not perfect but excels at the hard stuff

Rating: 6/10 (2 May 2008)

If you like comic book movies, go see Iron Man. It's not my favorite, but it's pretty good. For people who didn't enjoy Batman or Spider-man, seeing this movie would be pointless.
Note to parents: This movie is not as psychologically dark as Batman Begins nor does it have the random gross-out violence of Tim Burton's Batman films. If your child can handle the violence of the first Spider-man film, Iron Man is no worse.
Reading the rest of my review is only necessary for the few people who really can't make up their minds...
Many great comic book movies have outstanding villains, but the baddie in this movie was nothing special. Although certainly evil and menacing, the villain was not very colorful. Nor did he have the entertaining backstory or motivations possessed by many great villains. His history and motivations were quite cut-and-dry.
Robert Downey Jr. was the best thing about this film. It's difficult to play a character who is selfish but still likable; Downey Jr. makes it look easy. His Tony Stark is a wealthy, impulsive, boozing, womanizing, fun-loving bachelor who happens to also be an engineering genius. Kudos to the writers for the excellent development of this character.
The supporting cast is good, although Gwyneth Paltrow (as Pepper Potts) is merely adequate. I'm not saying there was anything wrong with her performance, but I believe other actresses could have probably played the Pepper Potts character just as well. I felt that she had weak chemistry with Downey Jr., which is probably the result of their relationship being poorly written. I think the writers couldn't agree on whether Pepper's relationship with Tony should be like Miss Moneypenny with James Bond or more like the early stages of a serious romance. Either way, the scenes shared by Pepper and Tony were disappointing and boring.
Director Jon Favreau has an excellent sense of timing. He sucks in the viewer by throwing in danger or humor at precisely the right moments (and often without warning). The humor in this movie was perhaps the best of any comic book movie I've seen. Almost every joke was funny. More importantly, the jokes never made the characters look cheesy, nor did the jokes feel forced.
This movie is really fun when Iron Man is kicking butt, but that only happens during a brief portion of the film.
Like some other comic book films (e.g. Spider-Man), this movie does a great job of showing the process through which our hero awkwardly tests his new powers, slowly sharpening his skills. Unfortunately, like those other films, we are supposed to believe that the bad guy immediately masters his powers without going through any sort of trial-and-error process.