I think they got it right and made a fine action film as a result

Rating: 9/10 (4 May 2008)

I loved it...do you need more than that? Okay the comic geek who red a huge chunk of every appearance of the character was pleased in spirit if not in action. Like the first time we saw and heard Wolverine's claws come out in the first X-Men movie, the moment that kind of sold me was when the camera pulls back to reveal Tony's mansion-and it was Tony's mansion (Later the comic book team Avengers' west coast headquarters). At that point I knew it was all okay, at that moment the geek went away and said they got it right and calmed down.
yea its an origin story and yea you know how its going to come out- but the neat thing is there is a sense of danger, that everything may not be okay-hey Tony is injured in the opening minutes so you know he can and will be hurt. I love that its an origin story that hasn't been done to death-thank god Ironman was never Spiderman so his origin was never the stiff of endless spoofs and rip offs. Best of all I love the characters. All of the characters are there and they are real. Sure there is slight modification for the real world but they are there and you care about them- so much so that the action almost seems like an intrusion into the rest of the film. I especially liked Jeff Bridges as Obediah Stane. At last he gives a real performance and not one of his lispy toss off appearances of late. Here we have a wonderful evil man.
I don't want to spoil it by saying too much...
If I have any complaints- and there are two- its first that the film is almost too breezy. Its moves like the wind from start to finish with Robert Downey giving one hell of a central performance (He holds it all together). However the problem is that the meat seems to be missing-or at least invisible. Yes I know its not needed but I would have loved to have seen more of the back stories and subplots hinted at and that bleed off the screen. I love that the world and the people all exist outside the film-however I wished we could have seen more(though I know that would have slowed or killed the flow of the film). My second complaint is that the effects are at times too CGI. Its not so much the look- but the weight-when we see the later suits in action they don't have a real world weight. Its a nit pick, but it bothered me that such a wonderfully fun film missed something so tiny.
Still I loved it- 9 out of 10 on the pure fun scale. No it ain't high art but it is a great thrill ride-and as for the post credits bit- Oh yea I'm there.