Iron Man

I've been meaning to blog about something else since Tuesday night, but I just got back from Iron Man, so it's going to have to wait. Note: this post might contain a few mild spoilers.

First off, I was really looking forward to this one, as the trailers have looked solid. Right off the bat, let me just get it out of the way that this movie is certainly one of the best Marvel movies that have come out. That said, it's no X2, and probably no Spider Man (any of them), but it's not far behind. Robert Downey Jr. is perfect for Tony Stark; it's his acting that really makes this movie work (well him, and the fact that the design people actually truly captured the character, unlike Hulk or Ghost Rider). You could tell Downey Jr. really wanted to play this role, as opposed to say, Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze...

As is typical with the first installment in a superhero franchise, this movie is mostly an origins plot. Fortunately, this doesn't really weigh the movie down too much, as it's done well and is fairly interesting in and of itself. In a somewhat surprising move by Marvel, this movie (like the Batman franchise) has a fairly grounded, reality-believable plot. Therefore, most of the action in the movie is subdued and reasonable as opposed to the over-the-top fare we see in say the Spider Man flicks.

My biggest gripe with the film is the fact that the key "awesome" moments never quite make it to the level they could have attained, largely due to slightly uninspiring presentation. That's not to say the moments aren't cool, but something just seemed a tiny bit short of really awesome. This said, the coolest scenes were definitely the scenes where Iron Man is in the Middle East (as Iron Man, not a prisoner), and these scenes still managed to be quite fun.

Added bonuses to the film include an obvious setup for War Machine in perhaps the sequel, the fact that the overly-played-in-the-trailers Black Sabbath song didn't come on until the credit roll at the end, and the surprise bad guy in Iron Monger (not the Mandarin). In fact, until about 2/3rds of the way through the film, I was certain the terrorist guy who captured him was in fact the Mandarin...they even teased us by having him touch his large ring!). That said, this guy might turn out to be Iron Man's arch villain later, but not this time around.

Overall, I liked the movie. Again, it wasn't fantastic, but it certainly was fun and mostly well done. Most importantly, they didn't tarnish the original character or storyline much, leaving the movie with a bit more integrity than most Marvel films. And although this film wasn't astonishing (like an X2), its sequel very well might be...