My own self

The Hulk was kind of artsy and dark and weird, and though it had some cool moments it'll hardly go down in history as an example of a successful attempt at making a movie of a Marvel superhero. The Fantastic Fours sadly kind of put themselves on a more kid-movie sort of level, but they weren't as bad as everybody says they are. (Alright, maybe a little bit, but I'll maintain that the casting was pretty good) Elektra, however... And just when Daredevil stood a good chance to redeem himself through the impressingly improving director's cut. But, you know, Spider-man was a pretty darned good movie. And though Dafoe was sorely missed, Spider-man 2 was probably even better. X-men was rather unimpressively decent, but laid a fantastic foundation for the brilliant X-men 2. Both franchises kinda limped their way through the third installments, though Spidey did so remarkably well, but the point is, Marvel's really done some pretty darn good superhero-movies before. Heck, I even liked The Punisher, though I'll accept that while a decent movie it wasn't that good a portrayal of the character.


But this... this buggers those "decent attempts" up the arse, if you'll pardon my French, wipes the floor with Spider-man and gives even Spidey 2 and God Among Insects X-men 2 a run for their money. Even DC's Batman Begins should get a little uneasy seeing Downey Jr. donning his armor.


Because of THIS is the result when Marvel decides to finance their own movies, then I need to look into getting some kind of moviegoing discount card.



Iron Man is the kind of movie that had me go home feeling guilty that I hadn't gotten a premiere ticket to see it. It had Robert Downey Jr. in the main part, and I knew from the second I heard that that I was in store for something good. Now, I'm one of those losers who only really know the man from his relatively short run at Ally McBeal, but he made a strong and lasting impression on me there as one of the funniest and most charming characters the show had (and this was a show sporting the infamous duovirate of Cage & Fish) and I spent every episode the show had after he left hoping he'd come back on. And something in my head just clicked when I heard he was signed on as Tony Stark, instinctively I just knew he'd do a stellar job of portraying the guy who's probably my favourite Marvel character. (Yes, I have a thing for billionaire control-freak geniuses with eccentric alter egos, it's TV2's fault for airing Zorro every weekend when I grew up, let's move along?)

So, my favourite character played by an actor I felt unusually confident would do a good job - and from Jon Favreau, the guy who directed the very funny Elf and was hilarious as Foggy Nelson on Daredevil. Then came the mindblowingly awesome trailer. And suddenly, the movie was out, and people were going crazy praising it. Reviewers, people I knew, online acquaintences with very good tastes, fans of the comics and uninitiated alike. They were all jumping through hoops to tell me how much fun this movie was. It simply had to disappoint, and all that remained was hoping it only did so somewhat.

So, yeah, no, seems like someone decided they'd just skipped the hole conforming to reality-thing with this movie and in an astonishing feat of improbability worthy of Zaphod Beeblebrox, Iron Man lived up to the insane expectations and was all kinds of awesome.

Sure, the plot is rather predictable, particularily due to the very conventional and orthodox use of an overused badguy-formula without any real twists. (Though they do have some half-hearted attempts at throwing you off track) Also, the badguys of the movie are rather flat and uninteresting in their own rights.

It just doesn't matter though. This movie is solid through and through, and aside from whoever wrote the script and the fantastic dialogue, the main credit for that HAS to be given to Downey Jr.. Tony Stark is not just any ass, he's a brilliant ass, and watching this movie, you love him for it every single step of the way. You coo like a fanboy at his (often incredibly lame) jokes and chuckle merrily when he treats people like crap from the very first scene he's in - a scene, incidentally, that's somehow the best scene in the movie without ever making anything coming after it seem like a downer. Spider-man's constant quips were probably one of the more poorly treated aspects of the character in the movies, but that slight has not been done here. And it's even funnier than Spidey's quips, because Parker is too much of a goodguy to mock anybody but the badguys he fights. Stark has no such qualms. You might be the only person in the world mattering to him, and he'll still treat you like your very existance is basically there to convenience him and set up the occasional joke at your own expense.

Which brings me to Gwyneth Paltrow, who surprised me a lot in this movie by being very memorable in her portrayal of Mr. Stark's personal assistant Pepper. I've never disliked her in anything, but I also cannot remember every really noticing her that much. Here, she has a presence on screen that sticks with you, and while nothing bad is to be said about the other major cast members, she is probably the only one who manages to have a scene with Downey Jr. without his stealing it completely away.


All in all, a highly funny and vastly entertaining movie that, ironically, just feels like a set-up to something bigger once it is done. The sequel(s! please?) cannot come soon enough.

A weak 9,5/10


(The only problem is that after this, Dark Knight is kind of forced to look worse, isn't it...)