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The following podcast contains explicit language.

I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest. This is a movie about

Hope Edition. It's Wednesday, May 8th, 2013. On today's show, the Iron Man franchise, it returns as rebooted by Hollywood veteran screenwriter Shane Black. He's the director and co-writer. And then we talk about Steven Soderberg's in some way quite depressing speech on the state of cinema and Hollywood. And finally, we talk about the new Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer. Joining me today is Slate's film critic, Dana Stevens. Hey, Dana. Hello, Stephen. And of course, Slate's culture critic, June Thomas. Hello, June. Hello, Stephen. June, we're getting along so perfectly, even better than usual today. And it's only one minute in. It's excellent. I know. It's great. Dana, the logical place is to start with you. And the logical place to start with Iron Man, I think that three is whether or not it does, you know, whether or not the movie is a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Though very quickly we move into other subjects, whether or not this is a serious film about post-traumatic stress and terrorism and the vacuity of the war on terror. But it is a tent pole movie. So let's start someplace simple. Did you like it? Yeah, it's a very bifurcated discussion about Iron Man, because I think we would all agree that, you know, there's two different questions with any of these big summer blockbuster tent pole movies. The first one is, does this work? Does it justify your 1250 or whatever a 3D movie costs in most places. You know, is it a fun popcorn adventure?

And then secondly, just why are we being subjected again and again summer after summer to these

basically indistinguishable tent bowl blockbusters, right? I mean, Robert Downey Jr., I would argue,

sets the Iron Man franchise apart, even in this third and somewhat more tired iteration. But there is a little bit of a sense of sort of Stockholm syndrome for me with the comic book movies. You know, I mean, my expectations have been so dulled and so lowered by summer after summer of these things that something comes along that has a spark of wit and a little bit of, you know, Robert Downey Jr. Gwyneth Paltrow, back and forth, screwball dialogue. And, you know, I've got pinwheels in my eyes saying,

you know, this is great, best superhero movie of the summer. So I don't know. That's my bifurcated answer. But you already know the answer to the question, right? It's that, what is it currently $500 million worldwide.

I mean, it's such a huge hit.

And I don't really understand why.

But clearly, that's why they huge hit. And I don't really understand why. But clearly,

that's why they keep getting made is because they sell an awful lot of tickets.

Yeah. I mean, 3D.

All right. Well, so we can make a bunch of preliminary distinctions, right? So there's something

about this franchise that makes it better than other superficially similar superhero franchises that

makes it make a billion dollars as opposed to half a billion dollars. But then also I think

there's the distinction between this iteration and the second one. The second one was an

abomination, a really terrible film by any standard. And I think this one exceeds that. It's already

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