Downey Delivers

Rating: 10/10 (5 May 2008)

"Great, all that's on is Iron Man." I said to my friend. We had missed the show time for the movie I had wanted to see. Upon first seeing a trailer for Iron Man I had low expectations. Just another poorly made comic book adaptation. It will be full of poor acting, crappy computer effects, and lots of action to overcome the lack of writing. Boy, I was wrong. Iron Man completely blew my expectations out of the water. Through the impeccable choice of characters, well placed action, and great mix of CGI: this summer's greatest action movie Iron Man is sure to please.
Robert Downey Jr. is a hell of an actor. If not for him I am not sure I would have made it through Iron Man. It is rare that you find an actor that fits a role so well you forget he is an actor and think of him almost exclusively as the character. That is exactly what Downey brings to this movie. "Is it better to be feared or respected? And I'd say is it too much to ask for both?" and "They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I prefer the weapon you only need to fire once. That's how dad did it, that's how America does it, and it's worked out pretty well so far." These lines are delivered so genuinely and uniquely by Downey, you can't help but develop a relationship with his character Tony Stark that last throughout the movie.
Often times when a screenplay writer can't write a good plot and can't write convincing dialog, they add copious amounts of action. Somehow, they have conceived the notion that if we are overwhelmed with action we won't notice how bad the movie is. However the audience is becoming smarter and no longer easily duped by such tactics. Iron Man did not resort to this. There is action in Iron Man, lots of action. But it is very well written and weaved perfectly into the story so as to enhance it. Iron man starts out with an attention grabbing fight scene. This is followed by many minutes without a giant fire fight where we get to know our protagonist; we bond with him and empathize with him. From then on the action and fight scenes are used sparingly till we arrive at the final fight scene between the protagonist and the antagonist.
Several great advances have come to the movie industry from computer technology. One of these is computer generated imagery (CGI). CGI has allowed directors and writers to add elements to movies that were once though to be impossible, either due to price or far fetched ness. One complaint audiences usually voice is that is it too unrealistic. Not the case with Iron Man. The limited CGI use complements the movie well. Iit allows the viewer to vividly see exactly what the director and writers wanted you to see. All of this was accomplished without being annoying and causing the audience to be distracted by the effects.
It is rare that a really good action movie based on a comic book comes along. Iron Man is one of those movies. Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post writes that it is full of generic fireballs and that some of the actors need to be cleaned up to make it as a sequel. I disagree. This summer's greatest action movie Iron Man is sure to please through the impeccable choice of characters, well placed action, and great mix of CGI. On a scale of five stars, I would give Iron Man five stars. I enjoyed this action movie so much I might have even paid for it!