Iron Man: L'Attaque des technovores

Marvels animated history has always been spotty, the fact that each one seems to be animated by a different studio and there is no consistency with the writers probably has something to do with it.

Rise Of Technovore is one of the better efforts I've seen lately and tells the story of Tony Stark on the run from Shield after being setup by a new cyber villian.

Also featuring Nick Fury, War Machine, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Agent Hill and surprisingly The Punisher.

Sadly the Punisher's contributions are rather brief and for a host of reasons I didn't like this version of him. Here he is voiced by Walking Dead star Norman Reedus who I'm not sure was the best fit.

The story is solid, the animation is mostly decent and the films execution is more than passable. It's only let down by some shoddy editing and not the best action sequences (Which is pretty unforgivable for a Marvel movie)

Watchable shlock for the fans.

The Good:

Decent story

The Bad:

Tad dark in places

Not keen on this version of The Punisher

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Authorised to use lethal force? Don't think much of Stark do they?

Seeing Ironman getting spanked did nothing for me

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.

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.

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.

Iron Man: Rise of Technovore did have some good ideas going for it, and considering the characters and that a good deal of animated superhero films are good, there was good potential here. Unfortunately, while with a couple of things that keep it from being unwatchable, Iron Man: Rise of Technovore wasted almost all the potential it had.

What saves Iron Man: Rise of Technovore from being unwatchable is the animation and the character of the Punisher. The animation is crisp and vibrant in colour, smooth in drawing and the backgrounds are incredibly dynamic and detailed, with a couple of funky visuals in the action. The Punisher's screen time is far too short, but when he is on screen the film actually is diverting and entertaining.

Everything else just doesn't work however, with the script and story being the biggest failures. Instead of having dialogue that has suspense, interest, wit and emotional resonance, the script manages to be devoid of all four. It is very talky to the point that parts just ramble on and on for forever, and sometimes with no real reason to. Even worse is that much of it also sounded incredibly awkward. The story is one big, drawn-out, incoherent mess, stretching everything(with the rambling dialogue being the offender here) to the point that the running time feels like an eternity. There were some really cool ideas here but nothing ever is explained(hence the incoherence complaint), and the pacing was like trudging through the thickest mud, that's how dull the film was.

Iron Man: Rise of Technovore has action scenes that are the very opposite of fun or suspenseful. Aside from a couple of funky visuals they are very pedestrian in pace and perfunctorily choreographed, complete with some horribly stupid moments. The film does a very bad job with the characterisation, only the Punisher is interesting. The heroes are bland and not always with much personality(Stark is stripped of everything that made him such a good character in the live-action films)- this is unforgivable seeing as when done well they are among the most entertaining superhero characters ever. While the villain is severely underdeveloped, with everything about him screaming of one-dimensional cliché. The voice acting, with the exceptions of a good job from Norman Reedus and a reasonably acceptable one from Matthew Mercer, often sounds like the voice actors were very unmotivated and like their hearts weren't in it. Eric Bauza is especially problematic, he's very monotone here. The music is forgettable at best and lacks energy, momentum or atmosphere, but the poor sound quality doesn't help(flat and distorted).

To conclude, Iron Man: Rise of Technovore has good animation and Punisher is a good character, to a lesser extent too two voice actors fare better than they deserved to, but despite the potential that's all the film has going for it. 2/10 Bethany Cox