IRON MAN REVIEWS: The Tomatometer at 93% Fresh (Positive)

Post by **aTOMiC** » Fri May 09, 2008 11:55 am

Now that more of the small fry critics have chimed in, the tomatometer has fallen to 92%. I've read some of the negative reviews and I'm just not sure what many of them are talking about. Some sound like they just dislike RDJ and have allowed that bias to influence their comments. Others seem to think the film is infantile and superficial. Well to each his own. Any positive review percentage above 75% for a superhero movie is pretty good.

Post by **Usivius** » Fri May 09, 2008 1:37 pm

for the benefit of not blacking out most of my review of this movie, I will state:

*** SPOILER WARNINGS!!!!! ***

(below)

Iron Man ~ 8.5 out of 10

Originally I was going to give this a "9", but I got to thinking.
Well, let me preface this by saying that there has yet to be a perfect super-hero movie. Spider-man 2 came close (9). Iron Man runs a very close second.

Firstly, there is nothing really to dislike about this movie. It is fun, smart, exciting, funny (blahblahblah). The director surprised me because it doesn't seem like one he would do --- but then again, I said the same thing about Raimi... It is well directed, except for a couple scenes of cliché set-up (Pepper seeing Stane's Iron Man in the dark), and he is obviously an actor's director and has a good rapport with them. He even cast himself as Stark's chauffeur

Casting did their job well.
Paltrow is quite good as Pepper and has all the qualities of Stark's "girl-friday".

Bridges is AMAZINGLY creepy as Stane. Wow, a man who could melt you to putty with his quiet stare can also freeze your soul in a bad-guy role. And he doesn't rant and rave and chew up scenery to be evil, and once he does yell at his engineer for not building what he wants, you get a chill and know this man is capable of anything --- so it doesn't come as a total shock or out-of-character moment for this man to put on a suit of armour and go on a rampage.

Now we come to Downey Jr. Inspired casting. He can be pompous, suave, funny, haunted ... he shows us in the role of a comic book hero, the range he has. Nice. He even comes very close to stealing the movie away from his alter ego. And this is why Marvel heroes have always been more interesting than DC ones ... no one really cares about the real identities of the DC heroes ... Superman is boring! Bruce Wayne is mono-syllabic. Princess Diana is --- an Amazon! ... Peter Parker is infinitely more interesting as a character than any of these put together. And it is no different with Tony Stark. Well played by the script and actors, especially in the scene where Stark argues with the Vanity Fair reporter then seduces her in an instant.

Special Effects are FANTASTIC. Even my wife was all geeking out over the scene where Stark puts on the finished gold armour for the first time. All the sequences are done so well, I forgot I was looking at the impossible, or was consciously aware that this was an effect. Well done!

And there are many subtle touches I liked, such as Iron Man flying out of the hole he accidentally made in his house later in the movie... the blend of humour and drama (the robot with the fire extinguisher is a classic!)

As I said, there is nothing to dislike about the movie.
But it is missing something ... emotion. Yes, we feel Stark's pain at the realization that his weapon's are causing such horrid suffering for innocent people, and we cheer when he returns to kick some terrorist butt and save some citizens... and the captured guy that helps him built the first suit is heart tugging when he makes his sacrifice.
But I didn't get anything from the hero. He made me laugh, but I didn't feel any emotional connection with him. Even Batman as portrayed by Michael Keaton and more recently by Christian Bale, there are moments when you feel how driven and tormented this guy is ... I didn't get that with Stark. Intellectually I could see it portrayed, but not emotionally. Compare it to Spider-man 2, Peter Parker saving that train full of people in #2 ... wow, powerful; or all the scenes with PP and Mary Jane, which are charged with emotion and tension.
Perhaps it's just me. Perhaps its the director. As good as he is, none of Favreau's movies have 'moved' me.

OK, it's a nitpick, but I missed that from such a great movie as this.

Speaking of nit-piks, I have a few more.

As great as Downey was for Tony Stark, and it worked so well for the movie, but the comic book Stark was not the funny, wisecracking guy Downey portrays him as (or was written as). That was more of Spider-man's territory (which is why Spider-man movies are not perfect, because he rarely cracks a joke during any fights with villains -- THAT'S HIS TRADEMARK!).
And I know it works in this movie, and we can't have the same long delay for it to be revealed to the public the way it was in the comics, but Stark didn't reveal he was Iron Man so soon .. but as I said, it works for the movie, and Starks's character portrayed by Downey.

All in all, a fantastic movie! Highly recommend it!!!!

Post by **Worm of Despite** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:34 pm

I liked it, but didn't think it rose above the genre. It had a few good moments, and then the generic guitar riffs came in. The characters were walking cartoon characters, and the plot was so predictable I sniffed to see if it was microwaved.

Downey pretty much saved it, and the actions scenes were inspiring, but that's it. Not a very emotional product, like Spider-Man 2 or Batman Begins. No real connection there. Iron Man's suiting up sequence was ripped directly from a VIDEO GAME and the video game (StarCraft 2) does it better, which is shameful.

Post by **danlo** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:57 pm

Leave it to Corruption to be the stereotypical grumpass

Post by **Worm of Despite** » Sun May 11, 2008 2:16 am

I actually haven't been that pugnacious in a while. It's refreshing, really.

Post by **Plissken** » Mon May 12, 2008 4:42 am

Just saw it. It was about as good as could've been done with the character, and did a more subtle job of hitting the required Comic Book Movie plot points than most. (Anyone else actually stop their suspension of disbelief and go,

Spoiler

"Oh. Look. There's the Mandarin."

-- 'Cause I didn't.) Top shelf (pun!) action and humor, bonus points for actually getting me to like Gwen Paltrow.

Post by **The Dreaming** » Mon May 12, 2008 9:32 am

Bah, Powered Armor is just plain cool. I certainly was reminded of the SC2 trailer at moments, but I usually think its pretty cool when things from video games osmose into the mainstream culture. Children of Men resembled Half-Life 2 to a highly suspicious degree. It was amazing at least partially because of this.

P.S. Watching iron man made me once again lament the movie Starship Troopers could have been, had it included powered armor.

Post by **dANdeLION** » Mon May 12, 2008 12:03 pm

The Dreaming wrote: P.S. Watching iron man made me once again lament the movie Starship Troopers could have been, had it included powered armor.

There isn't a suit of armor made that could have withstood the assault Paul Verhoeven made on that film.......

Post by **ItisWritten** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:53 pm

I saw it again this weekend, this time with the wife. Keeping in mind that she knew nothing about the characters or the movie, except for RDJ, she leans over to me during Stane's second appearance and says--not asks--"That's the bad guy, right?"

About a half hour later she realizes that it's Jeff Bridges playing him.

But she did have a good time with it.

YouTube · Post by **Menolly** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:57 pm

ItisWritten wrote:I saw it again this weekend, this time with the wife. Keeping in mind that she knew nothing about the characters or the movie, except for RDJ, she leans over to me during Stane's second appearance and says--not asks--"That's the bad guy, right?"

*nodding*

Yep, pretty much the same for me, athough I suspected that when they did the newspaper clippings of him guiding Tony Stark after his father died.

Post by **dANdeLION** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:30 am

That was one hell of a movie.

Post by **The Dreaming** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:40 am

dANdeLION wrote:
The Dreaming wrote: P.S. Watching iron man made me once again lament the movie Starship Troopers could have been, had it included powered armor.
There isn't a suit of armor made that could have withstood the assault Paul Verhoeven made on that film.......

That gave me a bigger laugh than any post on the watch has in recent memory. (Even Cail's Cracked links)

Post by **Lord Mhoram** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:55 am

I thought it was quite good.

My only only question is why Stane risked making deals with an Afghan militant group. It didn't make sense to me.

Post by **Mortice Root** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:58 am

dANdeLION wrote

That was one hell of a movie.

Indeed. I finally got a chance to see it as well. I never read Iron Man comics, but I was peripherally aware of the character. This was cool as hell. Though I do have to echo Malik's earlier comments about Gwenyth Paltrow. Ugh. Boring. But other than her, this was a really good flick.

Post by **Vain** » Sun May 18, 2008 10:28 am

I saw this today

It was enjoyable with some pretty neat things. RDJ actually looks like a young version of Al Pacino (well to me anyway)

Greatest line in the movie (probably not word for word)?

"What do you mean it hasn't been invented?
Tony Stark built one in a cave with of a box of scrap"

Post by **aTOMiC** » Mon May 19, 2008 12:40 pm

aTOMiC posted elsewhere

It's also nice to see just how well IM is doing at the box office.
With a current domestic take of $222,485,000, IM has ascended to 7th place over all for Superhero themed films. IM has zero chance of catching any of the Spiderman films but only X-Men Last Stand, Tim Burton's Batman and the Incredibles stand in it's way. There is a chance IM could finish it's run in 4th place overall. Not too bad for a character that only Marvel Comic readers really knew anything about.

Post by **Cagliostro** » Tue May 20, 2008 5:47 pm

Finally saw it this weekend. It has a nice beat - I could dance to it.

My only real grumble was

Spoiler

the silly suit-fight at the end

.

Other than that, I had a good time, and felt I got my money's worth.

Post by **Loredoctor** » Sat May 24, 2008 12:38 pm

Iron Man was great,

Spoiler

apart from the suit battle

.

Post by **dlbpharmd** » Sat May 24, 2008 2:26 pm

In the comics, did IM use his hand repulsors for flight stabilization as he did in the movie?

Post by **CovenantJr** » Mon May 26, 2008 11:59 pm

Finally got round to seeing it. Enjoyed it, but thought it was weak in some areas. It seemed a little anticlimactic, with a lot of build up but not much payoff. Downey was easily the best thing in the film (and I'm pleased I'm not the only one who thought of Spiderman during some of his remarks - mainly "This looks important..."), though I have to say Gwyneth Paltrow surprised me. I usually find her a bit...soggy. In this, though, she worked well as Pepper.

Flawed, but enjoyable.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

IRON MAN REVIEWS: The Tomatometer at 93% Fresh (Positive)