MY REVIEW: Warning Spoilers!!
To say that I had reservations about "Iron Man" is to understate things. I didn't like most of the previews and wasn't exactly thrilled with the cast.
I am so glad I decided to see it anyway. It is the most fun I had in months at the movies and is the best comicbook movie since Spider-Man 2. Robert Downey Jr. is wonderful as Tony Stark, he is having the time of his life in the role and we like watching him. I believe he is even better in the serious scenes then in the quipy Downey Jr. scenes but I enjoyed them both. Terrence Howard doesn't have much to do, he seems like the token black friend, hopefully he has more to do in the sequel. I'm not a fan of Gwyenth Paltrow but she has some nice scenes and chemistry will Downey Jr, I especially like the open heart surgery and dance scenes but...like in SkyCaptain, she is terrible when acting with effects. I don't believe her for a second, luckly she had very few of those scenes.
Jeff Bridges is a decent enough villian, I mean he doesn't have alot to do either because in all honesty, this is the Robert Downey Jr. show but he is pretty good, even though he looks really silly with the bald head and beard. His name is Obadiah Stane though so his ridiculous deminor fits the film.
One plot point is quite ridiculous, I mean his captors don't know he's building a giant metal suit??? But it's a comicbook movie and thats his orgin in the comics so I'm okay with that.
Overall the story really doesn't really tread any new ground and there may be way too many Tony Stark builds an Iron Man suit scenes, I mean he seemingly built 5000 of them but the movie kept it's entertainment value throughout. And it has a heart, you care about Tony Stark, you see how much he just wants to stop his weapons from getting into the bad guys hands. I was wrong, Downey Jr. plays this role very well and it's nice to see adults in the movie, I'm still not a Paltrow fan but I'm glad they got an adult female who looked like one and didn't go the Katie Holmes or Kate Bosworth route by casting little girls/ women who look like little girls as adult females.
Along side the heart the action scenes are the best thing about the movie. The CGI is pitch perfect and all of the action scenes are amazing. When Iron Man escapes his captors, I felt like a kid. When Iron man flies for the first time and with jets, I felt like a kid. When he saves a little boys father and the village, I felt like a kid. When he fought Iron Monger...I was estatic, this is what a comicbook movie fan dreams of seeing in these type of movies. None of the bland Superman Returns lifting crap, and those annoying fast cut fights in Batman Begins. Iron Man saved people and fought a bad guy. I love when the Superhero saves people... but I also love when they fight big ass villains! The gripes I have about the last fight concerned the very corny dialogue that Jeff Bridges had to spout out by way of a robo voice and the fact that you could see the Ice thing being used in the last battle a mile away. The ending also seemed too rushed and frankly there just wasn't enough of Iron Man in his gold and red suit before the battle.
Jon Favreau does a very impressive job but I wished the script paid a little bit more attention to the side characters and the story seemed rushed sometimes and not sped up enough at other times. Also I didn't care for the score. Those are minor gripes conpared to the other comicbook movies I've seen as of late so I'm not complaining to much. I love that this movie brought back fun to the Superhero, after a terrible mopey Superman movie and a pretty good but far too serious/dour Batman movie. To be fair, I'm glad it wasn't dumb but still fun (to me) like the FF movies and X3 or awful like the brainless boring Ghostrider or Daredevil. I enjoyed having fun with Superhero's again. Long live the fun but heartfelt and smart action adventure/Superhero movie.
Long Live Iron Man!
RATING: 8.5 out of 10.
The epilouge was the coolest thing ever, people were litterally cheering when Sam came on screen. I now await a Shield movie and if there is any justice a sequel. Thankyou Marvel, thankyou Jon Favreau, thank RDJ. Thankyou for making a fun cool little superhero flick.
P.S
This movie shows that you don't have to take things ridiculously seriously in order to have a good message and an adult story.