Iron-Man. Still the best Marvel movie?

Rating: Null/10 (19 July 2011)

As someone who has read Iron-Man since his inception in comic-book format, I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of this movie. It has managed the leap better than any other comic-book movie I have seen before or since. (Though I was also pleasantly surprised that Thor worked too; just not as well.) While the Hulk (as in the version featuring Ed Norton) had a lot going for it, the decision to mess with the look of his antagonist (The Abomination) was enough to annoy me as a comic purist. As did the immense amount of fiddling on Spider-man, the X-men (both versions now) and The FF.
These characters have survived for nearly half a century now, without having to screw with them. It's a shame that the producers of these movies feel they have to change the fundamentals of characters for 'the new viewing' audience.
Somehow, though, the way this was dealt with in Iron-Man has made it much less annoying. (Of course it probably also helped that RDJ was cast as Stark. I had been suggesting him as either Tony Stark or Steven Strange for about 10 years prior to the advent of these movies. His characterisation did not disappoint either.) Iron-Man 2, on the other hand, I found did let us down. Too much involvement in Whiplash and not enough in the Rhodey/Stark or War-Machine/Iron-Man relationship. Quite frankly, not enough real action either. This said, Marvel has always thrived on good characterisation of it's villains, so I guess I should reserve criticism on that basis. In my (humble) opinion, this still remains the bast adaptation Marvel have produced thus far. (Obviously, the Dark Knight remains the best that D.C./W.B. have produced.)
I'm just glad that I've had the opportunity to see these movies in the first place. Though, I did see them coming back in the early 1980's, and had hoped to be involved in bringing them to the screen at one point. Ho-hum, such is life.