Iron Man Review [3]

Posted by Joseph Lee on 05.04.2008

Believe the hype.



Starring:
Robery Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Terrence Howard as Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes
Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia "Pepper" Potts
Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger
Paul Bettany as the voice of JARVIS

Story: Tony Stark, a genius and a billionaire, is presenting his newest weapon in the Middle East, when he is captured by a group of terrorists. After a fellow scientist saves his life, he decides to escape by building a gigantic iron suit. He later decides to make a upgraded version and becomes Iron Man. His partner, Obadiah Stane, isn't pleased with this and uses the same technology to become Iron Monger and try to kill Stark.

Fun Trivia: Comic book writer Stan Lee, as always, has a cameo in the live-action film of his creation Iron Man. He plays the man with three blondes whom Tony Stark mistakes for Hugh Hefner. He later mentioned that it was his most fun cameo.

I have been waiting a while to see Iron Man on the big screen. He's not my favorite superhero (that would be Spider-Man) but to see that suit finally realized on the screen, flying around and shooting repulsor blasts was something I really wanted. The problem with the concept of an Iron Man movie is that the special effects have to be just right or it won't work, regardless of who is playing who. When I finally was able to see some footage, I (like everyone else, I imagine) knew this would be something special.

As soon as this casting decision was made to have Robert Downey, Jr play Tony Stark, I thought it was a perfect one. After watching the film, I stand by that decision. Downey looks like Stark, acts like Stark..he *is* Stark. He steals the entire show. He's consistently entertaining and is very likeable in general. He's even able to show some personality when he's inside of the suit, which probably isn't easy. The rest of the cast does just as well, from the always capable Terrence Howard to Gwyneth Paltrow (who looks very good here). She also has very good chemistry with Downey.

Jon Favreau's direction is very well done here. He is able to mix all the right parts of a superhero origin with a summer movie blockbuster. The result is a film that is nicely paced and never feels long or boring. The origin story isn't tedious thanks to the rapid-fire dialogue and action sequences. It doesn't take them very long to get Stark in the first Iron Man suit, so anyone expecting a drawn-out origin won't have to worry. From there on out it's scenes of Stark perfecting the suit and finally going into action as Shell-head.

I'm going to get the single problem I have out of the way. It's not even that big of a problem: the focus on the villain. What I mean is one group of villains is built up to be the main foes for the story, and then the focus is suddenly switched to Jeff Bridges' character. This doesn't leave much time to build up Stane as the bad guy, and so the movie just jumps between the two. It's only a small complaint as Jeff Bridges was able to make up for that by playing a really good villain. He's everything the bad guy should be, it's just I would have liked some more development on that.

The second half of the movie is where that minor problem occurs, but if you overlook that, it's just as enjoyable. There's a great battle between the two mechanical men, as well as a satisfying conclusion. Fans of the comic should be on the lookout for small nods to the comics, as well as stay through all of the credits for the great scene at the end. Iron Man has been hyped up a lot, and it's well worth the wait.

The 411: Iron Man is exactly what a summer blockbuster should be. It has laughs, great adventure, a charismatic lead and a decent bad guy. What it also has, is some great writing and direction. Outside of some minor hiccups, it's not hard to place this as one of the best superhero films ever.

Final Score:  9.5   [  Amazing ]