Wow! A heavily hyped movie that DIDN'T disappoint me!

Rating: 9/10 (3 May 2008)

I was fortunate enough to get tickets for Iron Man on its opening day. I had been eagerly anticipating the movie since seeing the first trailer months ago and was excited by the strong cast and having Favreau as director. With all this hype I was fearful of being disappointed. Thank God I wasn't. This movie met and eventually exceeded all of my expectations.
Robert Downey Jr. is outright amazing in this movie and is definitely back in the A-list of his career. Even Gwyneth Paltrow, who I have NEVER been a fan of, was believable and very likable as Pepper Potts. One thing I liked was the way this movie was able to change and poke fun at the Iron Man mythology of the comic books without completely altering the character. The script took advantage of having such a strong cast and let them dominate the film rather than making the special effects the star; which usually happens in superhero films like this one. The fight scenes, while fantastic, were secondary to the growth of the Tony Stark character. The final fight scene was exciting and never overdone. Many other superhero movie franchises could learn from this film. Just because much of the audience is fanboys doesn't mean the film has to be silly or even pretentious.
Non-fans of the comic book will like this movie as well. It was very well done and I'm now looking forward to future Favreau projects. I'll happily buy this on DVD. It was never overly violent or bloody and had only semi-strong language at most. Take the entire family. You won't be disappointed.