The basic concept is fun, the visuals good ... and that's about it.

Rating: Null/10 (12 February 2009)

I must be missing something or just expect way too much from films like this one, or perhaps one needs to be an fan of the comic character 'a priori' to enjoy the film fully because I found this well received movie to be fairly week in most areas ...
First the good - CGI is fantastic (nothing special these days though lets face it). The acting, especially given the rather week script, is solid though overdone and thus 'unbelievable' at times. The basic story is imaginatively well conceived and the 'iron suit(s)' that (eventually) feature are a blast to watch in action.
Now the bad - Like many movies these days, it assumes the audience is as thick as hardware shop. For example, the opening few scenes over state the 'playboy' image of the main protagonist in Tony Stark - the scene in the Humvee is just fine as it is and does the job. Do they leave it at this? No they jump to various scenes where we see his debaucherous life in all its excessiveness. After 30 seconds of it I was begging the movie to move on with the actual story, but it just kept going and going.
I suppose theses scenes were there to have us build a sense of contempt for Stark setting up the redemptive hero that is to be born out by the movie's end. Well it achieves half the task, I certainly found his character ridiculously annoying, to the point of frustration actually. His 'debonair' billionaire obnoxiousness was so over the top and put a foul taste that struggled to go away for the duration (I mean poll dancing stewardess ... have we time warped to the '60s or something). Moreover, how could somebody who actually does nothing productive actually run a all conquering company like 'Stark Industries' ... anyway, the unfortunate thing is that, besides wanting the company to 'do good' instead of make weapons, he as a character fundamentally doesn't change and this is what bugs me about the plot ... he remains a narcissistic self obsessed overachiever to the end.
These things appear in many films and certainly do not necessarily totally destroy a movie experience, after all given the 'comic book' genre one can't expect too much in character development and complex philosophical thought, but, this aside, the story line itself is full of holes. I mean how how stupid are the 'terrorist' fighters (who conveniently follow US propaganda running sheet in being overtly described as as 'foreign' fighters not Afghani locals). They capture Stark then don't notice as he builds a big hi-tech metal suit instead of something that at least vaguely looks like a missile which he is instructed to do?? It makes for a nice action sequence when all is said and done, but writers please please make some effort to create a believable universe.
In end, fundamentally, the script reads like a very average comic with little thought put behind it - its a story for the sake of a story so that a talented graphic artist can put some nice visuals around it. Some might say that is what all of the DC Comic movies and their ilk are about - and maybe they're right - but some are clearly a cut above Iron Man, the recent Batman movies are a case in point.