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!!!!
