Iron Man

You hire an actor for his strengths, and Downey would not be strong as a one-dimensional mighty-man. He is strong because he is smart, quick and funny, and because we sense his public persona masks deep private wounds. By building on that, Favreau found his movie, and it's a good one.

Iron Man, too, is something that people will see regardless of the reviews, but here is the point: Where Michael Bay (Transformers) has mastered a kind of sensory-assaulting pop art, Favreau is a born storyteller who engages the audience's imagination rather than crushing it in a tsunami of digital noise.

When it comes to tone, Iron Man achieves something at which many of even its most celebrated predecessors have failed: it doesn't FEEL like a superhero movie. Instead, it's bigger and more inclusive.

When it's idling in neutral, and we're watching Stark putter in his workshop or seduce unsuspecting journalists, Iron Man abounds in that rarest of superpowers: charm.

A dark delight that combines pop-culture wit and genuine emotional depth.

As comic book movies go, Iron Man is a solid entry. Downey and company help drag Favreau out of the genre holes he digs, making for a decent experience.

[Downey] can make offhandedness mesmerizing, even soulful; he passes through the key moments in this cloddish story as if he were ad-libbing his inner life.

One of the best origin superhero movies ever made!!. The visual effects, score, pacing and story were all on point.

Film with a classic plot for its genre but well made in plot and action. Compared to the classic Marvel films it has a more appreciable and developed plot

An ok movie. I just wish there was more action. The storyline was great but could have been a lot better with more action.

It was okay, I didn't really vibe with the movie though. The graphics and the suit looked cool though. The movie could have been a lot better but then again maybe I'm just criticizing too hard.

Iron Man is an above average comic book movie. I don't know if that's saying much. I enjoy it for what it is. It’s a fun movie if you have a home theater system and sludge if you don't. The plot is full of holes, and the action bits are bland compared to what has been seen of the character in past comics and cartoons. It’s hard to cheer much for Iron Man when everything comes so easy for him, he's just not a very likable or believable character. And that might be what's most wrong with Iron Man. In looking back at this film one can't help but not the sequels that came after and all the casting drama that followed. This film feels childish, like it came out in the 90's. We have a setup of the origin of Iron Man, but what really needed was a setup story of Tony Stark first. We jump right in and he has no troubles really in the world. He has no real conflict or struggles. Even later his brilliant engineering skills just seem to come out of now where. It does not make him feel human. The characters in this movie are very bland. Who do you connect with? The only ones that have a shred of connection are the terrorists and Shaun Toub as Yinsen. I think kids like Iron Man because of the tech he has. Or the attraction of dancing strippers of his own plane. But it’s so shallow, we don't care collectively about Tony Stark at all. Then when you throw on the super suit, he's lost even more. Like I said earlier it’s a fun, turn your brain off for 2 hours kind of movie. The main villain is so predictable and out of place. What a waste of Jeff Freakin Bridges! So much more could come out of it and the sequels improve on this but this first flight of Iron Man is just that a comic book movie for all the pains and praise that might bring. Crank up that sound system baby! Best Actor : Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts The obvious choice would be to pick Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. But really he's just playing himself. Or his onscreen persona much like Matthew Mcconaughey does in Mcconaughey things. Like bad car commercials. Gwyneth Paltrow has some character to her, we learn things about her. She changes in the way she things about Tony Stark, well at least a little. The other characters in the movie don't change at all, they just do different things, that's not character development. Paltrow has an innocent quality and seems to glow on the screen. She's fun to watch. I wish she had more to do in the film. It’s a shame she pretty much got axed out of the series. Worst Actor: Terrence Howard as James "Rhodey" Rhodes It’s no wonder why he was re-cast in the second film. Spewing out bad military one-liners and flag waving propaganda is really not that hard. Anybody on Fox News does it every day. So why is watching him in this film so ear bleeding bad? We care nothing about him at all to boot. Best Scene: Big Robot Battle The lead up is the big battle at the end. And while it’s fun, it’s not really epic and kind of predictable. The fact that Obadiah could build a more improved suit and bigger than Iron Man in a short amount of time. What seemed like mere hours in movie time is ridiculous. While we get the idea that Stark's company is huge, like Wal-Mart in scale. He builds the robot at the main plant right? How could Tony not know about it or how could they figure out how to do that. Lame. The most interesting character scenes are when Obadiah comes in and paralyses Tony with some weird Men in Black device. I think he steals something from him. I forgot. It’s not important. Well Obadiah clearly wanted Tony dead and just like 5 minutes later tries to kill him in the suit, so why not just kill him right there on the couch. Ugh. Worse plot hole than a James Bond Villain. Again Potts sneaks into Stark to steal plans or research and confronts Obadiah. This is a fun scene, you don't know what's going to happen. But he lets her go. Again, idiot. No wonder you are second in command. Bridges' character really needed a makeover and bigger motivation than greed. Worst Scene : Desert Base Building The idea that Stark could build an iron man suit in a cave in the middle of the desert under the cameras and watch of terrorists is absolutely crazy. At least take your audience out of the movie at the one hour mark not 10 minutes in. Even then we are not seeing Stark struggle with how to do this or planning it out. We are following the events through the terrorist eyes, not Stark. Well, the terrorist’s names are not on the movie title. Just dumb slog. Hits • Cool action bits • Jeff Freakin Bridges! • Iron Man on screen for the first time. Misses • Obligatory Iron Man Black Sabbath Song at the end. • More plot holes than there are stars in our galaxy. • Flat one sided characters we care nothing about. Rating: D