Iron Man: Rise of Technovore

A follow up on the Marvel Anime series featuring popular Marvel characters. I felt this film as an insult to the anime fandom, because they made this too slow and boring to watch.

I checked this movie out in hopes of something passable to watch. A different, animated take on Iron Man featuring the Punisher didn't sound too bad to me, I figured why not? Then I saw the Sony Japan studio name in Japanese letters and I got worried. My worries were founded when this movie turned out to be an Avengers fan-fic Anime, chock full of all the same tropes that make the rest of the genre garbage. The animation is blatantly choppy in a bid to draw less frames and save money. What little items move on screen move in a choppy manner, or are so far removed from screen that one would struggle to understand what's happening. Characters move as little as possible, with lots of facial panning and stand offs for the sake of exposition rather than quality. Everything's extremely saturated as well, leaving action scenes as incomprehensible with all the light saturation. It's an ugly movie through and through. The story revolves around Tony Stark trying to beat what is essentially a generic Anime antagonist shoehorned into a crappy rendition of the Marvel universe. Every other line of dialogue is exposition because it's an Anime, so of course everything has to be narrated in long-winded conversations between characters. I can't believe they got Norman Reedus to voice the Punisher, but they did and it's the most bored, dispassionate voice acting I've heard from a familiar name. The rest of the story is...who cares, because it's too convoluted for it's own good thanks to it's Japanese origin. There are a million other Anime movies that are just as stupid but don't pull down the Marvel brand. In short, skip this off-brand Marvel production. It's an affront to Stan Lee and everyone that built up the MCU, and an insult to the intelligence of anyone with a modicum of cinematic taste.

Reminds me of something that would've been on Cartoon Network in the early 2000's. Norman Reedus does an excellent job as the punisher and he is the second walking dead star to play the character. Also the movie tries to pattern a lot of story point from the MCU.

This movie was very good to watch if you had a very bad day. At first, glance back in 2015 when I looked at pictures of this movie because it was anime I was put off. I was never a fan of anime at this time. But when I actually got round to seeing this movie I actually enjoyed it. The voice acting was good especially Iron Man, War Machine, Pepper, Hawkeye, Punisher, and JARVIS. All though some of the voices didn't sound right or were off. The designs were good and so was the Japanese animation. There was one moment which never made sense like what happened to the main villain at the end and who exactly was Sasha Hammer (the girl reading the book) his wife, girlfriend, sister or cousin and I wonder why The Punisher had very little screen time? It is surprisingly better than The Invincible Iron Man.

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.