to, I should probably explain the premise for this movie. From what I've read on the back of the DVD case, the plot involves Iron Man, who is on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D. after Rhodey is killed by an attack from whoever killed him. For those of you who read comic books, or have seen "Iron Man 2", then you probably already know him as War Machine. And the only ally Iron Man has in this movie is The Punisher. And, as I stated, they're being pursued by S.H.I.E.L.D. along with Hawkeye and Black Widow. Now this plot-line, at least to me, is kinda similar to another DC animated movie called "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies". To give a brief synopsis of what that movie was about, Superman and Batman were on the run after they killed another DC villain called Metallo. And President Luthor enlisted help from superheroes to track down Superman and Batman after he put a hit on them. And that's what this movie's premise kinda reminds me of.
Now, even though this movie's premise sounds kinda similar to Public Enemies, that might just be me nitpicking here. Because that's just something that I was thinking about when I read this movie's plot synopsis on the back of the DVD case. I'm still hoping for this movie to be really good. And hey, I do like Iron Man as a character. And I also like The Punisher, too. So to have them team-up together in this movie sounds really cool. I'm not sure if this movie's gonna end up being any good, but I am gonna find soon enough. And the only way I'm gonna find out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Iron Man: Rise of Technovore".
6 minutes later
OK, I have a bit of a stupid question here. So, this Howard satellite is suppose to detect trouble before it can take place, and prevent it from happening. So...what exactly defines as "trouble"? Does he mean terrorists attacks? Does he mean mass shootings? Or maybe something minor like a random thief who steals mundane shit from everyday people? I understand that it sounds like a very minor point, but the way that Tony described how the satellite works sounds incredibly vague because "trouble" can mean almost anything. I'm kinda curious here.
13 minutes later
So, I kinda have another question. If Tony ends up finding this kid, who wears this technological organic suit, what the hell he is gonna do to him? I ask this because Tony's only going after him for when he killed Rhodey. Is Tony going to have a plan when he finds him? Because it worked out "so well" the first time he tried to fight him. So, what the hell is he gonna do when he finds this guy again? I'm really curious here because it sounds like Tony, at his current state, doesn't really know what the hell he's doing.
6 minutes later
OK...I was gonna ask if Tony did that on purpose. He probably could've just gently flown towards Pepper's side, but no. He just had to ruin Pepper's sunbathing by causing a huge splash to get her attention. Whether it was intentional or not, it kinda makes Tony look like a bit of a dick. Just saying.
10 minutes later
OK, that was a pretty cool way for Iron Man to destroy all of those Mandroid robots. That was pretty awesome.
20 minutes later
You know, guys, I totally understand that this movie is trying to make our villain sound mysterious with his awkward dialogue. But it's really not working. And I'm gonna try to explain this once the movie's over.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Iron Man: Rise of Technovore". And we're closing out with some really...strange vaudeville-like music. O...K, I'm just gonna shut the movie off here...all right. Well...what to start with first?
I may as well start with writing, because that makes the most sense. So earlier, I brought up about reading an online source that states that this movie supposedly ties into the third Iron Man movie. However, because I haven't seen it, I don't know how much of that is true. But I will say that this movie ties in FAR more into the first movie. Specifically for one character, which would be Ezekiel, our villain for this movie. Now, he technically has a full name. However, I'm not going to reveal what his last name is for the sake of a plot twist that happens a little bit into the halfway mark of the film. I'm gonna give you his first name, and that's it. Because if I go any further on this kid's backstory, then it's going to result in me talking about spoilers. Now, as for his plan, Ezekiel wants to destroy all of humanity so that he can replace it with his own vision. And to do this, he has to use Stark's satellite, which was the Howard that I brought up earlier. And when he controls that, he can takeover other satellites and computers. Now, even though that sounds like a decent idea, Ezekiel's character, however, kinda sucks. So, I brought up earlier about how his dialogue was awkward. Well, for whatever reason, he talks with this philosophy dialogue that just makes him sound really stupid. I guess, in a way, it was trying to make him sound like he was an above-it-all character. And I'm not talking about him acting snobbish or anything like that. But it really didn't do anything for me, because his dialogue was kinda shit when he does speak in philosophical nonsense, and his personality was rather one dimensional. On top of that, I mentioned the technological organic suit that he wears, which is what lets him hack into other machines. Sounds really cool, but I have a question about that. Where the hell did he obtain this suit? I don't believe it was ever truly explained. The closest of an explanation that we got was when the Punisher was about to kill this one guy, who was selling weapons to terrorists, Iron Man stops Punisher from killing him so that he can get answers from the weapons seller. And the reason why was that he was the last person that did business with Ezekiel. But I don't believe it was made clear as to what exactly he sold to Ezekiel. So there is that issue. By the way, speaking of the Punisher, he's barely in this movie at all. As I made mention, Iron Man meets up with him, and they end up discovering something more about Ezekiel. Again, I'm not gonna spoil what they discover about this kid. And then after that, they leave to escape Hawkeye and Black Widow. And when they do that, Iron Man leaves, as does Punisher. I believe that the Punisher is in the movie for roughly around 10 minutes. Which is rather disappointing, because I really liked the Punisher in this movie. Sadly though, he gets the short end of the stick. So, oh well, it is what it is.
I will say something about this movie's story that kinda intrigued me. Seeing as how this movie had more of a tie-in with the first Iron Man movie, I was left wondering why couldn't this movie be "Iron Man 2" instead? I ask this, because I felt like what was in "Iron Man 2" was not that great. At least, to me, it wasn't. Now, there are a couple of reasons why I know it wasn't. First of all, this movie came out around the same time as "Iron Man 3" did. And also, Rhodey was being introduced as War Machine in the second film. So there is that. But I honestly think that if this movie wanted to be it's own version of "Iron Man 2", I would retool a couple of ideas. The first one would be to rewrite Ezekiel's character in a way that didn't make him sound flat and boring. Now, you can totally keep the plot twist involving his background. But it would've helped if his character had more of a personality and didn't make him sound like he was speaking in riddles all the time. Secondly, I would find a way to reintroduce Rhodey as War Machine. Better yet, have some sort of a prologue in showing how he can operate an Iron Man suit. Because, if you recall my review for "Iron Man 2", I questioned on how the hell Rhodey knew how to operate an Iron Man suit with almost no troubles whatsoever. It just seemed kinda odd to me. Maybe this movie, if it wanted to be "Iron Man 2", could've worked in something like that. Now, mind you, I'm just theorizing about bullshit that has nothing to do with the actual movie, but I feel like this thing, had it redone a couple of things, could've worked as sort of an alternative for "Iron Man 2". Not just because I found that movie to be rather average, but I honestly feel that, when compared to "Iron Man 2", this movie is miles better than what we got in "Iron Man 2". Now, I don't think this movie is better than the first "Iron Man" movie by a long shot. However, it could've worked as a better sequel to "Iron Man 2". But rather than me drone on and on about that topic, I need to get back to talking about this movie. Now, as for our characters, barring Ezekiel, are written rather decently. Again, I feel as though that the Punisher got the short end of the stick in this movie for not being in it for too long. Iron Man/Tony Stark is OK at best. Pepper Potts was probably my second favorite character, next to the Punisher. I kinda wish we got THIS Pepper instead of the one for "Iron Man 2", but again, I'm not gonna dwell on that issue any longer. As for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, well, I really didn't give a fuck about most of them. Hawkeye and Black Widow are just there, and Colonel Nick Fury is as boring as he was in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Again, I've only seen a handful of the MCU movies, so maybe he got better in different films, but he was easily the blandest character in the entire movie.
So, writing is pretty good, if you look at it from a certain perspective like I did. As a film by itself, it's OK. None of it is great, but it's certainly better written than was in "Iron Man 2". Now, let's get to the acting. I opted to watch the English dub of this movie, and, for the most, the dub is pretty solid. However, I do need to question one voice performance in particular. And that is Matt Mercer's portrayal as Iron Man/Tony Stark. Now, I would like to say that Matt Mercer is a pretty good voice actor. He has a decent vocal range, and he knows how to act. However...I'm not totally sure if he was the right person to voice Tony Stark. Because when I was listening to his performance as Tony, it just felt a little bit off to me. I don't know if it was the voice direction, but I felt like, at times, I was listening to Matt Mercer speak, rather than him giving out a voice for Tony Stark that would make him sound unique. Now this is, in part, due to me being kinda spoiled. Because I have seen Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as Tony Stark so many times that I feel like his voice is perfect for that character. Now, I am not saying they should've gotten RDJ to voice Iron Man for this movie. That was never going to happen. However, I felt like they could've cast somebody else that sounded close enough to RDJ. Because if this thing was suppose to tie in with "Iron Man 3", then they could've found somebody that sounded like RDJ to make it sound consistent. However, I don't know if that was the case, and they just decided to give the role to somebody new. I have no idea, but it is what it is. And mind you, Mercer's performance in this movie isn't bad per se, it just felt kinda off to me. But regardless, he does a decent job in this movie. Everyone else also did pretty good, too. And even though I didn't care for Ezekiel's dialogue, the actor voicing him did a rather decent job, given the script that he was given. So overall, the acting is good for what it is.
Animation in this movie is fantastic. But again, this was made by Madhouse. And just like every other project I've seen that they worked on, they pulled off some awesome-looking animation for this movie. The art style is really good. And I mentioned earlier that I was curious on how exactly they were going to take a Marvel Comics property and make it work with their animation style. Well, I can easily say that they pulled it off brilliantly. Most of the character models, when it comes to the well known Marvel Comics characters, look very close to how they looked like in the live-action movies. In fact, now that I think about it, Madhouse also had a hand in making a couple of those Batman short movies that they did for "Batman: Gotham Knight", and they were able to nail down the design for Batman really well. So, I guess maybe I was worried about nothing after all. But anyway, as I said, the art style is really good. The usage of color palettes are very good. There is also usage of CG., and that's also pretty good, too. What I'm more surprised by is the fact that they had to use very little CG on the Iron Man suit. I honestly thought they were going to implement a ton of CG for that. But shockingly, they used very little for that. There might've been one scene where they had to turn the camera while Iron Man was frozen. But beyond that, most of everything else for CG is used towards the end of the movie, and for some shots involving moving trees and certain robots for other scenes. Other than that, the CG is pretty good. It's not great, but it's certainly better than how a lot of 2D movies would utilize CG for their movies. And also, the 2D animation is great.
Sound-mix here is mixed properly. The score is, honestly, something that you would hear in the first two "Iron Man" movies. It's not as good as their scores, but it's certainly decent for what it is. Although there is one song that I thankfully stopped just as the credits were popping up, and it sounded kinda...odd. It sounded like a vaudeville piece, and it just seemed very out of place for me to hear that in the ending credits. Beyond that, though, the score is decent.
Ultimately, guys, can I recommend "Iron Man: Rise of Technovore"? Um...I would say if you were a fan of the "Iron Man" movies, then sure. I could recommend giving this a viewing. Now again, this thing is nowhere near as good as the first "Iron Man" movie. However, I would say that this movie serves as a better alternative sequel to "Iron Man 2". Well, at least, to me it does. However, I could be here all night about that subject. As for the movie itself, I would say that if you're looking for a different kind of Marvel movie that's not the same old, tired, Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, then by all means, check it out. It's certainly worth watching, at least, once. I don't know if it's something that I would watch a second time, but for what it is, it's decent. And that's really the best I could ask for. Now...as for myself, I think I'm gonna go re-watch the first "Iron Man" movie. Because this movie kinda made me interested in checking out that film again. Plus also, it's still the best MCU movie that I've seen. So I'm gonna go do that, and as for this movie...well, I'll have to think about whether or not it's worth viewing again.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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