The latest news item on the Jon Favreau-helmed Iron Man feature film is that the producers have "rejected" some Iron Man armor designs that were rendered by Brandon Terlow, who does FX work for TV and film. Apparently he met with visual effects supervisor John Nelson, according to ScreenRant, and while Nelson liked the renders, didn't think that the design was in keeping with what they're going for in the movie, adding that they wanted to go with a design along the lines of Adi Granov.
Terlow then created a few renders inspired by Granov's style, but here's the rub... in either design, I think it illustrates nicely the problem that the Iron Man movie is going to have with its lead hero... it is going to be very difficult to have a guy in an armored suit and NOT have it come off looking like a Power Rangers costume, which has become so ingrained in the popular culture's psyche.
Take for example, the design of the Green Goblin in the first Spider-Man feature film. What in the world were they thinking? The scene on the rooftop and the scene of the Goblin during the big parade were just ludicrously bad, looking like they were right out of the Power Rangers Power Hour on TV. Cheap. Plastic. Suit. Ugh.
And the suit itself is less of a problem than the actual head, which we can assume won't emote much. Again, I go back to the example of the Green Goblin or the Power Rangers. Even Darth Vader in the original Star Wars Trilogy is sort of Power Rangery... what with all the fist-clenching and the finger-pointing. I just hope they don't light up Iron-Man's eyes and mouth when he talks, like Twikky on the old Buck Rogers TV show.
My hope is that they go the C-3PO route and find a talented mime (or some other physically expressive actor) to put in the suit to give it some real expression without just clenching its fist or pointing its finger. Otherwise this film is going to fall apart on screen.
