Iron Man: Rise of Technovore (2013)

Better Late Then Never

Absolutely Fantastic

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The anime scenes were so boring. 57 minutes in I remembered that it was supposed to be about a satellite. One thing that the other reviewers seems to have missed is that Black Widow swore. That was the most exciting thing about this movie.

This is an anime version of an Ironman story, late teen/adult style.Tony Stark is about to launch a surveillance satellite. Someone does not like this. They set about to blow up Tony's properties near the launch, and draw him into a one on one fight. Further, they kill his long-time friend and ally, Rhodes, and many people near the launch.Fury sends Black Widow to fetch Ironman. They have a chat, then Fury tells him he is in custody. Ironman decides to leave. Fury sends a lot of people after him. Ironman evades most of them, but Black Widow gives him a harder time before he disables her plane.The bad guys in this film are a small group who think of technology as a set of false idols, and particularly blame those who create more technology. So Ironman is high on their list, and his satellite is a prime target.Tony meets with Pepper to get intelligence. SHIELD surrounds the place, but Tony escapes. He finds a lead in Pakistan, and meets up with Punisher. They zero on Ezekial Stane. SHIELD catches up, and Hawkeye screws Tony's suit with his arrows. Punisher helps him get away, with Black Widow and Hawkeye in pursuit.Ironman follows Stane's efforts to China. He discovers more about the powerful weapons that Stane has, namely the technovores, which invade high tech gadgets and take them over.Does Ironman find the ultimate goals of the enemy behind all this? If so, will he stop that goal from being accomplished? Will Tony make nice with SHIELD and Pepper? -----Scores-----Art/Animation: 8/10 Good by anime standards, but occasionally had the washed out look.Sound: 7/10 The lip synching was not the best. The music's sound level was way off. Most of the time the voice actors' words were clear enough.Voice/Acting: 7/10 I liked the performances of Norman Reedus, Matthew Mercer, Kate Higgins, and Clare Grant. The work of Eric Bauza and John Eric Bentley I did not care for so much.Story: 8/10 Rather nice. Had transitions beginning to middle to end that were reasonable to follow. Has some pleasant surprises toward the end.

Iron Man Rise of the Technovores. Art was very good. Lots of experimental animation was used to show the nano based enemy. Designwise it scores high with me. The voice acting was pretty badly synched and delivered. The battles and dog-fights were decent, although some of them are only a bunch of random explosions and exterior backdrops. But the plot made no sense. And even at multiple times during the movie admitted that it didn't know what it was talking about or even getting at. For example, in the beginning of the film the main villain's plan included destroying the all-seeing eye satellite plot device, however as the movie progressed it became clear that the boy didn't know what to do with it; going from destroying it calling it a "transgression," to ultimately trying to take it over. I will say the cameo of the Punisher vigilante was a good part of the film that actually worked,but the sheer amount of plot holes in this could keep me reviewing for days. In the end, the lack of a coherent plot or motive for the insane villain kept the film from moving forward, and kept us scratching our heads at the way everyone responded to his shenanigans. Came in with no expectations, hoping to be surprised? 5/10.

The Animation is probably the strongest part of this installment of this Iron Man production. The Voice Acting could use some work on the supporting cast though. The story begins as we are placed dead centre in the middle of another technological marvel as Stark is trying to change the world. However bad guys don't take a Vacation. Stark has to fix things before its too late. And that's my problem with this movie. The only sense of urgency seems to come from Stark and its not very convincing because the Antagonist is way too enigmatic. Even when the pseudo-philosophical mechanized angst driven plot unravels you don't really care, assuming you understand what everyone's motives actually are. The Antagonist is dreary, his monologuing is distracting and his intentions in-genuine. However, cameo appearances from a few heroes in Marvel universe make up for this. Overall its a shaky 7/10. It could have been 30 mins shorter and just as sweet.