Links roundup: Iron Man 2, Toy Story, and Vanilla Ice

Having undergone the mirthless, witless, and generally worthless Iron Man 2 recently, I attempted to write short pieces on it a few times. But I found myself overwhelmed by the staggering pointlessness of the film, and moreover somewhat disinclined to contribute to the inevitable 'debate' on its values (or conspicuous lack thereof). Suffice to say therefore that IM2 is typical of the very worst kind of contradictory, redundant Hollywood franchise, with Mickey Rourke's effortless charisma the only thing even approximating a redeeming feature.

This post however is less about my obviously pointless criticism of the summer's biggest superhero film, and more about a roundup of recent links to clever images and mash-up clips. The niftiest superhero-related post I came across in a while is Chris Sims' Periodic Table of Superhero Elements, which cleverly sums up the generic powers and origin stories into an elegant overview of elements. (Just for the record: Superman breaks down as OAFSISpVxVhSn...)



In the ongoing series of witty mash-up videos, Iron Man has been by far the most-repeated figure, as a quick look at the most recent posts on this blog will attest. But although they all play up the hilariously inappropriate homoerotic subtext the films work so hard to avoid, none managed to be quite as ridiculous (and weirdly fitting) as the latest one, which pits Tony Stark against Ivan Drago in Rocky IV and that manages to throw in Jim Carrey, James Brown, Apollo Creed, Vanilla Ice, and -so help me- the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for good measure.



Meanwhile, the upcoming reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise gave occasion to a fast-paced short that puts Spidey on the operating table, with his surgeon calling for a 'gritty reboot.' To illustrate the success rate of the proposed procedure, an image on the wall briefly flashes by with stills from Batman Begins, Hulk, Casino Royale and Star Trek.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Finally, the Joker may no longer be the ubiquitous video mash-up figure he was two years ago, but that didn't keep one person from getting creative with the trailer for The Dark Knight. In this mash-up, images from the two first Toy Story movies are edited together with the audio from that intensely familiar to amazing effect.

The Iron Man Mash-Up Meme

We're now just days away from the much-hyped international premiere of Iron Man 2, the sequel that appears to offer more of the same, but -as per the logic of franchises- bigger, louder, and with more colorful celebrity bad guys. And as 'fanticipation' reaches fever pitch, the video mash-up meme that incorporates Iron Man's CG exoskeleton (along with his signature AC/DC riff) into an iconic movie scene continues to proliferate. Following the well-done appropriation of Hugh Grant getting his ass kicked in Bridget Jones's Diary, the man in red has now also appeared in similarly skillful mash-ups of wonderfully inappropriate scenes from Titanic and Dirty Dancing. What's next, you ask? Hopefully, at some point, Iron Man vs. Precious Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire...

Superhero movies: if you've seen one...

How long has it been since my last blog post that had anything to do with superhero movies (supposedly my object of research)? A long time. And why is this? Because obviously all superhero movies are exactly the same. See below for evidence...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

The true Iron Man