Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Movie Review: Iron Man

Keep it simple, thats what Marvel Studios did with Iron Man and in my opinion it worked, for an origins movie Iron Man did a good job of re-inventing the super hero for the 21st century. I am not familiar with Iron Man's comic origins but I don't think militant muslims were in the first issue. On the other hand Obadiah Stane and Iron Monger feels like it might have been. So a blending of current events and comic fan service worked well.
I enjoyed this movie so much I saw it one and a half times.....no actually the first time the fire alarm went off while Tony Stark was in the lab hovering over his car collection testing the second suit! Nice job Clearview Cinema's on Main St. in Port Washington!
Interestingly my wife was not enjoying the movie up to that point, but was glued to her seat from that point forward.
The movie really kicks into overdrive once Tony takes the new suit for a test drive,and the pace doesn't slow down from there. The scene with the YF-22's was as cool as the trailer leads you to believe!
Jeff Bridges does a terrific job portraying the evil corporate tycoon Obadiah Stane, my wife never saw the double cross coming...c'mon the name alone ressonates bad guy! Everytime Bridges put his arm around Downey Jr. I cringed. Terrance Howard as Rhodey did a great job also, don't drink the sake LMAO! great scene, I almost expected mini me to appear. Gwyneth Paltrow was a great choice as Pepper Potts, I liked her character, strong, independent and yet, like Tony, alone. Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, when I first heard about the casting I still had a terrible aftertaste from Spiderman 3. But thankfully I was wrong! RDJ was a better choice for Tony Stark than Tobey Maguire was for Peter Parker. The entire cast did a great job and were perfect choices to represent the comic book characters.
I doubt Iron Man will make the box office numbers that Spidey 3 did, unforunately because it was much more enjoyable.
Iron Man is a good start to the summer movie season and worth the price of admission.
For more Iron Man goodness check out the movie's website http://ironmanmovie.marvel.com/

B+