Anniversary!
May. 6th, 2008 07:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seawaspLast night was our 12th anniversary. It's always a time for me to not only be grateful, but rather astonished. Not only did this incredibly beautiful and talented woman decide to marry me, but we've got three wonderful kids and I actually am glad I have them. I wouldn't have believed it if someone had told me this was my future, oh, five years before I got married.
This was the first anniversary we've had that there were no kids along (technically our first anniversary we had no actual children, but as Chris had about one month to go he was definitely a factor). We were originally planning to do a sort of Bizarre Foods Dim Sum for dinner -- going to the Ocean Palace and trying all the stuff on their large menu... except it appears that they've gone quietly out of business. So we discussed a lot of other places, but atmosphere rather than odd food won out and we went to the Butcher's Block, which is a nice and comfortable restaurant. It turned out that in the end that WAS the kind of food both of us wanted, somewhat to our surprise.
We then went to see Iron Man, which was excellent. Robert Downey does a letter-perfect Tony Stark. I suppose for the sequel they'll have to do the "Tony Falls Off the Wagon" bit, which I don't look forward to seeing, but it's probably inevitable. One advantage of Iron Man in terms of making the first movie is that his "origin story" is, in itself, a decently exciting sequence of events. He's not getting wierd powers from being bitten or irradiated or anything of that nature, he's a super-tech genius placed in an impossible position and getting himself out of it. This means that Iron Man is much less exposition and "find out what I can do", and much more "follow the story, which is more complicated than it looked at first".
EDIT: Reminder to anyone who doesn't do this habitually these days: STAY TO THE VERY END OF THE CREDITS (well, unless you hated the movie and want to escape, but I doubt that if you were the sort to go to it at all). You DO NOT want to miss the tag end.
This was the first anniversary we've had that there were no kids along (technically our first anniversary we had no actual children, but as Chris had about one month to go he was definitely a factor). We were originally planning to do a sort of Bizarre Foods Dim Sum for dinner -- going to the Ocean Palace and trying all the stuff on their large menu... except it appears that they've gone quietly out of business. So we discussed a lot of other places, but atmosphere rather than odd food won out and we went to the Butcher's Block, which is a nice and comfortable restaurant. It turned out that in the end that WAS the kind of food both of us wanted, somewhat to our surprise.
We then went to see Iron Man, which was excellent. Robert Downey does a letter-perfect Tony Stark. I suppose for the sequel they'll have to do the "Tony Falls Off the Wagon" bit, which I don't look forward to seeing, but it's probably inevitable. One advantage of Iron Man in terms of making the first movie is that his "origin story" is, in itself, a decently exciting sequence of events. He's not getting wierd powers from being bitten or irradiated or anything of that nature, he's a super-tech genius placed in an impossible position and getting himself out of it. This means that Iron Man is much less exposition and "find out what I can do", and much more "follow the story, which is more complicated than it looked at first".
EDIT: Reminder to anyone who doesn't do this habitually these days: STAY TO THE VERY END OF THE CREDITS (well, unless you hated the movie and want to escape, but I doubt that if you were the sort to go to it at all). You DO NOT want to miss the tag end.
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-06 01:07 pm (UTC)I saw it Sunday with a friend, and I enjoyed it a great deal. RDJ definately nails the character of Stark (in the early years anyway). There were a lot of "nods" to the fans in the movie I liked (and probably some I've missed, as its been well over a decade since I kept track of stuff in Marvel-land). This is how a comic book movie OUGHT to be done. We'll see if Marvel can keep it up.
And in the event I am ever able to afford a private jet, a retractable stripper pole WILL be installed. =)
The scene at the end of the credits was amusing. It'll be some time before we see anything come from it, tho.
It may not be...
Date: 2008-05-06 11:40 pm (UTC)Re: It may not be...
Date: 2008-05-06 11:49 pm (UTC)Re: It may not be...
Date: 2008-05-07 12:23 pm (UTC)Not that long. _The Avengers_ is scheduled for 2009, and you can figure there'll be more than just cameos in a couple of the lead-in movies.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-06 01:11 pm (UTC)And wasn't it your thirteenth?
no subject
Date: 2008-05-06 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-06 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-06 05:05 pm (UTC)Quick Iron Man question-- if the magnet was pulling the shrapnel from his blood stream -- A) wouldn't the shrapnel be cleaned out of his blood after a while? B) did he really need a 4" hole/metal cup in his chest? (Or was the hold just due to the shrapnel itself?
Although I loved that bit with Pepper -- 'Oh good you have small hands' 'No -- that's not pus it's a byproduct of the machine' .... And the first bit in the terrorist camp when he was hauling around that car battery. It was a nice touch. ;p
As you actually think about tech in relation to story (as opposed to just accepting it) -- thought you'd be the best person to ask. ;p
Well...
Date: 2008-05-06 06:28 pm (UTC)As to the hole, remember that the original design was done by a guy who was working on a dying man using improvised tools. Tony didn't go to a doctor and have reconstructive surgery done, either, so he's stuck with the hole the original guy hacked in his chest to get the magnet to the right level.
Re: Well...
Date: 2008-05-06 07:53 pm (UTC)The other thing is that the way the doctor presented it, without the magnet he'd die -- in a few days. So when... well, at a later point in the movie -- he should have had all the time in the world to stroll downstairs.
So here's my take: initially, he had shrapnel that had to be held back from working its way to his heart; a crude electromagnet was just barely sufficient to do that, at least enough to keep him from dying. At some point in the course of his captivity and escape, the cumulative damage to his heart became bad enough that, even after the shrapnel was removed (and I assume that this happened off-screen after he escaped) he would die instantly. The gizmo then became something like a cross between a pacemaker on steroids and an artificial heart.
(For that matter, in the scene where he has Pepper swap out power supplies, the metal "sleeve" looked a lot cleaner than anything he would likely have gotten in a cave; I presumed that during the same off-screen surgery where they removed the remaining shrapnel, they also replaced that.)
Re: Well...
Date: 2008-05-06 11:21 pm (UTC)There was no "off-screen" surgery. He refused medical care. By the time he was heading home, he had ALREADY started to plan the Iron Man caper. Which necessitated secrecy. Comicbook logic works fine here.
As for the appearance of the sleeve, they had a machine shop there, and plenty of things like missiles, which have marvelously smooth cylindrical casings. Some of them of titanium, which is ideal for medical use as it is not rejected.
Re: Well...
Date: 2008-05-06 11:39 pm (UTC)Besides, Stark is a tinkerer. He's always fiddling with things to make them better. No matter what the first doctor (what was his name? I didn't catch it) did to his innards, I can't imagine Stark being content to leave it at that; the urge to do it over and do it better would be almost irresistible.
Granted, this is all fanwank; but it smoothes over almost the only niggly plot point that bugged me. (The other one: if I had built a gadget that was literally the only thing keeping me alive from one moment to the next, I'd build a spare. Or two. Or lots. But maybe that's just me.)
Re: Well...
Date: 2008-05-07 04:16 pm (UTC)Thanks! My SoD is back in alignment. Not blood-born -- but stuck in the flesh. Got it. Must go see movie again.
Was it just me or was the itsy bitsy missle taking out the tank the funniest fire fight ever? *tink* ..... *BoOOOOOM!*. :D
Re: Well...
Date: 2008-05-07 11:17 pm (UTC)Oh, yes, that was a marvelous "Oh, CRAP, I *KNOW* I'm in it deep NOW..." expression.
And that was certainly an amusing moment; of course, it'd already been in the trailers, so I'd seen it four or five times already.
I happened to like Iron Man's simple "He's all yours." statement as Iron Man dumps the leader of the terrorist group in front of the villagers he'd just been terrorizing.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-06 09:56 pm (UTC)And seeing 'Iron Man' made me so happy. Best adaptation of a comic for ... years. RDJ was spot on - and the 'cookie' gives me hope.
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Date: 2008-05-08 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-06 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-08 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-11 05:40 pm (UTC)