He is Iron Man

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2010)

I really wanted to reward one of the best superhero movies with a higher rating than just 8/10 stars, but each time I've seen this (now on the 5th time,) I can't get past the two major flaws and one scene, though incredibly original, I didn't personally 100% care for.
Let's get the negatives out of the way, because the positives thoroughly outweigh the minor downfalls of Iron Man. #1: The story is just too damned old, familiar and makes it not only predictable, but very A-B-C. #2: The so-called "villain" is so foreseen, even for the first viewing, that it's funny they should even put in the "surprise" scene. The scene that was original, but I'm on the fence with, was the last few seconds of the film. It's hard not to give away the spoiler, but since the trailer for Iron Man 2 specifically lays it out, it's Stark (Downey Jr.) revealing his secret identity.
I grew up on superheroes, namely, Superman, and one of my favorite aspects, if not the #1, is the secret identity part. Of course it can be considered unrealistic – uh, glasses and the farm-boy stance hardly makes Superman invisible, especially to his "incredibly brilliant and reporter" partner. So, I'll give it to Iron Man as it would be hard not to put two-and-two together and they were doing just that in the finale's press conference. But, now the fun's gone and I strongly worry, though still curious, about the direction part two's going to take.
Okay, glad that's over. The #1 best thing about Iron Man: Downey Jr. He made this movie. Literally without him, this would be just another run of the mill Superhero film. His wit, depth and incredibly funny one-liners shoot this film up to the top 10 (if not 5) best superhero movies. In addition, Paltrow did a great job (up to her nervous fumbling in the closing) of bouncing very nicely off him, as he did with the robots, as well. Bridges, as much as I like him, wasn't a great part of the film. I wouldn't go as far as to say he was miscast – on the contrary, for the character he played, he did fit the part. But, he was just, well, there. Nothing special. Howard's the same and I'm not sad to see him go for the second movie.
Back to Downey Jr. If the opening hilarious "taxi" ride doesn't grab you with his humor, stance and instant charisma, you might as well turn the movie off. Sure, the action's good, in fact, most of its great, but I strongly believe he made the movie.
Stark is an alcoholic, rich, spoiled, womanizing, sarcastic and incredibly smart engineer who heads up his deceased father's weapon company until he gets a change of "heart" while captured, tortured and forced to break free with the Iron Man 1.0 model. After the initial transformation of Stark (inside and out) the movie plays out like almost every other superhero/comic book origin story – again, with the exception of the phenomenal performance of Downey Jr.
Not my favorite superhero – like I said, I like the change the superhero has to QUICKLY go through to save the day and here, like Batman, it's a long drawn out process. (I will say this though, they must've known people might have a problem with that because they made it sincerely interesting, despite time-consuming.) But, they definitively got a new fan here to the decades old hero.
I do look forward to #2 as well as any kind of Avengers movie with Iron Man – as long as Downey Jr. plays Stark. I can't imagine anyone else stepping into those "not-really" Iron Shoes. (I could see them cutting costs on that Avengers movie with Iron Man now played by Freddie Prinze Jr. Save your role-stealing to Jack Bauer. Another character you'll never replace.)