Iron Man: Rise of Technovore (2013) (V) Directed by Hiroshi Hamazaki

If you thought that "Iron Man 3" was a disappointing movie, wait until you see this piece of animated drivel!

This movie is bad, just bad. Thing about it is that there aren't just one or two elements that make this movie a bad and disappointing one but literally everything about is below par!

Let's start with the story. It's a terribly confusing story to follow and it's hard to ever feel involved with anything. It's lacking a good focus and it feels all over the place, especially once it starts throwing multiple different characters in the mix, who however don't add anything at all to the movie or its story.

So, The Punisher, Hawkeye, Nick Fury and the Black Widow also show up in this but I really don't know why though. Their stories are going absolutely nowhere and their presence adds absolutely nothing neither. They just show up to please the fan-boys and get people excited- and interested in this movie but let me just tell you that the movie would have been way better off without any of them in it.

Half of the time I just really have no idea what is going on with its story and who is supposed to fight who and why. I also just don't know what the movie its main villain wanted to achieve and besides that, he's being a pretty weak villain for this movie as well, mostly because he is hardly in it and his story and powers remain mostly vague, all throughout.

The animations are also disappointing. it has a very Japanese style to it, which doesn't really seem to suit the Iron Man-universe, in my opinion. The movie is also somewhat cheap and lazy looking at times. The character movements are reduced to a minimum. Most of the time the characters are just moving their mouths and at times the movie isn't even showing you that. Sometimes the movie focuses on non-moving objects or uses some extreme close-ups, in which you see absolutely nothing moving. It's as if the movie stops playing at times, only the sound is still continuing, which is the only indications for you that the scene is actually still progressing.

And what was with the voice casting? Matthew Mercer is an incredibly lifeless sounding Tony Stark/Iron Man and the same can be said as well abut Norman Reedus, who voices Frank Castle/The Punisher. So incredibly bland and without any emotions. It sounds as if they recorded all of the voices without having the actors watching the movie at a screen, at the same time and without any direction from a person who could provide them with the right required motivations and backgrounds, to a certain scene.

Also don't watch this movie expecting to at least get any fun out off it. There simply is no humor in this movie, which is not something that every animated movie of course requires but it's something that feels missing from this movie. It would have potentially made things at least somewhat more entertaining and who knows, I may have been able to forgive this movie for some of its flaws, if it actually managed to entertain me some more. Even the action doesn't bring much entertainment really.

A very bland and overall pointless feeling Iron Man outing.

4/10

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