Iron Man
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Screenplay by: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrance Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, Faran Tahir, Shaun Tobb, Clark Gregg, John Favreau, Samuel L. Jackson and Stan Lee
Running Time: 126 minutes
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: 2008
On May 2, 2008, Iron Man premiered here in the US and went on to pull in over $200 million worldwide. As a lifelong comic book geek who just happens to have every issue of Iron Man through the mid 1990s (starting with Tales From Suspense #39 from back in March 1963), I must admit that I have been dreading the release of this film since I first heard about it a few years ago.
While I am a big fan of both Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr., everything I saw or heard about this flick screamed “pure cheese” to me for some reason. Every still I saw or report I read gave me horrible flashbacks to earlier crappy Marvel movies like Daredevil, Electra, the Punisher and that God-awful Generation X made-for-TV flick from the mid-90s. I had resigned myself to yet another horrible comic book film with my only hope being that, maybe, somehow, it might not be as bad as Catwoman.
After standing in a long opening day line and being forced to sit in a crowded theater, I have to say I have never been more glad to be proven wrong in my entire life.
Iron Man is easily one of the best comic book movies to date. I think it is better than the first Spider-man film and as good as the second one. Better than any of the Batman flicks. As good as Hellboy. And, thankfully, not even close to as horrible as Catwoman was. The quality of the movie is, in no small part, thanks to the charisma and sheer acting chops of Robert Downey Jr. The man could read the phone book and I’d have a great time watching him do it.
For those of you not familiar with the story of Iron Man, here is a quick rundown: a billionaire weapons manufacturer, Tony Stark, is captured by terrorists while visiting Afghanistan to promote a new weapon for the US military. While in their hands he and a fellow scientist create a suit of power armor in which to escape…the suit is powered by the same device in Stark’s chest which is keeping him alive. When he gets back to the US he runs in to trouble with a bald Jeff Bridges, creates a better, cooler looking suit of armor, and has a lot of fun.
Ok, so my synopsis doesn’t do the film justice. All you really need to know is that Iron Man is a kick ass action-adventure film. It shows what could very well be an alternate version of the Batman story in which a billionaire becomes a superhero and actually enjoys the process. The entire movie was a ton of fun and it was great to watch Downey Jr.’s character of Tony Stark change and mature through the film and his last lines in the movie were fantastic.
I loved this movie as not only a comic book fan but also as a fan of great action movies. You don’t need to know anything about comic books to enjoy Iron Man. My one suggestion is to make sure to stay until after the credits for a great little cameo appearance by Sam Jackson. Good stuff.
Comic book fans everywhere should rejoice that Favreau and Downey Jr. have crafted one of the best comic adaptations of all time. I can’t wait for the sequel.
-Mat N., the Nifty Nerd
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woo hoo! I so can’t wait to see this. -EVERYONE- is saying it’s good.
Can I just mention that I did a bunch of work on the Iron Man retrospective book of the time (What later became the Essential Iron Man books)?
… and that mention is about the sum total of the good it did me ;)
Anyway, good review :)
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