1. Excellent.
2. Lest anyone think otherwise, please take note that this movie cements the fact that Robert Downey Jr. is the man. A commanding, magnetic presence on screen.
3. There's a whole lot of humor here, which will keep a silly grin on your face for most of the running time. It's got little in common with the operatic, sanctimonious Superman Returns or the brooding, dour Batman Begins.
4. Which is why the Tony Stark character is so much fun. He's a billionaire who's living the Maxim magazine lifestyle, surrounded by gizmos and girls and alcohol. It's every nerd comic book geek's fantasy come true. He's Bruce Wayne if Bruce Wayne knew how to enjoy himself.
5. Stark also seems like a more complete character. Bruce Wayne's fascinating, but he's got the oppressive darkness about him. He's haunted and has been haunted since his parents died years ago. The same goes for Wolverine, who's been seething for years, trying to understand who and what he is. They're bad asses, but they've got the world on their shoulders. They're grim. Stark is the selfish, irresponsible playboy who suddenly comes of age and realizes the error of his ways. And he's determined to do something about it. That seems a little more active, a little more interesting.
6. Gwyneth Paltrow's never seemed this engaging and fun. And where has she been?
7. Is this the best comic book movie ever? It's a photo finish. Consider it a three-way tie between 2004's Spider-man 2, 2000's X-Men, and now Iron Man. A very close fourth place is 2005's Batman Begins.
8. Comic book origin movies can be very tedious as all of the pieces get set up and explained. Sometimes you feel like you'll have to wait until part 2 to get to the good stuff. But this movie is so fizzy and fast-moving, and Downey such a perfect match with the Stark character, that even the exposition is enjoyable.
9. Lots of great set pieces (kicking ass in Afghanistan not once, but twice), lots of great lines ("What do you say to your other nickname, Merchant of Death?" "That's not bad."), lots of memorable moments (Stark's ongoing problems with one of his lab robots).
10. A must see, as the $100 million weekend suggests. Word of mouth will be very good to this movie.
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Wholeheartedly, agree Cheese Fry. Glad we saw it together.
ReplyDeleteGotta say, not the blockbuster everyone - such as The Cheese Fry - is billing it as. I thought it was slow to start and when it finally did get around to the actual iron man part, there wasn’t enough action – It left me wanting more. Very cool weapons hardly used (power up that ARC reactor one more time!), and what about that other suit that Terrance Howard wanted to get in almost as much as I did?! I wanted more action, more explosions, grabbing missiles out of thin air and flinging them back at Bald Lex-Luthor-Lookalike-Mixed-With-ZZ Top Jeff Bridges. Not so much. Very obviously THE PHANTOM MENACE in the series; a sequel has already been announced I hear (may be called FLAT IRONMAN...). I was disappointed.
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