Why Tony Stark is my favorite super hero

     Okay so I know that I have previously discussed Iron Man 3 and why that movie is so wonderful, but now I want to talk about the man himself: Tony Stark. I had a discussion with someone today who said to me that she hated Tony and that he was the worst Avenger out of all of them. Personally I just don't understand that. I can understand not liking his seemingly okay attitude but to say he is the worst is a bit much. First off, none of the Avengers are the worst because they are all great and unique in their own way. And if I really had to pick one it would be Thor cause frankly he is so gullible and boring I can't even bring myself to watch his movies more than twice. But regardless of that, he is still a great superhero. Tony though is different. Most people don't like him because they say his super power is his money and he is too cocky for his own good. If you believe that I really hope you hate batman too because you just described him as well, with the exception of Tony actually cares about other people where as Bruce is normally just going about his own agenda (like most DC characters but thats an argument for another day).

     If the only Iron Man movie you've seen is the first one that I totally understand why you don't like Tony. I didn't like him then either. He's self-centered and unaffected by other people and what their needs/wants are. He believes that he is invincible and powerful and basically owns the world. When we really start to see him develop as a character though is in the second film. Spoiler alert, Tony almost dies. He ends up having to rediscover a new element on the periodic table to save himself. What makes this film so great though is his character changes as the story progresses. He suddenly starts caring about other people, mainly Pepper. Yes he becomes more of a self centered jerk, but you could make the argument that it was an act to hide his fear. Knowing this helps us interpret his previous behavior as well. Tony is lonely and scared but due to his upbringing he doesn't feel like he can show that to others. He has to keep it to himself and deal with it on his own, but in IM2 that shell begins to crack as he is faced with his own mortality. His development goes even further in The Avengers and the biggest change coming in Iron Man 3. Yes Tony is still cocky and rich, but he has changed and developed as a character and isn't the same person as he was in the beginning of the story. The proof of this lies in Age of Ultron. Wanda shows Tony a vision that will consume and destroy him and eventually leads him to create the ever boring villain Ultron. The vision she shows him is of everyone he cares about dead lying in a pile, and it was all his fault. This vision consumes him and almost does lead to his self destruction. If Wanda had showed him this during the first film, or even the second film for the matter, it would not effected him the same way it does later. It may have upset him a bit but it would not have consumed him the way it does in Ultron. Tony has undergone significant character development and is not the same person he was in earlier films.

     And quickly for those who think his power is his money. Shut up and actually think about the things Tony has done. His whole story starts off with him creating this technology in a cave with nothing but scrap metal. When everyone believes Tony is dead in IM3 he has little to no access to his millions of dollars. He still manages to create and design weapons which he uses to save dozens of people and catch the "Mandarin". Bruce Wayne's super power is his money, Tony Stark's super power is his brain. This man creates all of his ideas and designs himself, after coming up with them himself. In the Avengers he is asked "when did you became an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics" to which he replies "last night". I don't don't doubt for one minute that Tony was up all night reading about this incredibly difficult stuff and understood it perfectly. Tony is a certified genius who just so happens to have money as well. Does it help him in the creation of his suits, absolutely yes. But when he doesn't have his money it doesn't stop him. He is still able to create his inventions and they still work perfectly. Tony Stark's superpower is his brain and no one can take that away from him or hinder him. Super man can't even compete with that.

photo credit: http://ironman.wikia.com/wiki/Tony_Stark_(film)

Source of Inspiration 4

 

     So oddly enough one of my inspirational pieces actually came from another blog. Morgan's post on Hamilton inspired me to think more outside the box to add something new to my blog. Her post was about doing a song of the week, and that inspired me to do something kind of similar. Instead of doing a song of the week though I would do either a movie/TV show of the week or even a different poll for each week. I love the idea of adding something weekly like that so I decided to try and make it fit my own blog. The polls could be done on multiple different things such as favorite Marvel film, favorite genre, favorite actress or actor and so on. These could be changed every week or even every 2 weeks. Either way it creates a more interactive element to the design that I think people would really enjoy. Personally I know I love participating in the polls and love coming back to see who won. Morgan had a brilliant idea and I'd love to one day be able to incorporate it into my own design. 

The Wilhelm Scream

 
     I can almost 100% guarantee that at some point in your life you have heard the Wilhelm Scream (WS), whether you realize it or not. The WS is probably one of my favorite things about films and I love hearing it when I'm watching a movie. Movies such as Despicable Me, The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Monsters University, and every single Star Wars movie has featured this one sound clip. But what is it and where did it come from?

     It's actually a lot older than people might realize. The scream was recorded in the year 1951 for a film called Distant Drums. In the scene where the sound is used, a man is dragged underneath a swamp by an alligator. That's it. That's the origin story for the Wilhelm Scream. So why has it become such a widely used sound effect? Well for a long time the sound actually wasn't used. until Stars Wars came around. They started using that screaming and have used in every single movie since. After Star Wars, other editors and filmmakers have started using t more as well, turning this man being bit by an alligator into a little game for movie goers. Nothing makes me more excited when watching a film than suddenly hearing that scream in the background. And trust me once you know what it sounds like you'l hear it everywhere. It's a blessing and a curse.

     I'm going to leave you guys with a compilation from YouTube of Wilhelm Screams in films. Feel free to watch it and see if there are any films you have seen before! I'm also going to give you guys a link to IMDb that has a list of movies that have used the WS at some point during their story. There is probably one if not more movies on that list that you have seen.

 

image: http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/pictures/films/chargefeatherriver/featherriverwil.jpg

Source of Inspiration 3

     Let's talk about borders. Not the ones surrounding the country, or even the country; but, the ones surrounding pictures. In some of my earlier posts the images always looked a little out of place to me, but I never really had an idea of what to do to fix them. Until one afternoon when I was looking around at some of the pictures around my desk. On the bottom shelf I have my sorority composite, and on the top shelf a collage my best friend gave me and a picture of my favorite soccer player Ali Krieger, The one thing that all of these pictures had in common was a gray border around them. So after noticing I decided why not give it a try on here, and I ended up loving it. The border I feel just completes the post and ties everything together somehow. 

9 Interesting Firsts in Film

1. First stunt woman on Indian screen: Fearless Nadia aka Mary Ann Evans (Mary Evans Wadia)
2. Toy Story was the first CGI feature film 
3. The Power of Love was the first 3-D film released in the year 1922
4. The first film to be rated PG-13 was Red Dawn (1984)
5. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was the first film to have a commercially released soundtrack  
6. The first Shakespeare adaptation was King John in 1899
7. The first Sherlock Holmes film was Sherlock Holmes Baffled in 1900
8. The first Woman to win a Best Director Oscar was Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2010)
9. The first black person to win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel in 1940 (photographed above)

All information and image found at the sites listed below:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/72060/36-film-history-firsts

http://cassavafilms.com/list-of-9/nine-unheralded-firsts-in-film

http://listverse.com/2009/11/24/top-10-firsts-in-feature-films/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cinematic_firsts

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/african-american-oscar-winner-oscarssowhite-870533/item/common-john-legend-african-american-870592

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/02/_75_years_ago_hattie_mcdaniel_became_the_first_african_american_to_win_an.html

Source of Inspiration 2

     For my second source of inspiration post I'm going to talk about fonts. So I was kind of struggling with what font to use for my title and the article titles, and then I ended up getting a new movie and that changed. The movie I had gotten was the Bill Condon film Mr. Holmes, which gives people a brand new view of the infamous detective. While the film is excellent and the acting tremendous, that's not what inspired my font choice. What inspired me was the cover. What you have is this dignified, very sophisticated character but the title looks a bit sloppy for lack of a better word. It's done in handwriting style font so it looks almost like Sherlock Holmes is signing the cover. I really liked the look of the handwriting style and thought it looked a bit amateurish but also a bit dignified much like Mr. Holmes himself. I don't know I just really liked the look of that font and decided that would be a good model to follow for my own blog, which unfortunately will never be as good as Mr.Watson's.

What Im looking for

     Everyone views movies differently and looks for different things when they are analyzing them. So in this post, Im gonna talk to you guys a bit about what I personally am looking for when Im watching a film. This can vary from person to person and no one person is right. Film is an art form that can be seen by thousands of people, and each person can have their own idea about what the story meant. But for me, the main points I look at are dialogue, plot/character continuity, and action.
     One thing that always ticks me off and will immediately get me walking out of a theater is crappy/choppy dialogue. For instance one thing that always ticks me off is when the characters say the names of over characters in practically every sentence (Im looking at you Voyage of the Dawn Treader). Or if the dialogue sounds forced or awkward coming from a certain character, unless its done for a certain reason within the plot. If it's not though it just sounds stupid.
 
   Another thing is plot/character continuity, specifically in sequels. I talked about Age of Ultron in an earlier post and how it basically just pretended that two movies didnt happen and threw the characters personalities all out of whack. It was pathetic actually. Like can we please just get rid of Joss Whedon as a director because he has no idea how to do sequels that arent almost exactly identical to the first film. Also you cant just spring things on people all of a sudden, like a family, without them being somewhat alluded too in earlier films. Like why was no one concerned about his family when he was compromised? Why was he not concerned about them when he "woke up"? It doesnt make sense.
   
      The last big thing Im look at is action. Balancing action and plot can be a very difficult challenge for some directors. For example, the movie World War Z (which I highly recommend no one ever watch) sacrificed most of the plot for action sequences. I get that it's an action movie, but when you have that many plot holes because of the action it starts to become a problem. Why did cutting off the one girls arm save her from being turned into a zombie or why were there people on a plane getting ready to take off when they were in the last safe place on earth? Oh, or why did the phone ringing not attract a lot of zombies when it's established that they are drawn to sound? These things dont make sense and yes its just a movie but when things are established within the film you cant just suddenly take them back to further your plot and make the next sequence look cool.


A couple of movies I think handle these 3 things perfectly:
1. Captain America The Winter Soldier (I watch a lot of Marvel)
2. The Imitation Game
3. Pans Labyrinth
4. Inside Out
5. The Hobbit (all three of them)

photo credits:
http://aretheyoldenough.com/are-they-old-enough/project/chronicles-narnia-voyage-dawn-treader/
http://comicvine.gamespot.com/avengers-age-of-ultron/4025-1563
/http://www.wholesalehalloweencostumes.com/blog/are-you-prepared-for-world-war-z/