Iron Man: Critic Reviews

The fun of Iron Man, a Marvel adaptation in which a routine arc has been burnished with great elegance and skill, is the way that it heals the split, soldering the two halves of its hero into a single organically driven figure.

Iron Man is an unusually good superhero picture. Or at least -- since it certainly has its problems -- a superhero movie that's good in unusual ways.

Despite the convulsively jittery address to the role, [Downey] is never in the smallest degree engaging in the way director Jon Favreau appears to think.

Hollywood has unearthed an unlikely weapon of mass destruction: Robert Downey Jr.

Toggling between Stark's impish goatee and Iron Man's full-metal body condom, and amid so many generic fireballs, kill shots and earsplitting thumps, bumps and crunches, the film finally collapses under its own weight.

Downey could have taken a tragic tack. But he has fun just figuring out how to make the armor suit work. His sarcasm and almost drunken Tony Curtis body language transform the scenes of Iron Man.

Actually feels like a classic comic book: fast, furious and flip. Forget about superheroes with love problems and tortured souls.

The gadgetry is absolutely dazzling, the action is mostly exhilarating, the comedy is scintillating and the whole enormous enterprise throbs with dramatic energy.

After 2003's Elf and 2005's Zathura, Favreau has now made three smart, family-friendly, high-concept popcorn movies.

A superhero debut with brains and brawn.

Directed with joyful verve and a nice pinch of cultural nerve by Jon Favreau, Iron Man reinvigorates hope in the joys of the summer movie. It is simple a" and not so simple a" fun.

Iron Man is a shapely piece of mythmaking.

There's a slightly depressed, going-through-the-motions feel to the entire show.

At the end of the day it's Robert Downey Jr. who powers the lift-off separating this from most other superhero movies.

Iron Man is simply great escapism. It deserves to be the first blockbuster of the summer.

Mainly it has Robert Downey Jr. The newly insurable actor, who has had his run-ins with various chemicals in the past, plays this louche playboy with a knowing glint in his eye."

Robert Downey Jr. gives a nicely sardonic performance as Tony Stark, a rich playboy and the brilliant heir to his father's weapons manufacturing dynasty.

Fast, funny and deliriously entertaining.

This is one summer blockbuster that succeeds on brains, not bombast.

Industrial-strength comic book moviemaking of the most entertaining order, Iron Man is darn near invincible fun, a perfect mix of high-tech dazzle and good old-fashioned charisma that's bound to leave audiences begging for more.

The movie rises and falls on the strength of Downey, and it rises pretty high.

[An] expansively entertaining special effects extravaganza.

One of the hippest, best-written and best-directed superhero movies ever -- a splendid way to kick off the summer movie season.

Everything a summer movie should be, and more.

There's no rust on the first blockbuster of summer '08: Iron Man is an ironclad cinch to be a hit.