Marvel is doing a damn fine job with putting their infamous comic book heroes on screen. Iron Man is definitely one of them!

Rating: 9/10 (21 May 2008)

Iron Man is the most recent Marvel comic book superhero movie. It stars Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, a genius weapons engineer who lives a life of fame and fortune. While in Afghanistan demonstrating his latest destructive bio-weapon, he is violently captured by terrorists. He wakes up in a cave within the mountains, and immediately the terrorists demand that he build them his new weapon. It is then that he realizes that his weapons are being used by not only the military, but terrorists as well. As weeks go by, instead of building a missile, Tony Stark builds an armor suit equipped with weapons. He escapes using the suit, destroys the camp, and is soon rescued by his friend Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard), and brought back home. As soon as he's home, Tony decides that his industry will no longer make weapons. And he begins to work on a new, flashier red/gold version of his suit, and a more flyable one at that. Tony Stark realizes that he should protect the people he's put in harm's way, and does just that with his new suit under the name Iron Man. However a new foe faces Tony in his own business partner Obadiah Stone (Jeff Bridges). After Obadiah receives the blueprints for Tony's original suit, he builds his own, one that is not on the "good guy" side.
Let me start off saying this is an excellent superhero movie. Robert Downey Jr really brings the main character to life, and even adds lots of wit and humor. That's pretty important because if the wrong actor is hired for the part of an infamous superhero, you can bet that will cause some problems (Fantastic Four for instance). Although Jeff Bridges gets a nice amount of screen time, his iron-suited villain unfortunately does not. But for the time he was shown, he was a very menacing and dangerous villain, and makes me wonder what the next villain is going to be. Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the rest of the cast also bring a lot of heart to the film. That's another ingredient that's important in a superhero movie. If it's all just special effects and none of the heart the original character had, then comic book fans may be pretty disappointed. But Marvel Comics, now its own movie company, has done a pretty good job of maintaining excellence in their movies. That list includes Spider Man 1 and 2, X Men, The Punisher, Hulk. Now Iron Man can be added to that list as well.
Iron Man is the jump start to the summer blockbuster season. The movie is filled with brilliant special effects, visuals, and lots of things that blow up! Just the right dosage of what everyone wants in a summer blockbuster. The action scenes were masterfully crafted and edited, and really bring a lot of justice to the original Iron Man comics. Anyone whose seen the commercials for this movie has seen a tank fire a shot at Iron Man, he stops, looks back, and fires an arm missile right back at the enemy tank. As Iron Man slowly walks away the tank explodes, and the thought pops up in our heads: This Movie is Awesome! Everything works to great effect in Iron Man whether it be the action, script, characters, actors, or the special effects. It may not be the best superhero movie ever, but who said it had to be. I give Iron Man a good 4.5/5. P.S. Stay after the creditsSamuel L. Jackson shows up!