May

Iron Man

Dir: Jon Favreau Tony Stark - Iron Man
Writ: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway. Based on characters created by Stan Lee , Don Heck, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby

Robert Downey Jr. … Tony Stark
Terrence Howard … Jim Rhodes
Jeff Bridges … Obadiah Stane
Gwyneth Paltrow … Pepper Potts
Leslie Bibb … Christine Everhart
Faran Tahir … Raza
Sayed Badreya … Abu Bakaar

Ever since Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang I’ve loved Robert Downey Jr. and that is the main reason I wanted to go see this film. Sure, I enjoy superhero films, but I know nothing at all about Iron Man, so it wasn’t any grá for that character that made me go. For those of you who share this non-knowledge Iron Man is Tony Stark, a genius of a weapons-dealer. When things go wrong for him in Afghanistan he ends up thinking that the only route forward is to give up the whole destruction business, obviously enough his share-holders object slightly.

I really enjoyed this film. It isn’t the greatest film ever made; not by a long shot. But it is entertaining, with some great effects, and some wonderful acting. Yes, I still love Robert Downey Jr..

However it isn’t perfect. And I think I may be getting old. Why else am I wondering why they spent so much time focusing on the possible death of one single US pilot when many, many, many other non-Americans have just been killed, and a few US soldiers too. And I’m sorry, but death by being burned alive is something I don’t think I can really think of as being cool.

But those are minor quibbles. This is a perfect popcorn flick. Finding fault at things like that is more than a little silly. It isn’t designed to make you think, not really, it is meant to entertain, and that it does. In buckets.

Two thumbs up.

IMDb ; Stainless Steel Droppings ; Barking Carnival

Tags: 7 Stars, Art Marcum, based on comic, Don Heck, Faran Tahir, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hawk Ostby, Iron Man, Jack Kirby, Jeff Bridges, Jon Favreau, Larry Lieber, Leslie Bibb, Mark Fergus, Matt Hollowat, R12A, Robert Downey Jr., Sayed Badreya, sff, Stan Lee, superheroes, Terrence Howard

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Moving Pictures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

11 comments so far

Carl V. (Check me out!)

I am glad you enjoyed it. I know I’ve liked Robert Downy, Jr. in other movies before Kiss, Kiss but I am not sure that I considered him a great actor. I do know that since Kiss, Kiss I do. Maybe it is maturity based on his experiences or directors casting him in the right roles for him or a combination of that and many other factors, but whatever it is he is a joy to watch. This film wasn’t perfect, few superhero films are, but it was as close to perfect as I need my superhero films to be and that is in large part to his acting and Favreau’s vision for the film.

Rate this:

3.3 (1 people)

May 10th, 2008 at 12:44 am

Fence (Check me out!)

Yeah, big fan of Favreau too Carl.

Rate this:

3.0

May 11th, 2008 at 3:30 pm

The girl who's afraid of foxes (Check me out!)

The first time i heard about the film I thought it was gonna be a Ted Hughes stylee-thing, which it’s obviously not

Awww

Rate this:

3.2

May 12th, 2008 at 9:23 am

Maolsheachlann (Check me out!)

When will we have enough superhero films? At what point will our society be surfeited with masked, conflicted heroes and anti-heroes, haunted by their past? Iron Man sounds like a punch-alike of Batman. Rich geezer decides to put his wealth to baddie ass-kicking uses. I bet he has nightmares, too. But all superhero films are essentially the same story, which has precious little dramatic potential to begin with. Sigh.

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3.2

May 12th, 2008 at 5:13 pm

jean pierre (Check me out!)

hooray! i know i’ve said this too many of your film reviews, but i really hope i get to see this. payday is wednesday, which also happens to be orange in colour. so here’s hoping…!

(you know, i haven’t seen a film at the movies for 2 years now… )

Rate this:

3.2

May 15th, 2008 at 9:57 am

Fence (Check me out!)

You wannabe cynic Mal. There can never be enough superheroes out there. They are all metaphors for stuff afterall, and stuff will never stop.

2 years JP? Two whole years! me = speechless

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3.2

May 16th, 2008 at 10:28 pm

Maolsheachlann (Check me out!)

Yes, but there’s more stuff than can be metaphored by superheroes. Maybe some different metaphors are in order!

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3.2

May 17th, 2008 at 10:17 pm

Emerging Writer (Check me out!)

Just bought Kiss Kiss Bang Bang today for 4 Euro. I’m a bit scared to watch it in case it’s not as good as I remember. I do love a good/metaphorical super hero movie and if RDJ is in it, all the better. There were some incredibly funny lines in it too

Rate this:

2.5

May 17th, 2008 at 10:19 pm

Fence (Check me out!)

Mal, but then what about the “look, people flying” coolness? You need superheroes for that sort of malarkey.

I really need to buy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, loved it when I saw it in the cinema, but that was years ago at this stage