Iron Man: Review By CBF

Jul 11th, 2008 by CBF
I don't want to see this on your MySpace page.
  • OVERALL
    4.0
    GREAT
  • Story
  • Acting
  • Directing
  • Visuals
Iron Man was never a comic that I read as a youngster. Although, the character did make appearances into some of my favorite Marvel books. That being said, before the movie came out, I rented the Marvel Animated Feature The Invincible Iron Man just to get a grasp on the comic version of Tony Stark's origins.

The movie starts out with Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of Stark as the billionaire entrepeneur, who is selling an advanced weapons system, "Jericho," to the US battalion overseas in Iraq. During the pitch demonstration, he becomes kidnapped by terrorists looking to extort Tony's ability into creating a nuke for their activities. He is operated upon, as shrapnel has entered his chest cavity from the explosions of the hostile attack. He must then create his Mark I armor to escape.

The rest of the movie follows Tony's transformation into the one-man army and as well, the origin of Iron Monger, the movie's antagonist. Supporting characters include Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow), and the soon-to-become-War Machine, Jim Rhodes (Terence Howard). Was sort of expecting Julia a.k.a. Spider-Woman from the cartoon, but my guess is she wasn't a supporting character in the early comics.

The acting is okay, an outstanding performance by Downey, and Jon Favreau proves to be one hell of a Director. I'm still upset about the omitting of the Ghostface Killah scene, as I am a huge Wu-Tang fan, and Ghost's alter ego is Tony Starks so it would have totally made sense, you dumbsh**s... Back to the subject, the story pretty much follows the comic canon, with not a heavy load of explanations, and VFX are amazing. Check out the scene where Iron Man eludes two fighter jets and hits Mach 2 speeds breaking the sound barrier. Overall, this movie rates 4 stars for me. This is, however, an origin tale, so the sequel should blow it away.

By the way, don't forget to stay tuned after the credits roll for the Secret Scene, and check out Downey's cameo as Stark in The Incredible Hulk, which also has a Secret Scene.

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Comments (12)

  1. BlizZzario, Bizniches

    I saw that same cartoon movie, I hope they still have Fing Fang Foo, in the successor movies, I also would have like that origins, but like someone commented on my Iron Man review, it was more to make it modern and, more to mirror real life, so it did work and I did enjoy that change to the story, but like people have said, as did I in my review I mark off for that rushed action scene, and just for John Favreau. I prefer War Machine better, just for the colors, so I'm looking forward to that in part two

    BlizZzard

    4 years agoby @blizzzardFlag

  2. JR

    i put it on myspace.

    4 years agoby @supbitchFlag

  3. CBF

    Go to FYE or Sam Goody if other places don't have the TDK pre-order yet.

    4 years agoby @comicbookfanFlag

  4. Raoul Duke

    I can't wait for this on dvd. This movie absolutely ruled. Great review. Straight and to-the-point.

    4 years agoby @raoulduke33Flag

  5. Psycho

    I meant order sorry.

    4 years agoby @physco-123Flag

  6. Psycho

    I am going to pre prder TDK.

    4 years agoby @physco-123Flag

  7. CBF

    Just pre-ordered Steelbook editions of Iron Man and The Dark Knight DVDs. The release dates are:

    -Iron Man: September 30
    -The Dark Knight: December 9
    -Casino Royale [Collector's Edition]: October 21 - not available for pre-order yet

    4 years agoby @comicbookfanFlag

  8. CBF

    I too am looking forward to The Dark Knight, as I am excited at the concept of a comic movie actually true to the source material, it looks to be one hell of a 2-and-a-half hours. I agree as well the Monger may not have gotten his due, but on a good note, I heard Favreau might use Mandarin as the next enemy. He just didn't want to use him right off the bat in an origin movie. Either that or they might set him up for #3. Thanks Who for the feedback.

    4 years agoby @comicbookfanFlag

  9. slysnide

    It seemed that when Obidyas started to get the upper hand in the story (right before the climax) that it was about halfway through story-wise, since there were no complications to speak of. Just Tony upping the anti on his Iron suit after each test or his pseudo mission overseas. I figured that while the film had gone on for a while when Obidyas started revealing his villainous side, that it would go on for at least another 30-40 minutes to say the least, but they rushed the whole thing in 15 minutes, so yeah, I agree with "Zombieflix" & "DARKBREATHER" on that one.

    I myself am not familiar with the "Iron Man" comics, as I first came across the name in late May 2002, when a site did a poll of it's users to pick which Marvel character they'd wanna see on the silver screen next in the wake of the amazingly successful "Spider-Man" which came out just weeks earlier. Of course, "Iron Man" was the winner of the poll, and gossip spread on other sites for years to come as if the film was in the bag already, and that a release date was pending, when in fact, absolutely nothing had been done to even begin the pre-production on the film, or even to talk about making one. But I never bothered getting involved in speculative debates on a character and comic I knew nothing about, (since I was already addicted to the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy buzz) so I ignored it.

    I gave it a 4.5 I believe. But am too looking forward to the sequel, just as I've been in immense anticipation for "The Dark Knight."

    4 years agoby @slysnideFlag

  10. The Doctor

    Your review is excellent, i just done my review when i was tired.

    4 years agoby @ghettokidFlag

  11. DARKBREATHER

    I have to agree with Zombieflix, the other problem in the movie was the characters, You cant feel they r alive and real, and you cant get any feelings from most of them, the story was little weak, but still a good entertaining movie

    4 years agoby @darkbreatherFlag

  12. Zombieflix

    I agree this movie was grea, the only thing it could have used was a longer lasting rival, i mean the evil iron man is in the movie for like 10 minutes.

    4 years agoby @zombieflixFlag