Dreams Of Noise

I thought it was pretty good. Not sure how I feel about the scene where Stark is asked to turn over the technology to the US people. It's not like the senator is being unreasonable. Who wants the most advanced weapons system being flown around by a man-child who takes little seriously and has a drinking problem?

Whiplash could be a good villain if he had some way to keep Iron Man in whip's reach. Otherwise Stark can just fly up a hundred feet and fire ion blasts.

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Better him than the government--Stark can always grow up and quit drinking, the government will be irresponsible for its lifetime.

Tom T.

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You mean like Blackwater, Halliburton, etc? No thanks, I'd sooner trust the government.

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With all due respect, 90% of the revenue of Blackwater comes from US Government contracts (2/3 are no-bid contracts--where the company is specified and no one else competes). Halliburton (from which the last Vice-President of the United States was recruited) was owner of KBR (Kellog, Brown, and Root, the company that has been building the infrastructure for the US Military since Lyndon Johnson was in office) until 2007. While the exact percentage of KBR's revenue from government contracts is not available, an educated guess would put it at about the same as Blackwater's.

Without the US government's wild spending on imperial military adventures, neither company would rate above a blip on the screen of major corporations. They are intimately intertwined with the executive branch.

I reiterate the truth of my previous comment.

Tom Trumpinski

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So it's the government's fault Halliburton stole 1 billion dollars, set up faulty showers that killed our soldiers (then charged us again to fix them), and demanded no-bid contracts? And Blackwater isn't responsible for their employees raping and killing innocent people.

By your logic gun manufacturers are responsible for the people their products kill and credit card companies are guilty of people overspending on frivolous things.

Responsibility is not blocked by a corporate logo.

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Of course it isn't.

My point is, though, that if the government was not allowed the power to pay those corporations billions of taxpayer dollars, their employees would be guarding armored cars, not torturing, raping, and killing.

Mercenaries who are paid by an empire can part of the government--look at the late Western Roman Empire's solution to the German problem and how within a few generations, the mercs were picking the Emperors.

People are people and anyone in an organization will first guard his own power and second that of his organization. The difference between a corporation and a government is that members of a corporation are liable to arrest and imprisonment--those in a government are much less likely to have that happen to them.

After all, were the government officials that hired those two corporations replaced when their excesses were revealed?

Tom T.

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So, better for self-appointed vigilantes to have world-shaking power, than elected governments that are theoretically accountable to their constituents?

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If the accountability was not theoretical, I would say no. The problem with the United States is that our elected government hasn't been held accountable since about 1963 and its power has been expanding and expanding since a generation earlier.

The self-appointed vigilanties, as you call them, would be subject to civil and criminal penalties, as well as oversight by their stockholders. The "elected government" provides us with a faked choice between two flavors of the ruling elite, neither flavor having any thought beyond their next election and the power blocs it must please to win it.

We are, in the short run (and perhaps in the long) screwed.

Don't get me wrong, corporations (or a Superhero, getting back to the original subject, that is one of their CEOs) are fallen, flawed individuals. They are no angels. My point is that *their* power has theoretical limits--the government does not.

Tom Trumpinski

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palenoue.livejournal.com

Hmmmm... a superhero who sells shares of his do-good business to raise funds to finance high-tech R&D, utilizing all of the loopholes and deregulations that other large corporations use to get out of trouble with things like property damage.

Tricky, but I think it could be done and make for an interesting comic series.

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our elected government hasn't been held accountable since about 1963

Was that supposed to be a subtle reference to the Kennedy assassination?

corporations (or a Superhero, getting back to the original subject, that is one of their CEOs) are fallen, flawed individuals. They are no angels. My point is that *their* power has theoretical limits--the government does not.

The reason those limitation are even theoretical is because governments exist to constrain the power of individuals and non-state organizations.

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kshandra

WAR MACHINE FTW.

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Oh, hell yeah! No way he's using conventional rounds though, there's not nearly enough room in the armor to store for the amount of bullets he's flinging. :-)

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trav13369.livejournal.com

OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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bryanp.livejournal.com

It will be interesting to see if they can pull off a Spider Man, where the second movie is equal or better than the first.

I want to see if they can continue to pull off him being a sexist, alcoholic, womanizing playboy who is still basically a decent person underneath the sleaze.

Plus the explosions are cool. :)

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Just as long as they don't pull an X-men, and have the third movie suck.

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breakmanz.livejournal.com

Whiplash looks pretty cool and OMG, WAR MACHINE!!! All in all, I had a good time with the first one, so I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Plus, I agree with bryanp about the explosions. :D

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wildcard9.livejournal.com

I liked the first movie. This sequal looks like it will be just as good. About if they can make it 3 for 3, I will be extremely happy. Given that Nick Fury is in it, I wonder if any other heroes will get a cameo. I think that I saw Black Widow in the preview :)

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On of Samuel Jackson's best roles in terms of being over the top was in Spirit. He was having WAY too much fun strutting around in a Nazi uniform.

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caraig.livejournal.com

That was bordering on the surreal. He was clearly having fun, so it was a good scene! ... But, damn, Cognitive Dissonance City!

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roman-mclaze.livejournal.com

"Yра!" for Black Widow!

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... I'll be in my bunk.

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markbernstein.livejournal.com

Not bad, not bad at all. The best thing about it is how much fun Downey is having. One of the few 2010 releases I have definite hopes for. (I've looked at a release list for 2010, and the pickings look a lot slimmer than this year's. Admittedly, this has been an outstanding year for movies.)

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faithwallis.livejournal.com

I looked at this trailer. I'm not real excited. Never saw the first because it really did nothing for me. As my husband said, "You are not the demographic they are shooting for with that."

OTOH, Sherlock Holmes with RDJ in it coming out this Christmas looks very tasty indeed.

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