05/06/10 - Iron Man

Iron Man (2008, 126 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371746/

The theater decided to do a double feature with Iron Man late today so as to get Iron Man 2 showing right after midnight. I'd seen Iron Man twice already but it's still a really fun movie so I didn't mind checking it out again.

The movie stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. Through the movie we learn how he becomes the titular Iron Man. His best friend is Rhodey played by Terrence Howard while his secretary is Pepper Potts played by Gwyneth Paltrow. The enemy for the film is business partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) who eventually becomes Iron Monger.

This is an origin story for comic books so a lot of the time is spent establishing the characters. Really, the film excels here. Downey Jr. is an expert at making up the character of Tony Stark and a huge portion of that seems to be that he's playing himself. He really sells the character and as this is a significant to the structure of the film it's important that it works. On the other acting front, everyone else holds their own as well. Bridges is a little weird as first as the bad guy but he turns out alright. Paltrow is somehow infinitely prettier in this role than anything else she's ever been in except maybe The Royal Tenenbaums. Oh and her acting is good as well.

The real weird thing with this film is that nothing really happens. Like I said above it's an origin story for the character so there's just not a whole lot of anything going on in the film. But it's still so superbly paced that this isn't a problem. The action isn't crazy over-the-top as it maintains this sense of fun and the plot is important enough to where it never just takes a back seat. They end up balancing each other really well. I'll say that my favorite scene is easily the "fight" between Iron Man and the two jets. Here we have this nice blend of humor and action.

The one problem I have with the film is that Iron Monger just really isn't that bad of a villain. The movie makes him dangerous through a weird set of circumstances so it somewhat works but not really. The guy is basically just an Iron Man that's bigger and stronger but less stable and less experienced. There's never really any question that Tony Stark will be able to outsmart him here.

Overall, I gave this film a 7/10. The pros of Downey Jr., excellent pacing, and just a fun atmosphere make it one of the better superhero movies to come out in the past couple years (and definitely more enjoyable than The Dark Knight to which it is most frequently compared).