There can still be good superhero movies today

Rating: 10/10 (26 May 2008)

After making family friendly works ("Elf" and "Zathura"), Jon Favreau was appointed to direct a new superhero movie.
If I recall correctly, the first Marvel superhero movie was "X-Men". From then on, we have been bombarded with comic book characters brought to life on the big screen. Few have been great successes, mainly, "Spider-Man" and "X-Men", along with it's respective first sequels.
But after four great movies, came several lack lusters ("Hulk", "Daredevil", "The Punisher", "Fantastic Four", "Ghost Rider"), that, although successful, were almost insults to comic book fans and movie goers alike.
The Marvel film era was quickly falling down, and several beloved characters were given bad reps (The Hulk, Dr. Doom, The Kingpin) However, one key superhero was being left out. As the filmmaker wannabe that I am, I wondered, "I would love to make an Iron Man film when I become a director".
Well, Jon Favreau beat me to the job. But I certainly don't resent him.
Okay, Iron Man wasn't one of my favorites, since I didn't read any comics and just saw cameos of him in the Spider-Man animated series. But from those cameos, I saw glimpses of his powers and knew enough.
Robert Downey Jr., not the classic "superheo looking guy" makes a fantastic job as Tony Stark, mixing a genius mind with careless attitude, always making acid jokes and remarks, and even after his transformation, he still is quirky and likable.
Others in the ensemble cast include beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts (what a name, huh?) Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges as Obadiah I-can't-remember-his-last-name. Everyone acts great, and add their own seeds to the script.
The special and visual effects are state-of-the-art. The Iron Man suit is one of the best ever made for a movie. The test sequences were hilarious and I loved them. As for the action sequences, they were superb, very well done and exciting to the last minute.
The story is fantastic, and the major moral themes fit perfectly into the plot, although these don't sound cheesy, rehearsed nor like an after-school special.
The score was the only thing that failed. Media Ventures alumnus, Ramin Djawadi (of "Prison Break" fame), just makes rock songs without voices. The Iron Man themes were too repetitive to be actually hummed. The lyrical moments were good, but these were few. As for the source rock music, I'm no rock fan, but they were very good.
The final sequence was good, but I felt a little disappointed a it, mainly for being too short, but it's still good.
I don't know if it was Jon Favreau's initiative, or the writer's, or the producers', but something was done different than the other previous superhero movies. And it worked great!