writer: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Arthur Marcum, Matthew Hollaway
starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard
genre: Action, Comics
How great is it that the company who created their own characters in comic form are able to continue making on them. From now on most of the properties that Marvel Studios still have the rights to will be created into films. And with their first try, Iron Man shows that when it’s original creators are close at hand, that faithful and entertaining adaptations can be made.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a billionaire/genius in arms industry and other scientific equipment. On a trip in Afghanistan showing off some his new weapons to the U.S. army he’s attacked by terrorists. While captive he’s asked to create more weaponry for them and have already a ton of Stark industry weaponry. Instead of helping the terrorist he creates the ultimate weapon a suit to wear to keep himself alive and escape. Returning to the U.S. he makes it his sole goal to find out who was been selling Stark tech weaponry in secret and be the hero Iron Man.
What Iron Man gets right is that from start to finish it’s a entertaining film. It his all of its right beats from Iron Man’s playboy moments or the good close intimate scenes between him and Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow). The choice of Robert Downey Jr. was the smartest thing because he holds this movie together with his performance and nails the whole playboy/genius role. Another positive is Marvel’s tactic to make their films in one universe with continuity something that X-Men film franchise has never heard of. By the end of the film theirs a scene which teases the creation of the Avengers. So one day we will able to see Iron Man the Hulk and many others in the same film fighting.
Dealing with adaptation from comic to film there is absolutely no problem. All changes were for the benefit of the story. Tony Stark instead of getting captured in the Gulf War is now captured in Afghanistan. What’s noteworthy of this film is inclusion of comic book writers and artists by the filmmakers for suggestions and advice on the characters they so constantly write on. All the actors play their roles very well and make you feel the characters come to life. Also the choice of Jon Favreau was interesting coming from background of films like Swingers and Zathura. But shows skill into bringing this unknown to the masses Marvel character and making them love him.
Even though I think of Iron Man is very well made film. I do have some gripes about it. There were parts of the film that needed to be more epic. The villain’s plot was not so much a doomsday save the world story not that i needed to be nesserialy. But the fight between Iron Man and Iron Monger came a little late in the film and everything wrapped up pretty quick. So we never get to really feel the bad guys plot until really too late. Another problem was that the action is far too little. You could say that’s a good thing and this is why it makes this film so unique in storytelling method. But for so little action it did need more character development in pseudo father-son relationship Tony Stark has with Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) or with his pal Jim Rhodes or even with Pepper.
If you still haven’t seen Iron Man its time to check out. Good action, performances and a realistic comic book film adaptation. And if you do enjoy this so much just remember Iron Man 2 is filming already and the promise of another strong film seems like a good guess..
Personal Rating:
Review by Paul
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