Generation Iron: Leigh Paatsch review

CALLING Generation Iron a "documentary" stretches the meaning of the term somewhat.

Alpha dog ... you too can have a body like this - if you train consistently.

GENERATION IRON [M]

Rating 2.5 stars

Director: Vlad Yudin (Last Day Of Summer)

Starring: Phil Heath, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kai Green

"Just poseurs, no hard questions"

CALLING Generation Iron a "documentary" stretches the meaning of the term somewhat.

It's mostly a polite, controlling-authority-approved peek into the world of competition bodybuilding, though not enough to dissuade fans from taking a look.

Using the 2012 staging of the Mr Olympia contest as its principal focus, Generation Iron says far more with pictures than it does with words. Therefore, the cliched insights offered by the likes of the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger (whose 1975 Mr Olympia win was chronicled in the similar yet superior film Pumping Iron) are hardly worth the listen. As for any hint of the significant role steroids have played in the chequered history of bodybuilding, that just isn't going to happen.

However, the grotesque magnifications of the human form paraded before the cameras are compelling in their own strange way. So too is a battle for supremacy between the reigning Mr Olympia, Phil Heath, and rising star Kai Greene.

The alpha-dog-versus-underdog contrasts struck between the duo are quite entertaining in their own right. Heath is the most swaggeringly self-confident dude in the business, while the comparatively shy Greene follows his belief that the body is an ever-evolving work of art.

Narrated by Mickey Rourke as if he's reading the Bible in a dimly lit bar.

Showing in selected Hoyts cinemas.