Marvel's second golden age begins here.

Rating: 10/10 (9 February 2015)

Having never read the Iron Man comics as a kid and having never seen this film when it first came out in '08, I didn't know what to expect when I sat down to watch it. Would it be dark and complex, overly campy or a fun action romp? Well, I can say Iron Man totally blew me away from its action and visual effects to its acting and writing. After watching this, it's hard to imagine what the MCU would have been without this movie.
We start off in the deserts of Afghanistan where a military convoy is escorting millionaire playboy Tony Stark to show off his new "Jericho" missile. The convoy is then attacked and Tony is significantly wounded by one of his own weapons. Tony is then captured and imprisoned by a terrorist organization called the Ten Rings. Stark discovers that an electromagnet has been embedded into his chest to prevent shrapnel from reaching his heart and killing him. The Ten Rings Leader Raza then offers Tony his freedom in return for Tony building a Jericho missile for the group, but Stark has no intention of keeping his word. With the help of fellow inmate, Yinsen, Tony builds an arc reactor to charge the electromagnet and a suit of armor. Following his escape from the cave and returning home, Stark shows up at a press meeting and announces that his company will no longer make weapons after what he witnessed earlier in the film. He also builds an enhanced version of the suit plus a new arc reactor. Now, Tony must fight his inner demons as well as putting his talents to making the world better.
While superhero films have become an everyday factor in the summer blockbuster season, one question always comes up: how does one make a comic book film stand out in the middle of so much superhero completion while remaining faithful to the comics? It seems John Favreau has that covered. Right from the opening chords of "Back in Black" it becomes obvious that Iron Man is a different kind of superhero movie. Rather than go the Christopher Nolan route by making the movie as darker and grittier than its source material ever needed to be, Favreau isn't afraid to welcome a much needed sense of fun without diverting into outright silliness. In the process, Iron Man essays an outstanding balance between welcoming every entertaining element while preserving the seriousness and difficulty of the origin story and the characters. Also by modernizing Tony's backstory from Vietnam to Afghanistan, the movie adds a touch of political tragedy, making a few tongue in cheek remarks about the US military in the process.
The script is one of the things that really sell this film, with a string of intelligently written lines, a far cry from some of the more overused Hollywood writing that could've been thought by your ordinary six year old. Robert Altman's influence on the script leads to several humorous ad-libbing on top of the written material.
Favreau doesn't hold back when it comes to the action and the visual effects, resulting in some enthralling action set pieces such as a fight in an Afghan village and a final show down between Iron Man and Iron Monger, not to mention some truly edgy scenes as well as the adrenaline pumping scene of Stark testing his Mark 1 armor during his escape. The special effects are flawless and are carried out perfectly without overwhelming the movie's overall story. Iron Man's armor looks stunning, a clinking mass of machinery that come together with a heart beating exterior. The same can also be said for the musical score which delivers some aptly heroic themes.
Of course, this movie wouldn't be half the movie it is without its cast and what a cast: Gwyneth Paltrow is surprisingly believable as Pepper Potts, her charm and cool comebacks easily being an excellent foil to Tony's livewire performance and brings some serious-minded glow of sexual tightness and interaction between her and Tony. Jeff Bridges molds his normal laid-back look into a wickedly conniving businessperson hiding his self-centered dealings under a façade of decency and while it was interesting to see Bridges play a villain, he did a great job, Terrence Howard provides an appropriately brisk aroma of self-respect as Tony's friend, James Rhodes, enhancing his performance with just the perfect amount of deadpan delivery, but the real star here is Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man. I can't praise his performance enough as he is the key element to making Iron Man stand out amongst other comic book films. Easily the best performance in his career, Downey fluently makes every single inch of Tony his own and puts an unconventional spin on the character through his wisecracking, smart mouthed dynamism while still staying true to Stark's character, even making the shift from an arrogant playboy to a humanitarian wearing an iron suit possible through his personality and his shining, zealous strength. There are some obvious parallels between Tony and RDJ's personal lives when it comes to the excess and women. Downey plays a bit of a double-faced role here as Stark and Iron Man, on one hand being his lavish self whose duty is the maintenance of his father's company vs his own mission to become a better person. The dialog given to Robert in every scene is full of one-liners finished in quick time. To say that RDJ was born to play this role is an understatement; he is and will always be Iron Man. Even Samuel Jackson has a brief appearance as S.H.I.E.L.D agent, Nick Fury who sets the scene for later events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Iron Man is a perfect superhero movie. I really don't have any issues with it, it just rocks all around. So do yourselves a favor and give this film a watch, you'll enjoy it.