A highly entertaining and fun superhero movie!

Rating: 10/10 (2 May 2008)

Wow! That one word sums up how I felt after leaving the theater upon seeing Iron Man. I was completely shocked, this movie was actually really good. I am not going to lie, before seeing this film I really thought it was going to be bad, I wasn't even planning on seeing it, but then reviews started coming out, and all of them were generally positive; as well, a trusted friend of mine, whose opinion on movies I hold in high regard, saw it and enjoyed it, so I thought I might give Iron Man a shot. I did, and I must say it was entirely worth it.
Iron Man follows the story of billionaire playboy Tony Stark. Stark is the CEO of his company Stark Industries, which manufactures weapons for the U.S. Government. The story begins in Afghanistan, where Stark is showing a test of his new missile to U.S. troops. Soon after the test, the troops Stark is with are attacked by a terrorist group. The terrorists kidnap Stark and take him captive in a cave, here he sees that these terrorists have access to the weapons his company makes. The terrorists want to use Stark to build a missile for them, but instead he builds a gigantic iron battle suit, which he uses to escape the terrorists. Once Stark is back in the states he dismantles the weapons division of his corporation, at the same time he learns that people within his company has sold terrorists his weapons without his permission. Stark begins to perfect his iron battle suit and decides to use it to destroy all of the terrorists who use his weapons. Soon Stark learns who gave these terrorists access to his weapons, which culminates in a gigantic robotic battle in L.A. at the end of the film.
Overall this was a really great movie, it was highly entertaining, and no scene ever felt rushed or too long, the pacing was perfect. The true highlight of the film though was Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, his turn as the cynical Stark was funny and picture perfect for the role. The rest of the cast was great as well, especially Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Pots, Tony's assistant and love interest; and Jeff Bridges as Obadiah, the villain of the story. Another highlight of the film was the superb screenplay, the dialogue was extremely tight, witty, and flowed very well; as well it perfectly balanced the comedy alongside the drama and action, which is something that many films nowadays don't seem to do well. Other good things included the usual terrific special effects job from ILM, and the pretty good directing from Jon Favreau (Elf), this film being his first go at doing an action movie. That brings to point the amazing action sequences in the film, there maybe weren't as many as I thought there'd be initially going into it, but there was just enough to quench your thirst, which I felt was perfect.
It was really hard for me to find any fault with this film. The only minor complaint I could come up with was the characters. The problem came in the fact that the character of Tony Stark was the only three-dimensional character in this film, which wasn't bad, except when there was an occasional scene without Stark in it, the scene didn't feel as tight, because he was the only character in the film that they really spent time to examine his character and who he is. As I said this is just a minor complaint, and overall didn't affect this film really since Stark was in about 95% of the scenes in the movie.
All in all Iron Man is a highly fun and entertaining superhero movie, and kicks off this summer on a high note. I was genuinely entertained throughout the film and had a lot of fun, and I think it stands tall amongst some of the best superhero movies of all-time, it is definitely one of Marvels better movies since probably Spider-man 2. Another great thing, that is worth a mention, is the great scene at the end of credits, which is almost worth the price of admission itself; just stay after the credits are over, you won't be disappointed. I highly recommend Iron Man to any movie fan, even if you are skeptical about it just give it a chance, I did and I came out loving it.
I give Iron Man an amazing 10 out of 10!