Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Iron Man (2008) Review


Iron Man was the first entry in Marvel´s Cinematic Universe, which currently consists of six films. It was very important for the film to have both critical and financial success or else the whole Cinematic Universe thing might not work out. Luckily it succeeded on both levels. In Iron Man we meet Tony Stark, a genius billionaire,, with possibly the worlds biggest ego. His family business revolves around making weapons, mainly for the US military, however while on a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan he is captured by a terrorist organization and help hostage. Eventually he escapes, but in his time there he saw the true effect his weapons had on the world and that they were not only used for good and it changes him and he eventually becomes Iron Man to help the world.

Robert Downey Jr. was born to play Tony Stark, it is impossible to imagine someone else playing him. While Tony Stark is a character who for the most part is very selfish and obsessed with his self-image while being a guy who mainly jokes around constantly, it is interesting to see small hints of him having some darkness to him. For the most part however, he is just very funny. This particular movie does not explore his dark sides, but we can tell they are there.

The story is very simple, however they have done a very good job of making it so much fun to watch and that’s what really carries this film, its ability to be so much fun. Director Jon Favreau, does a good job of telling Tony Starks story, with a good mix of humour and exciting action. What is maybe one of the most impressive things is how incredibly likable Tony Stark is, considering that when you think about it, he is not a nice guy at all.

They took some chances with the score, having a very unusual score for this kind of movie however it paid off. The heavy metal music playing at times, really worked well together with the images of Iron Man and with Tony Starks` cocky persona.  

There were a few issues I had with the film, first of all I felt the editing was sort of choppy at times and the transitioning between scenes wasn’t as smooth as it could have been. Secondly, the villain’s motivations were somewhat lacking, because the few reasons that were hinted at really didn’t feel strong enough for his actions. Also at times I felt certain technologies used in the film were a bit too much, I mean robots with artificial intelligence is a bit too much in my opinion, I can take the Iron Man suit, that’s fine, but certain things were a bit too much.

Overall though, this was a great introduction too Iron Man and Marvel´s Cinematic Universe. It is an immensely entertaining popcorn movie with a pitch-perfect performance from Downey Jr.

4/5

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