This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Action - Superheroes, I, Movie Reviews, NEW IN THEATER. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, Faran Tahir, Shaun Toob
Little known director Jon Favreau (Elf) will be a more familiar name after smashing his way into the comic book genre with this fast-paced visual action intro to what is obviously intended to be an Iron Man series. The script, which has more writers than the bible, is witty and like the uber successful Spider-man trilogy, doesn’t get too serious. Robert Downey Jr. exudes cool charisma with a great performance in the title role and has some enviable back up from Gwyneth Paltrow and a really old-looking Jeff Bridges. The film is flashy and the action scenes could have been shorter and more plentiful. I have never seen more metallurgy scenes in any movie to date, but nonetheless excellent dialog and cool effects keep the viewers entertained while waiting for something big to happen.
Robert Downey Jr. is a billionaire boy genius in the defense industry named Tony Stark who seems to divide his time, albeit unequally, between making scientific breakthroughs and living a jet-setting rock star lifestyle until a business trip to Afghanistan sees him taken hostage by some vaguely motivated middle eastern bad guys. They force Stark, along with the help of fellow hostage, Yinsen (Shaun Toob from The Kite Runner) to build them one of his cutting edge missile systems, Jericho. Unfortunately for the soon-to-be-punished reprobates, Stark isn’t building them a missile system, but building himself a bullet-proof, powered suit to use to escape, which he does, of course. This turns out to be a life-changing experience for Stark, and he decides its time to give back a little to the world by becoming a super-hero. Well, that is one way. Wouldn’t it be easier and more helpful just to build a few hospitals and schools? It might, but it wouldn’t make an action-packed movie.
Iron Man flies into theaters as one off the best of the comic book genre films, thanks in equal parts to a sharp script and an impressive performance by Downey. Imagine Spider-man crossed with Robocop and then blended with the Transformers and you will have some idea of what to expect. Comic book fans and action lovers will flock to it and even a lukewarm, yawning and jaded movie veteran such as myself is looking forward to the next installment. Oh, and for a little foreshadowing of things to come, wait for the credits to end. There is a short little bonus scene.
