Movie Review: Iron Man 8.5 / 10
May 6, 2008 by John
The first blockbuster of summer 2008 is here, and it rules with an iron fist! Iron Man opened on May 2nd a
cross North America and made just over a cool 100 million at the box office. I was among those movie goers who happily paid up 8 bucks for a matinée screening at a local mega-super-duper-plex. I have to say right off-the-bat that I am not a comic book guy. I’ve owned maybe 4 comics in my life, and they were the unfortunate result of a misguided, yet well intentioned surprise Christmas gift exchange.
This review is spoiler free, so no worries! I won’t rehash to much of the plot or characters either. The IMDB plot description will suffice:
When wealthy industrialist Tony Stark is forced to build an armored suit after a life-threatening incident, he ultimately decides to use its technology to fight against evil.
Having said that, I do love a good super hero movie, but have found that in the past couple years, 
we’ve been flooded with them. Batman Begins, Spider Man2, XMen 2 and now Iron Man are among my 
favorites. You might’ve noticed that the movies I named have one thing in common: interesting characters. In that category, Iron Man may very well lead the pack with Tony Stark, a performance by Robert Downey Jr that seems tailor made for the man. He’s the movie, plain and simple. I wasn’t a big fan of his before this, and now I’ll probably check him out more because of it. I can’t remember laughing at the movies as much as I did at his deadpan, quiet delivery of some of the funniest lines of dialog this year. His chemistry with Gwyneth Paltrow, playing the involved, strong, yet ‘girly’ Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts, is natural and never seems forced. Supporting players Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges (The Dude!!!) also play well and add to the overall feel of the movie.
What does seem forced, however, is the villain of this Iron Man creation story. The overall plot is predictable and the villains gradual revelation is anti-climactic: everyone in the theater sees it coming except for Tony Stark. But I won’t delve into it anymore than that. Go see the movie and let me know what you think, of what may be the only major negative point, in this fun ride of a flick.
Notice I haven’t talked about the action? Well it’s good, needless to say, and the action scenes actually drive the plot of the movie, which is a rare thing lately. Suffice to say that the amazing special effects (check out the details on Iron Man’s suit 
) and characters deliver this movie into summer blockbuster goodness territory! 
It’s a great start to the summer season, hopefully the momentum will last! Iron Man has set a standard, will the other summer flicks step up as well?
We’ll find out soon enough, as Speed Racer (May 9th - retch!), The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (May 16th - meh…) and Indiana Jones: And the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (May 22nd - yay!) all open this month!
For me, a true test to liking a movie is if I would buy it on DVD, and Iron Man will be on my shelf the day it comes out!
Johnny out!
8.5 / 10
Mach GoGoGo baby!
the sequel hints dropped in Iron Man were pretty obvious, the next one should be great (i hope)
Hey Patrick, thanks for the comment.
It’s funny you should mention sequel, I assume you stayed after the credits for that extra little ditty at the end? Well most of the people I’ve spoken to about it seem mad at the actor chosen to portray the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Not being a comic book guy, it didn’t matter in the least to me, but it seems to have ruffled a few feathers among the DC faithful…