Iron Man User Reviews

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When Iron Man came out people were skeptical of the film as mot of Marvel's films up until the  had fallen flat with the exception of Blade and his films. Three years people had Batman Begins from DC and in 2008 there was The Dark Knight coming out after Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. at the time wasn't the star he is today and Jon Favreau wasn't a big name Director like he is today. Though when the film came out it surprised many people and was acclaimed by fans and critics then and today. 
 
The film starts out with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in a Humvee convoy with several other soldiers accompanying him. He's fooling around with them and one of them asks for a picture with him, which he agrees to and then the vehicle in front blows up. Then gunshots and RPG attacks begin, one soldier at a time steps out and all are shot down. Stark then wanders out of the car and a bomb lands near him, bearing the logo of his company Stark Industries. He runs but the bomb explodes, damaging hisb heart.Then there is a flashback sequence about his history and then fast forwarding we find Tony Stark in cave with a makeshift pacemaker attached to him. Then his captors come in and threaten him with death if he doesn't build them one of his missiles. Of course we all know he builds a suit of armor instead and escapes.  
 
Of course when he returns home, Stark causes quite a commotion when he announces Star Industries is pulling out from the weapons Industry. He also during that time sleeps with a Vanity Fair Magazine reporter for some reason. Opposed to Stark Industries pulling out from the weapons industry is CEO Obadiah Stane ( Jeff Bridges ). This sets him up as the villain for the film. 
 
With the role of Tony Stark, RDJ has defined himself as a superstar actor. He is the example of the perfect actor for the role as previously the character was never like how he is in this film but was more serious like he was in the animated series from the 90's. So with that said, I don't really need to say much more as we all know how good he is at the role. 
 
Gwyneth Paltrow is Pepper Potts, Stark's secretary. I'll say I this is the only role of hers that I like. She plays the character differently as before her the character was somewhat older looking and now thanks to her we have a new modern Pepper Potts. 
 
Jeff Bridges is Obadiah Stane. I closely associate him with the role of Kevin Flynn as TRON: Legacy was a pretty awesome movie but in this he's a totally different character. At first you can tell he's bad because he's kind of this shady Businessman who's not telling as much he knows. Before Bridges, Stane was essentially Lex Luthor for Marvel. That all changed with Jeff Bridges. 

The other really good thing about this movie is the action. Jon Favreau had never even directed an action film before but seems to have a clear idea of how to do it properly. Instead doing it all by CGI, Favreau does it very much the practical way. The fight scene Stark and Stane is great but If i had to choose between that or Hulk and Abomination's fight, I'd choose the hulk's fight. Instead of using all CGI for the suits, Favreau has the upper half made and only CGI's the bottom half. So from the torso up is what RDJ actually wears during filming.Now as for the Iron Monger suit, I'm not sure how much of that was real or CGI. Out of all the suits I have to say I prefer his second suit, the silver one the best. It may not be able to do what it's successor can but I just like the way it looks.  
 
Iron Man unlike most superhero films and most Marvel films before it is character driven. The action is spectacular but the focus is the characters and the story. Each character is given the proper amount of screen time they need, even characters like the reporter Stark has sex with is important to the story as it was something she said that convinced Stark to pull out from the weapons industry. Previous Marvel films treated many characters like jokes in comparison to their comic counterparts. For example Blackheart in Ghost Rider is a joke compared to who he is in the comics. Favreau doesn't do that as he has clear knowledge of who these characters are and has the right actors play them. 
 
Iron Man for me has the right amount of everything, humor, action, and a great story to top it off. Without Robert Downey Jr. the film wouldn't have been as good. It really succeeds because of director Jon Favreau and his choice of cast. Iron Man made comic book movies different and is substantially better than anything DC has ever put out including The Dark Knight.