'Iron Man' Superbowl Spot Totally Flies
The superhero origin story is the typical kickstart to any attempt at a movie franchise, and I can understand its necessity--it can be hard to grasp that a man fights crime in an iron suit unless you see an hour of its construction and testing. But do we really need to be bombarded with the typical "whoa, these new powers are awesome!" scenes? The only things missing are Will Smith shouting, "Damn, I gotta get me one a'these!" and the Human Torch quipping, "Didn't I already do this scene in my terrible movie?"
The Iron Man preview plays out like a bad commercial for a video game peripheral, determined to show us what a modern miracle the Iron Man suit is, and how much scream-out-loud fun is had when using it. And after the glory of the new accessory is aptly proclaimed, we're finally treated to what I assume is footage of the Iron Man video game (packaged with the Iron Man Suit Peripheral). Because only a video game cut-scene would have such cheap graphics and ridiculously nonchalant action, right?
But despite my criticisms, by the end I realized that marketing this like a video game accessory is probably completely appropriate; it will make the massive hype and inevitable letdown much easier to compare to the Power Glove.