Saw Iron Man this weekend. Awesome. I have never been a big fan of Robert Downey Jr, but he delivers in this one. The story is faithful in spirit to the comics and tells an excellent origin story.
Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark a wealthy industrialist whose company primarily develops weapons. He gets kidnapped and made to create a weapon for a terrorist group. Instead he creates his first suit of armor and trashed them and escapes. This is not a quick part of the movie either. They really go into details here and give Tony an understanding of just what use his weapons have been put to. When he eventually gets back to the US he holds a press conference and announces to the world that Stark Industries is out of the weapons business. Obadiah Stane, Tony’s partner, clearly does not like this and convinces Tony to keep out of the limelight for a time, while he spins this in a positive direction. In seclusion at his home, Tony begins working on an improved suit. Eventually getting it right and heading back to the middle east and destroying a cache of weapons the terrorist group has. We learn that Stane was working with the terrorists to kill Tony and he has been supplying them with weapons. Stane gets ahold of Tony’s first suit of armor and creates his Iron Monger suit. Then we get a nice confrontation between Iron Man and the Iron Monger.
Pros: Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark, Pepper, Happy Hogan, Obadiah Stane, Jim Rhodes, the Iron Man armor (all versions), the action sequences
Cons: Computer AI Jarvis. The only negative aspect of this movie. Jarvis is not a flesh and blood servant, but an AI construct.
I can say this movie gets a rating of 8.5 out of 10. To put this in perspective, Spider-Man gets a 9 out of 10, Spider-Man 2 gets a 9.5 and Spider-Man 3 gets a 5. X-Men 1 gets a 7, X-Men 2 gets a 8 and X-Men3 gets a 2.
Go see this movie now! And stay after the credits for a scene capper that helps setup a future Avengers movie.
I am really looking forward to the Incredible Hulk movie coming out June 13th.