Intelligent Super-Hero Action

Rating: 7/10 (21 January 2019)

4 May 2008. A step-above the normal superhero, in fact, this movie is more spoiled rich man with technology who discovers a conscience. This movie movie delivers a Robocop (1987) except bigger and larger but without the more poignant loss of Robocop's wife and family, delivers the Aliens (1986) scene of hi-tech individual warfare with the alien factor that actually provides a more intimate Civil War (1861-1864) angle, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) without the alien factor again. What Iron Man can't provide is due to its very nature - the everyman, common man perspective, a level that the mass audience can identify with as with the Spiderman franchise as well as the more personal relational boy-girl conflict. While Iron Man is truly intellectual with a conscience, that is what it remains whereas Spiderman focuses on the universal experience of all of us. Additional, unnecessary flashback sequence like with Batman Begins (2005) or even the more contemporary movie such as Made of Honor (2008) allows for the underdevelopment of the familial relationships important to the movie. So while Iron Man is worth its ticket, it allows some of the gloss to overlook the more important flash underneath. Seven out of Ten Stars.