As effective and good as a modern superhero movie can get.

Rating: 8/10 (4 October 2008)

Basically this movie features all of the right ingredients needed to create a good superhero movie with. It has plenty of big and loud action, comedy, an evil villain, a love interest and of course a superhero in shiny armor. But "Iron Man" is actually somewhat more than just another big budget Hollywood action superhero movie. "Iron Man" tries it with a more down to Earth approach and tries to place things in perspective, instead of rather just letting things blow up. It's basically perfect entertainment to watch but also with some more layers to it, without ever getting dull or overdone.
Perhaps one of the most surprising things about the movie is its cast. Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow all play roles you normally wouldn't expect to see them in. Robert Downey Jr. is definitely back again after his years of drug abuse and life in jail. His life so far perhaps even itself is already good enough to fill one feature length movie with. He isn't the type of actor for the main title role you think about when casting a superhero movie but he perfectly suits his role, with his dry sense of humor and acting skills. He's a tough, cold hearted, womanizer but yet due to Downey Jr.'s performance you care about his character. It's also great that Jeff Bridges plays the bald main villain of the movie. I'll bet he himself never expected ever to play a role such as this in a superhero movie.
But no of course "Iron Man" isn't a very 'deep' movie and luckily foremost the movie still is an highly entertaining one, that is made very entertaining by Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as well as the movie its action.
Iron Man perhaps isn't the best known comic book superhero but he's a real awesome one. He doesn't necessarily has 'superpowers' but simply is a man who happens to own billions of dollars and lots of industrial and weaponry knowhow. With this he knows to create a super-suite, that helps him to fly and has a kinds of other gadget build into it. It practically makes him indestructible to most dangers and enemies but luckily for us not all, or else it of course would had been a very boring superhero movie to watch.
The movie features lots of action in it, that perhaps is not the most spectacular you've ever seen but it nevertheless is great looking, which mainly is thanks to its special effects. I seriously can't tell halve of the what's real and what is CGI in this movie. What also really adds to the movie its action is its sound. The movie has some real excellent sound and I sense an Oscar nomination coming up for it, as well as for it's special effects I would expect, perhaps also for the reason that this was special effects legend Stan Winston's last fully completed movie before his death earlier this year.
It's not a movie that offers a lot of surprises but it features all of the right required ingredients and has something extra added to it as well. It makes "Iron Man" a real effective and entertaining, good looking, well made, modern superhero movie.
8/10
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