Fantastic!

Rating: 8/10 (4 May 2008)

This film completely exceeded all my expectations and totally delivered as a summer superhero blockbuster and is now my second favourite superhero film behind Batman Begins, and in front of Spider-man. When i first heard that Iron Man was to be made into a film, i was very sceptical. I mean i had never heard of the comic and when told it was about a billionaire who constructs a suit, i was like what!? That sounds ridiculous! However after reading film magazines, watching adverts and build up and then seeing the film, i cannot believe i ever thought such thoughts.
First off is the cast of Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark. Perfect! RD is Tony Stark and uses his history with inner demons and his sarcastic sense of humour on screen. Casting Robert Downey as Stark is better than Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker and rivals the choice of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne. He manages to successfully convey Stark's selfishness and lack of respect for anyone to (not completely transforming) the moral and aware Iron Man that he becomes but fails to lose his brilliant satire.
Next is Jon Favreu's direction which is great as he successfully shows that he is worthy of taking on such a huge task as this. The pace is kept at a constant "fast jog" never sprinting and stopping to catch our breath. His choice of music of rock and roll is spot on to the theme of industrialisation and a glamour lifestyle and is in keeping with the character of Tony Stark but also to the technology that surrounds Stark which helped him to design and build the suit.
The special effects are terrific. ILM does a great job as usual and is not like Transformers with tons of CGI in every frame but still produces the same kind of quality as Transformers.
As with most first parts of a sequence the film focuses on characterisation and is not as action packed as the certain sequels will most probably be. Howver this does not dull down the film as RD Jr is consistently funny and has good chemistry with the gorgeous Gywneth Paltrow as Stark's assistant Pepper Potts who may be his first true love. Jeff Bridges is good as the jealous traitor but i have to admit the final fight sequence does not exactly take your breath away for reasons seen in the film but will obviously be upgraded in the sequel.
Overall Iron Man is a great start off to the summer blockbusters who now have a task trying to surpass this terrific comic adaption. Its's fast, funny, exciting and easy on the eye. A film not just males will enjoy, but females too! (And not just because of the scene of RD Jr showing off his muscles whilst banging a hammer and sweating looking very masculine)