A Fine Slice of Comic Book Cinema

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2008)

A great start to the summer blockbusters, Iron Man features an endearing performance by Robert Downey Jr as the ludicrously wealthy playboy genius, excellent SFX that manages to pull off the near-future sci-fi aesthetic with a convincing grounding in reality, solid characterisation of the two leads and a story as far from the by-the-numbers superhero origin schlock as one can reasonably expect. That is until the final twenty minutes of course, when the narrative enters predictable 'evil all along' territory and throws in a nemesis of face-palming obviousness. While I realise the logical antagonist for an robot suit is a slightly bigger, more advanced robot suit - and it may seem unrealistically critical to bemoan a Marvel film for being predictable - it simply felt like an insulting kick in the balls after the finely crafted first half.
Also the phrase, 'But you'll die!' nearly caused my eyes to roll completely from my head.
That aside, Iron Man is a fine return to form for the comic adaptation after the Spiderman franchise swallowed a large slice of jingoistic apple pie and shat itself inside out, and it's refreshing being drawn to a protagonist so utterly unlikable in principal. If anyone in our humdrum real world owns a plane with a private pole dancing lounge and numerous flight attendents hired for their large breasts and aversion to clothes, they can happily sod off back to their Bel Air mansion and die.