‘Ironheart’ review: Grief and AI collide in Ryan Coogler’s Marvel series

In a turn of surprising events, Marvel Iron heart The series has just as common with Black mirrordevastating episode “to be back” as he does with everything Iron movie.

On Iron Before, we have an explosive story of an inventor making a high -tech armored costume. In Iron heartThe case, this inventor is none other than genius Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), introduced for the first time in Black Panther: Wakanda forever. (Wakanda forever And Sinners Director Ryan Coogler also produces Iron heart) Now, in his hometown of Chicago after the expulsion of the MIT, Riri turns to a crime life in order to obtain the money and the resources she needs to continue working on her costume.

It is like Riri builds his new costume that Iron heart Take a turn for the Black mirror. In his attempts to create a new AI assistant for his armor, Riri accidentally ends up creating one who looks and acts exactly like her best friend, Natalie Washington (Lyric Ross). Vanity remembers this Black mirror“Be Right Back”, in which a mourning widow (Hayley Atwell) communicates with a simulacrum of AI of his late husband (Domhnall Gleeson).

But where “Be straight” is an absolutely overwhelming television hour, Iron heart is a little more optimistic in its representation of the treatment of sorrow using technology. And although it lacks a lot of Focus Serr and right return “and emotional weight – two things that tend to get lost in a race of six episodes to establish new major players MCU – Iron heart Always find ways to develop a sincere and complicated relationship between Riri and the best friend she thought she had lost.

Riri’s relationship with his new Ai Natalie is the heart of Ironheart.

Dominique Thorne in “Ironheart”.
Credit: Jalen Marlowe

Iron heartThe first sequence is not one of Riri by building his costume, or fighting the bad guys. It is from her and Natalie who hangs together, speaking of what they want from life. For Riri, it becomes “larger than jobs. Larger than doors. Larger than Pym. Larger than Stark”. For Natalie, everything she wants is to be happy. (And maybe to meet Thor.)

The scene is a gentle extract from the dynamics of Riri and Natalie, and positioning it at the start of the first, Iron heart The Showrunner Chinaka Hodge underlines that this friendship will be at the heart of the series. Later in the episode, however, we learn that Natalie, with Riri’s stepfather, Gary (Loyce Hawkins), died in a car shooting. Riri witnessed their death and was helpless to save them. Their loss encouraged him to make his costume, something that could offer rapid action security to people in danger. So yes, armor is proof of Riri’s brain and “emblematic” heritage that she hopes to leave behind Iron heart suggests that it is also an adaptation mechanism, a means of preventing the trauma of the loss of natalie and Gary from reproducing.

The arrival of Natalia (or Neuro-Autonoma Technical Assistant and Laboratory Intelligence Entity) still complicates the tangled canvas between Riri sorrow and its inventions. AI has all the ways and memories of Natalia. She is as close to Natalie as possible, but is she really natalia? This is the question with which Riri struggles throughout the season, especially since she finds herself to connect with Natalie, laughing and bickering with her like no time has passed.

For her part, Natalie does not act like an AI which has just been scheduled to follow the orders. She teases Riri, pushes back on her when she hates her plans and is injured even when Riri questions her existence. Ross is particularly heartbreaking in these last scenes, but his joy and energy in more fun moments with Riri is downright contagious.

With this playful, Iron heart It seems more ready to simply accept Natalie as an extension of her deceased self. Compare this to Black mirror“Be Right Back”, which is all about the limits of using AI to recreate a loved one lost. But the AI ​​in “Be Right Back” is taken from a limited number of publications on social networks, while Natalie was drawn directly from Riri’s memories. It is the MCU: the gods are real, half of the population of the universe has disappeared and returned, and the AI ​​can be completely perfect.

Above Black mirror comparison, Iron heart echoes our current reality. Thanks to AI progress, people try to use chatbots to connect with their deceased loved ones, as explored in the 2024 documentary Eternal you. Is this type of technology a useful tool for facing sorrow, or simply macabre imitation?

Iron heart Performs his examination of ethics behind Natalie with a touch to the light of the feathers, focusing mainly on the joy, pain and confusion that comes from reconnection with someone you have lost. Thorne and Ross are electric together, taking the heavy issues behind this relationship with Care. Elsewhere, the reactions of people close to Riri, like his mother, Ronnie (Anji White), help even more to expand the dilemma of Natalie. For Ronnie, this is an opportunity to heal an open injury and start knitting a missing piece of their community. It is not a coincidence that the more people come into contact with Natalie, the more people can count to help it in a dark time.

Iron heart Presentation of the Robbins of Parker “Hood” and his team of criminals.

Anthony Ramos in “Ironheart”.
Credit: Marvel

However, Natalie is not the only person with whom Riri spends a large part of his time Iron heart. Criminal Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos) – nicknamed “Hood” for the mysterious red hood that he still wears – recruits Riri to bring an additional high technology flair to his crew.

Played by Manny Montana, Rupaul Dragsters race superstar shea casting, Talk to meZoe Terakes, Shakira Barrera and Sonia Denis, the Parker crew are wise-crackers and badashes, just as Riri turned out to be in both Wakanda forever and its solo outing. The SASS and the lightness they share bring the feeling of a relaxed and fun meeting place to each of their robberies, even if they fight security guards or hack through firewalls.

The hood of Ramos, a charismatic leader, who somehow manages to ensure that the red cape is not completely clumsy. (This helps that the course permeates him with magic powers.) Living and charming in equal measures, Hood has all the potential to be a new remarkable MCU. Unfortunately, Iron heartThe six episodes do not give his story or his motivations enough development to really hit. The same goes for motivations behind each breakage. Hood’s crew explains how the rich they are looking for harm the communities of Chicago, but Iron heart Do not take the time to develop these communities or the problems they face. These are great ideas, and certainly those worthy of exploration. They just need more time to breathe, and it’s not time Iron heart can give with only six episodes.

The same goes for the relationship of Riri and Natalie, which sometimes falls on the edge of the road as Iron heart Prepare for its big songs or bad guys reveal. However, the amount of work Hodge, Thorne and Ross have put to keep this friendship as the foundation of Iron heart is clear, and the results are mainly paid. The series certainly has its just part of the battles of armored combinations and magic chaos, but it is these carefully constructed relationships, and the sorrow that impacts them, which really stick.

The first three episodes of Iron heart are now in difficulty on Disney +. The last three first July July at 9 p.m. he.