Iron Man Rise of Technovore

I really wanted to like Iron Man Rise of Technovore. I really did! I mean, it does almost everything right. The fanboy in me loves to see iconic characters like The Punisher animated by Studio Madhouse. You know Studio Madhouse right? The guys behind Black Lagoon or Helsing Ultimate. But sadly the movie falls really short in so many places that made it really hard to fully enjoy it in my opinion.

As I said, the animation is great and it's great to see all of your favorite marvel characters in glorious HD animation. But that doesn't it save it from subpar voice acting and a kind of badly paced story. So let's talk about the voice acting first. Most of the voices sound kind of forced and which really pulls you out of some of the movie's dramatic scenes. But a special mention has to go to Norman Reedus of The Walking Dead fame, who does the voice for The Punisher. Why? Because he totally steals the show!

Another thing is that the movie likes to take sudden long pauses in the action for pure exposition or random poetic dribble by the main villain of the movie. Not that exposition is always bad, but when the movie begins with a bunch of thrilling action and than takes a stop so hard that it feels like you got hit by a truck full of exposition there is something wrong. Another problem is also that the movie expects that the viewer has read the Iron Man comic before watching this, or some of the plot points will fly right past your head.

All is all I would recommend this movie if you are a fan or Iron Man or a fan of the animation of Studio Madhouse. The movie has kind of a rough start and many problems but gets better as it goes along, with a great third act.