Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

Directed By: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrance Howard

When billionaire CEO of weapons manufacturer Stark Industries, Tony Stark, is kidnapped by extremists in Afghanistan his eyes are opened. He must protect the world from the weapons he once created. By building a state-of-the-art suit of mechanised armour, Stark becomes Iron Man. But will he be in time to prevent untold carnage at the hands of people who he once called friends?

Although I never read the comics, I have always been aware of the general story of Iron Man through appearances in other comics and in cartoons and I always thought that a live action movie, done well, could be excellent. With that in mind I held out high hopes for Iron Man… especially when i found out Robert Downey Jr would be playing Tony Stark. After all, who better to play a millionaire playboy who lapses into alcoholism than a millionaire playboy who lapses into alcoholism? The studios did a very good job over the past year feeding us nice glossy images and tantalising clips a plenty but in the back of my mind I had a fear that it would be a victim of it’s own hype like so many movies these days. Let me say right off the bat that this is not the case with Iron Man.

As far as cast goes I think it was pretty good with the exception of the lead…. which was EXCELLENT. Just enough A-list clout to balance out Downey Jr’s huge on-screen presence but not so much as to steal the show. My only real gripe about any of the cast was Jeff Bridges as Obediah Stane/IronMonger who seemed kind of out of his element playing a larger than life super-villain. That said, his dialogue wasn’t that great so it could well be partly the fault of the script writer. But other than that hiccup, I have no complaints. I have heard some people say they weren’t happy with Paltrow as Pepper Potts and that may have come from them getting a very good mental picture of the comic book version of the character. I, personally, thought she was a good fit for the on-screen version. Performances, with the exception of Bridges were all decent enough and made Iron Man, acting wise, one of the better superhero movies of the last few years.

The plot, I think suffered in the exact same way that the first installment of the X-Men trilogy suffered. That is, once the hero has his powers and is organised, the movie doesn’t really know where to go and ends rather abruptly. That said, Iron Man is a great deal better (in my opinion) than the first X-Men and there is certainly enough action and superb special effects to make up for this. I think, with Iron man still number one at the box office, it’s safe to say we will see at least one sequel. Indeed, this movie laid some outstanding ground work, paving the way for a very good franchise. I hope that they keep Robert Downey Jr on board though, because if he’s not playing Tony Stark, I have little doubt that any sequels will flop.

So, all in all Iron man was a great success but I think it needs at least one sequel (In the way that Cloverfield DOESN’T need one) to really do the character justice and give the fans all of what they want.

Verdict: