Quote:
Originally Posted by My First Kev
Just got back from seeing this!
Imagine Batman Begins with a sunday morning cartoon make-over and you're close to this experience. It's a basic origin story with all the usual plot points.
1.Hereo starts out as a man who has many personality flaws
2.Hereo gets put through a stressfull situation and realises his true calling
3.Hereo dishes out justice in prototype suit
4.Hereo goes on to modify suit with 'hillarious' cock-ups along the way
5.Bad guy with a close link to our hereo decides he wants in on this super-powers malarky.
6.Just as hereo perfects super-powers his friend is put in danger
7.Under developed super villian and hereo duke it out in an explosive final showdown
I could have used spolier tags there but if you didn't realise thats how this film would flow you've probably never seen a super-hereo film and will have no interest in this one.
So zero points for originality then.
My main gripe with the film was when it tried to inject a bit of satire into the mix. At times I couldn't help but be reminded of classic 80's robot/man movie Robocop. It's a shame then that any attempts at depth were soon lost under a sachrine hollywood gloss. Everytime it felt like the movie was going to have a bit of bite it never really delivered choosing instead a cheap pun or slapstick when things got that bit too heavy.
It's not all bad though. The film is fun. As any film about a man who can fly and shoot rockets out his arms should be. The special effects are indeed very special and the action scenes are genuinley tense. Robert Downey Jr is great fun to watch as Iron Man/Tony Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges also put in excellent turns, clearly having a ball with their comic book dialouge.
Go to this with high expectations and you'll be in for a disappointment. This is no classic of the genre (see Batman Begins or Spider-man 2). But if you enjoyed Fantastic Four or Transformers, Iron Man is far superior entertainment.
3/5
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I respectfully disagree!
Ok, well I don't disagree with EVERYTHING, you actually gave a pretty good breakdown.
I thought Iron Man was great though. You made a point about being careful about what kind of expectations you go in with and I think that might have been key with me. I hadn't read any of the comic books, didn't really know anything about the character and to be honest was just expecting an average 'watchable' film. I was VERY pleasantly surprised though.
RD Jr plays the part perfectly and I really liked how the backstory was all alot darker than any other superhero films (except for Batman Begins). The suit and all of the flying/shooting/etc looked great and what made it better was that they didn't go overboard with the action. For an action/superhero film, the 'action' scenes are used sparingly.
Overall I give it a healthy 8/10 and it gets the honour of being my 2nd favourite superhero/comic book film to date. No. 1 of course being Batman Begins.