Yes, you are Iron Man

Rating: 8/10 (2 May 2010)

This is a review of the Ultimate 2-Disc Edition DVD of the film, which comes with 3 hours and 12 minutes of interesting, informative and really well-done featurettes/interviews, 24 minutes of extended/deleted scenes(not completely done as far as I can tell; some of them make Tony an even luckier bastard than he was in the final cut), a 3 minute The Onion spoof, a one minute commercial, and last but not least, a *ton* of galleries. I watched this at the cinema two years ago, and since purchased it, and freshened up my memory of it tonight because I'm going to see the second one tomorrow. It was nice to find out that so much of the time, the suits(that look *glorious*, by the way, designs are spot-on, and they sound and move exactly right, too) are really there; this was the last thing Stan Winston completed... R.I.P., you will not be forgotten. The photo-realistic, beautiful, convincing and appropriately used CGI closes the gap, so that you cannot tell where it goes from one to the other. I should say that I am not technically a fan of this hero, but I do like him, and enjoy reading comics that he's in, including the ones centered on him. Based on what I do know of him, this largely nails the source material. This makes incredible use of different styles of editing, and practically redefines the term "effective reveal". Few origin story flicks are this entertaining. The plot is good, and well-told. Pacing is just excellent, from start to finish. It's mainly fast; however, it does allow for breathers, without ever slowing down enough that it'll lose your devoted attention. The writing is just so fantastic throughout, in fact, the few things I knew beforehand or figured out before they occurred, worked. And the comedy... I'm not kidding, everyone in this, *the AI*, has a sense of humor. Jokes and gags are everywhere in this, and somehow it still manages to be serious(not to mention that they are all funny, timing, delivery, perfect). Emotion is garnered, without slipping, for a single second, into actual sentimentality or sap. Tension is also built, expertly so. It has been said that as far as the dialog, Jon allowed for improvisation... so I don't know how much of the stuff was on the page, and how much the performers came up with, but whatever exactly took place, they had the recipe for total success. I couldn't think of a bad line(or one that didn't come off as natural) found in this no matter how bad I wanted to(I have tried, I try to dispense a healthy amount of criticism upon everything I watch). The acting is flawless(and let's be honest, Downey Jr. is *the* choice for the role; and he does as many of his own stunts as they let him). This is probably the first and thus far only case where I've particularly cared for what Paltrow gave in a piece. There is a lot of realism herein, so those prone to shying away from stuff like this are likely to have a wonderful time. The music is amazing, and fits impeccably well. All of the action is awesome, plain and simple; perhaps there could be a greater amount(though, again, there isn't a boring moment to be found in this). Please do *not* be scared off by the PG-13 rating... to provide an example of how cool it can be in spite of that, think of Hellboy. And it does take skill to accurately portray Stark without more suggestive content than this has(for a full rundown, why not sneak a peek at the Parents Guide here on the site, from what I can tell, it covers it all). Finally, if you are into this stuff, do yourself a huge favor and stay until after the end credits. I recommend this to anyone who is at least remotely into movies like this, and/or the title character. 10/10