I’ve always been a fan of Marvel superheroes, what’s not to like? You have Spider-Man who was a teeny bop trying to juggle school with fighting crime, you’ve got the Incredible Hulk – a dude with anger management issues and you have the X-Men, enuff said! However, I’ve never really liked Iron Man, essentially a guy in a suit. Everyone else had special powers but with Iron Man you had a guy strapped to a robotic suit. Okay, I like Batman who is essentially a guy in a suit with no special powers but Batman oozes dark broody cool, but Iron Man was a man in an “iron” suit. In recent years, however, I began reading “Ultimate Iron Man” and “The Ultimates” – they sort of re-imagine the Marvel universe and bringing their origins and stories up to the present day, it was then that I started to notice Iron Man and when I first saw a trailer for the movie I knew I had to see it. Without giving away too much, the movie updates the movie from the Vietnam war to Afghanistan where we see the origins of how Iron Man came to be… Comic book fans need not worry, the movie sticks very closely to the comic book origins of Iron Man and Robert Downey Jnr makes a fantastic Tony Stark. It’s also surprisingly funny with some great special effects and some great cameos (stay till the end of the credits kids), great fight scenes and some mind blowing tech. Plus, more importantly Gwyneth Paltrow is HOT as Pepper Potts. Recent reports have stated that the movie made $101 million on the opening weekend in the USA and Canada and it is 1 of only 10 movies to have broken the $100 million mark in just three days. The movie is a triumph and is right up there with the likes of ‘Spider-Man’, ‘Spider-Man 2’, ‘X-Men’, ‘X-Men 2’, ‘Blade’, ‘Superman’, ‘Superman II’ and ‘Batman Begins’ as shining examples of how to make a superhero movie. 3.5/4 stars.
i was never into the marvel comics as a kid so i don't really know the history of the character, apart from being a man in an iron suit but as a film it was pretty good over all. plenty of explosions, rock music and a hint of comedy too. the "chase" between ironman and the two f22 raptors was pretty cool!!
Haven't seen the movie yet, been badgering the missus to death about it I am (or was until Ultimates 3 came out) a huge Ultimates fan. But Scott Orson Card ruined Ultimate Tony for me :woo:
The pieces of the puzzle are almost there, several spidey films lined up and now the Iron Man franchise.... Roll out the Iron Spidey costume!
Thought it was superb. RD. Jnr was a good Tony Stark. Anyone going to watch it, make sure you stay till the end of the credits for a little surprise!
I thought the movie was excellent as well, the humour was very good and Robert Downey Jr really played the part brilliantly. My only complaint would be that the bad guys couldn't match up to RD Jr's performance, but overall a great film to watch if you want some quick entertainment, 3.5/4 stars.
Excellent movie. Downey Jr. was just drooling with sarcasm. I'm a big fan of sarcasm. The whole thing was boss from top down. Every 5 minutes I went HOLY SHNIKEYS THAT WAS SO AWESOME!!! And yes Gwyneth Paltrow was hot as Pepper Potts, and I'm not generally a huge fan of hers. Oh and one more thing . . . [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZzBrxj-Gjo"]Isaac Hayes - Shafted by WMG - YouTube[/ame] SHAFT!!
The good - RD Jr. as Tony Stark was a good choice. He was probably one of the better choices they've made. He was watchable and actually made it possible to suspend disbelief. You didn't go 'oh RD Jr. as Iron Man' the same way you'd have gone 'oh Tom Cruise trying hard not to be Tom Cruise' or anyone else they'd have looked at. The CG was awesome. With that sort of budget how could it not be. The suit was just killer. Love the fact they payed homage to the original suit that Stark built. The tech props were brilliant pretty much. The music was killer. Good choice of songs with roaring guitars matched the action perfectly. Closing it down with Black Sabbath's Iron Man was perfect. So heavy. Jeff Bridges cast as Obidaih Stane/Iron Monger... Perfect. He really brought something to the bad guy role. Poweful. A big bald ******* who was believable. I'd have liked it had they made him a bit more powerful and slick and greasy. He played his role to the T. Well done. A good actor. The not so good - You never felt even remotely worried that he might not beat the villans. So the battles ended up being sort of anti-climax. It's this trend in movies where the hero is so powerful that you wonder why he even bothers to fight the flimsy villans they come up with. Sad. Obidiah Stane played a brilliant bad guy. But they dropped the ball when he was defeated so easily by Iron Man. Bah.. how lame was that. They need to put Iron Man to the test. Another thing... after any mishap testing the suit or coming out of battle... they RD Jr. too pretty-boy. WTF?!?! He's just been pasted by a giant mettle suit or he's just flown himself into the cement ceiling beam... and yet he didn't break his nose or cut his cheek or brow. Come on... all that CG and you can't even give some work to the make up artists. LAME. Come on people... add some weigh to your story and characters with a more sophisticated blend of real world physics and fantasy. It doesn't have to be one or the other. The really bad stereotyping. Yeah everyone with a beard and a Keffiyeh if obviously a terrorist just waiting to get their hands on weapons. How ironic... the US has been providing weapons to that demographic forever... so why not make a movie out of it. Then they couldn't even get that right... when was the last time you saw your bog standard S. Asian terrorists sporting M4's with rail mods? Dumb... they should have at least gotten that right. Repeat after me... AK47... AK47... AK47. Terence Howard playing General Rhodey. What a miscast. He doesn't once come off as military in the entire film. Sorry... but he's not military material and it shows. His posture... the way he carries himself. Not believable at all. Yeah as if generals at that level are just happy go lucky fellows that don't mind when someone doesn't play by the rules. How dumb. Poorly developed. Gwyneth Paltrow cast as Pepper Pots... she came off to similar in looks to Mary Jane from Spider Man. In fact we had several people sitting around us whispering 'Is that the girl from Spiderman?!'... so while she brought a lot to the chemistry between herself and RD Jr. I don't really think she was that great cast as Pepper Pots just because visually she was too similar a character to Marry Jane. They needed to change up her look even more. What got me in the film was the product placement. So blatant. Why not just stop the film and run a 30 second commercial. Man it look stupid and is distracting from the story. What we'll never know - How Jack Kirby, some of the real brains behind Marvel Comics, would have handled it. Kirby is still a legend in the comic book world for his take on villans and heros. He's one the main inspirations for Mike Mignola's Hell Boy. His rendering style is legendary in itself. So while we have to put up with Stan Lee constantly blowing his own horn... I was always a bigger Jack Kirby fan by far. Where Stan Lee comes off as one more huckster in the publishing business... Jack Kirby had class.... and skills. Overall - I rated it a 4 - It was one of the more enjoyable action films with CG. I'm frankly surprised that Hollywood even managed this. Most of what they've done with the marvel properties has been so **** poor as to be unwatchable. Let's hope they keep Iron Man out of the muck that they drug Fantastic 4 and Ghost Rider through... even Spiderman didn't have much weight... they really need to get on it. Well worth seeing... most wont spend the time digging as deep as I have with my crits... but I still own many of the first issues of Iron Man... I grew up with Iron Man and that whole Golden Era of Marvel... so I don't just swallow anything Stan Lee and his new found friends in Hollywood spit out.
Good film, very enjoyable. Not entirely convinced by: Spoiler the way loads of scientists in a lab couldn't produce the suit powering thing whilst he did it in a cave with minimal equipment. I know the scientist said the whole "Well I'm not Tony Stark" thing but I'm still not convinced.
As a comic book fan I follow most comic book to movie adaptations and I read how many a geek were angry at the casting of Robert Downey Jnr as Tony Stark/Iron Man. However, he was simply perfect for the role and just like in the comic books he potrayed the character as a bumhole but an extremely likeable bumhole. Like Slips I did find the product placement slightly annoying as I came away wanting to buy that LG phone with the twisty sideways screen oh and an 'Iron Man' suit. The movie plays tribute to the fans of 'Iron Man' and the Marvel universe in general - does 'War Machine' mean anything to anyone? I quite liked Paltrow as Pepper Potts, I've always found the actress cute rather than gorgeous but in this movie she was sexy as hell! Though I get what you mean about the resemblance to Mary Jane Watson. Just as comic book adaptations were starting to wane (The 'Fantastic Four' movies, 'Ghost Rider' and the third sequels to 'Spider-Man' and 'X-Men' were poor to mediocre at best) 'Iron Man' drags it back with a bang!
I have to agree, that this is definately a step back in the right direction for comic book films. This was cracking, so much more to it than the recent ones, and i am glad. It gave me back that warm fuzzy feeling of being a kid a again that was ripped away from me by Spiderman 3 and X-men 3, both of which could have been so much better. There was so much scope for X-men i could not really belive where it went. I have to say i never got the comparison of Gwyneth paltrow and Kirsten dunst, even in character I never found Pepper pots to be anything close to MJ. Looking forward to the alcoholic Tony Stark, and emergance of War Machine
The rumour is that 'Iron Man 2' is scheduled for release April 30th 2010! Apparently the director and Downey Jr (who had a huge part in the scripting of the current movie) are currently brainstorming over what to include in the next movie! War Machine has GOT to be must! It's also rumoured that the after credit scene and scenes in the new 'Incredible Hulk' movie will pave the way for something quite special... Comic fans will know what I am on about...
Scenes in 'Iron Man' and 'The Incredible Hulk' hint at such a movie but they have to be careful with it. I can imagine they would be eager to get the 'Avengers' movie out before the proposed 'JLA' movie (Warner Bros./DC Comics muted rival superhero group movie). However any 'Avengers' movie will probably wait until after the 'Captain America' and 'Thor' movies before being made/released.
I've not seen Iron Man yet, but sorry to disappoint you Chimp, you forgot about The Punisher. Frank Castle. He was a Marvel comic and he had no super powers yet became a superhero/vigilante.
Ultimate Avengers? With an intelligent hulk? Does anyone have the UK launch date for the Incredible Hulk? I'd rate the new Iron Man film much higher than ANY of the previous Marvel films.
I thought Iron Man had all of teh awesomes! I usually hate special-effects movies (despite being a big comic book nerd) but I really enjoyed this one. They should totally do an Ultimates movie. But only if they can get James Hetfield from Metallica to play Thor
