Iron Man (2008)

Directed by Jon Favreau
Produced by Avi Arad, Kevin Feige
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard
Label: Review, Action, Hollywood
Iron Man is an great entertainment machine. It's lead Robert Downey Jr. is the right choice to play Tony Stark. Well, who better to play a middle-aged, flamboyant playboy than Robert Downey Jr. anyway?



It is a bold move to cast an actor over-40 to be a superhero. Most studios would have said, "no, change the story and make him younger so we can sell this to younger audiences". Maybe because it's Marvel Studio, Favreau could convince the studio to get Robert Downey Jr. to play Stark. I truly can't think of anyone better suited to the role and he proves it.

Downey stars as Tony Stark, a charming billionaire celebrity industrialist whose company is one of America’s primary defense contractors. Visiting Afghanistan to demonstrate the company’s latest technology, a cluster missile. Then, he is kidnapped by a group of terrorists (Taliban?)who are using Stark’s weapons. While on captivity, he creates a powerful armor and manages to escape. Returning to America, he recreate his armor 'Ironman' and begins a new life as superhero Iron Man.

Also join the fun are Gwyneth Paltrow as loyal assistant Pepper Potts, Terrence Howard as a Lt. Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes allied with Tony and Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane who is Stark's second in command.

The movie’s plot, will no doubt raise questions about how it sees America’s role in the world. The film is not anti-war, or anti-America, although maybe anti-WMD.

Te other best thing about the film is the visual presentation, both in live action and CGI. The Iron Man suit itself looks cool. The view from inside the Iron Man helmet is even better. In one scene, while he’s flying, it looks like he’s watching the world through an advanced version of Google Earth.

One complaint about Iron Man, it's a slow build up to the action. True, some time they’re fun, but sometimes it's unecessesary. And sometime the action are not worth to take such a long time to wait.

Iron Man is not a perfect film, nor even a perfect comic book adaptation. Bit's one of the best comic adaptation so far. (reviewed by DL/ 2008)