(The Walt Disney Pictures logo is shown)
Doug (vo): It's that time of year again to look at one of the most popular, powerful and most creative companies out there, Disney. But the truth is Disney has been pretty busy since I started Disneycember, buying up a lot of other very popular and creative properties. Two of the ones that have gotten the most attention are Marvel and Star Wars.
(Clips from the trailers of Marvel and Star Wars movies are shown next)
Doug (vo): Two universes that Disney has breathed life into unlike anything we've seen before. Marvel now has a gigantic cinematic universe that all connects, and one of the most popular film series of all time has been reborn, making up for what many consider the sins of the past. (poster for "The Phantom Menace" is shown) Well, seeing how these are not only under Disney, but have given birth to some gigantic creative realms, it only seems fitting to take a look at these two. The downside is, there's not enough Marvel or Star Wars yet to fill up the entire month.
(Clips from the trailers of other Disney theatrical movies are shown)
Doug (vo): So, once again, I'll be looking at all the ones I haven't touched on yet. All the Disney movies that are yet to be given the Disneycember treatment. And, naturally, not only I'll be looking at all the Marvel movies and Star Wars movies, as well as some special editions, but I'll be going over the new ones coming out, like "The Good Dinosaur" and, of course, "The Force Awakens".
(Screenshots of some movies are shown alongside the trailer clips)
Doug (vo): Now, as many of you know, copyrighters have gotten even tighter over the years, so, just to be safe, we're gonna be using images of this one. (the caption "AND TRAILERS!" appears) But, there's still the same length, and there's still the same opinions that you would expect. Or...maybe not expect. You just have to watch to find out. It's the biggest mishmash of properties ever, but, hey, that's Disney for you. And we're here to look, analyze, and have fun with some of their most enjoyable films. So sit back, everybody. This is Disneycember! The Marvel, Star Wars and...everything else edition.
(The brand-new Disneycember logo is shown, before showing the compilation of the Marvel movies posters, up to "Guardians of the Galaxy")
Doug (vo): I guess it only figures to start off with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, seeing how much it's changed things and how incredibly long-going it is.
(Trailer clips and screenshots from Iron Man are shown next)
Doug (vo): And this universe began with Iron Man. Going in, I knew very little about the comic. I mean, it was just a guy in a metal suit who flew around and shot up stuff. I had no idea of the backstory, the characters, or anything like that. So it was kind of nice going in with fresh eyes and nothing to really compare it to.
Story
Doug (vo): Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark, a technology-obsessed billionaire who likes to make weapons of destruction. He's arrogant, a playboy, and totally full of himself. But that all changes when a terrorist group kidnaps him and forces him to make a weapon for them. He befriends another kidnapped technician and they decide rather than make the weapon that they want, they make one to get the hell outta there, under the guise of a terrorist bomb. After creating a pretty badass suit and escaping, Tony decides to devote his life to no longer destroying lives but rather saving them. Thus, he puts together the Iron Man suits, starts flying around the world and stopping trouble wherever he sees it. The only problem is, his partner businessman, played by Jeff Bridges, doesn't like the changes he's made and tries to make his own robotic suit to stop it. Along with his secretary Pepper Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, and his bodyguard, played by Jon Favreau, the film's director, it's high-flying technology to see who can do the least amount of damage and the most amount of damage.
Review
Doug (vo): Again, having no idea to how much this connects to the comic, I have to say, the story for this is brilliant. We've seen these kind of tales all the time. The Moses story, where someone is bad, goes into exile and comes back a hero. But here, it's a good update. With our obsession of technology, this makes a lot of sense.
(Footage and images of Tony Stark are shown next)
Doug (vo): And Tony Stark represents everything that people want to be nowadays. They want to be obsessed with technology, but they also kind of want to be full of themselves. They want to be doing good things, but they want to have the badass one-liners. They want to be smooth, but they want to be troubled. They want a life of luxury, but still doing some pretty badass things, creating the best with the best, and the best from the least. It's also nice to see a superhero we haven't seen in a while that has technology that probably doesn't exist now, but you could see existing kinda soon. And he doesn't just use gadgets like Batman does, he surrounds himself in the technology, it's all down to his wits. And the best thing about it is that it comes from a brilliant mind. He doesn't just rely on people to build it, he builds a lot of it himself as well. He's a guy who utilizes every resource that he can, and yet, he's still so crazy. In some respects, he's a drunk and a loser and a womanizer and he's just kind of a dick, but his need to want to do good, especially from such a troubled past, makes him so incredibly interesting. And at the center of that is Robert Downey Jr., who makes this movie. Now don't get me wrong, this is still a good film, but if it wasn't for him, it wouldn't be half the movie it was. This is the ultimate comeback performance. This guy has had a shaky past, and now, he's the movie star everybody wants to be. He always has the great one-liner, and even if he doesn't, he can say it so that it sounds like a great one-liner. Just like the transformation of the Iron Man character, this guy has transformed as well. In many respects, staying the same, but in others, making the exact right choices at the exact right time.
(More clips and images focusing on the second half of the movie are shown)
Doug (vo): Now is it perfect? No. There are a few problems, especially in the second half. This movie reminds me a lot of Batman Begins, where the first half is some of the best exposition and build-up for a backstory ever, and the second half, when they have to get to the action, is kind of underwhelming. Yeah, it's neat seeing him fly around in that metal suit, but he doesn't really do that much action with it. And the big battle at the end is just against another guy in an even bigger suit and, yeah, something about that just seems kind of dull. At first, Jeff Bridges, who's kind of unrecognizable in this, seems like he'd be a really good villain. But then, when he puts that dumb-looking outfit on, he just kind of looks like a video game baddie. Even the lines he says are kind of corny and he says them kind of corny and, I don't know. This wasn't the movie we started out with. This is more like how the Disney Channel would do a superhero climax, not this movie. It's not godawful or laughably bad, it's just not as engaging as the first half.
Final thought
Doug (vo): But the stuff that's good is just too damn good. The main lead is likeable, the technology is inventive, the story is solid and very easy to understand and relate with, the comedy is fresh, the side characters are entertaining. It's just a good, strong superhero flick.
(Footage and stills of the after-credits scene of the movie are shown)
Doug (vo): I guess I should probably mention the after-credits sequence which, now, is played at the end of every Marvel movie, with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, saying that he's starting up a team. Now some people out there got really excited, because they knew he's talking about The Avengers. But, here's the thing. (A still from the final scene of Super Mario Bros. is shown) A lot of movies had "to be continued"s at the end and after the credits, and a lot of times, they never went anywhere. So even though there's that little hint, nobody really got that excited yet. Everybody kind of thought, "Oh, yeah, wouldn't it be cool if that happened?" But nobody actually was thinking, "Oh, yeah, it's happening. This big universe where everybody's gonna get their own movie and they're all gonna come together. Yeah, this is gonna be one of the biggest things to happen to blockbusters ever." It was just a little tease to show what could happen, but none of us knew what was actually lying ahead. And now, looking back, it's kind of cool that these little end credit sequences that people used to just roll their eyes at and say, "Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it", now people look forward to at Marvel movies...
(Footage and stills of Iron Man are shown once more)
Doug (vo): ...because they've come through, because they've proven themselves, because they say, "Hey, when we give a hint this is coming, it's really coming." It's interesting to watch it now years later, knowing what this little teaser was gonna lead to. Little did we know that this was actually a fantastic start to a cinematic universe that was about to explode.
(A scene showing Iron Man blowing up a tank is shown)