McCheesy's take on "Iron Man"

Rating: 8/10 (3 May 2008)

I finally got to see this the other day. It was actually pretty good and I strongly believe it lived up to its hype. It had a solid plot, Robert Downey Jr's charisma is all over the film and every scene with him is above genius. He was indeed the perfect choice to play the title role. Gwyneth Paltrow, Terence Howard and Jeff Bridges also delivers in their respective roles. The CGI effects was fantastic. That's all I can say: Fantastic.
The armor designs (Mark I, II and III) were beautifully crafted. From the metal junk that Tony Stark created inside the cave to the Hot Rod Mark III design, its all a geek's (even normal people) fantasy dream put into celluloid. A couple of visual effects-laden scenes will assuringly take your breath away. The most notable is the part where Iron Man is high up in the air evading two Jet fighters. Pure eye candy delight. Also, there's this one scene where Iron Man intervenes in a terrorist activity somewhere in Afghanistan blasting the baddies into little smithereens. He looked really awesome in that scene. I assure you, watching this film will satisfy your hunger for CGI.
But of course, in every CGI summer blockbuster film there is some weak points that might or might not bring down the whole film. Obadiah Stane's last minute transformation to Iron Monger was really uncalled for. Seems to me it was probably just an excuse so that Iron Man will have a sparring partner near the end of the film. They could've just pulled off a story where Obadiah creates like a thousand unmanned Iron Mongers and program them to eliminate Iron Man. That should keep our metallic hero busy. Probably a better scenario for an ending battle scene but what the heck, its just probably me. The action scenes were scarce too. But since the film is mostly focused on Tony Stark's transformation into Iron Man and his origins, it is probably forgivable.
By the way, they managed to put in some SHIELD references which is probably a make-way for a sequel or maybe even an Avengers movie down the line. Also, they gave us hints of superheroes (and a villain) who will likely appear in the sequel and share screen time with our hero Iron Man. Like Nick Fury and his 'Avengers Initiative' who makes a surprising cameo after the end credits. There's also Jim Rhodes and his War Machine alter ego whose line "Maybe next time baby" is a foreshadowing of his imminent turn into a superhero. The Ten Rings terrorist organization is obviously a direct nod to a possible sequel villain: The Mandarin.
Overall, I'd say a pretty decent superhero movie although there were some weak points but you can't avoid that in films these large and epic. Director Jon Favreau did his homework, he started the Iron Man franchise with an origin story. Robert Downey's charisma and machismo suits the character Tony Stark and his alter ego Iron Man very well and here's hoping for a bigger and much epic (with more fight scenes) sequel. Huzzah.