It took me forever to see the first Iron Man movie, but I am happy I finally did. Jon Favreau's movie was thoroughly entertaining. First off, Robert Downey, Jr. is perfectly cast as Iron Man. There is something about his personality that matches the snarky, playboy billionaire that Tony Stark is supposed to be. The casting of Gwynenth Paltrow doesn't make all that much sense to me, however, I do think she was good in the role. I think it is mostly just odd to see her in such a supporting role, although I guess her last lead role was Sky Captain? Bounce? Seriously, what is Gwyneth Paltrow doing these days?
The film itself was quite enjoyable. The plot was very straightforward comic book fare, but at the same time wasn't overly cheesy. The delivery of one-liners was timely, and not awkward. There was a sufficient back story for me to believe Stark's transformation from nihilist to savior. One thing that I would have liked to see more of was information on the leader of the Ten Rings. Up until the point he showed up it seemed like Stark was kidnapped by a fairly unsophisticated bunch, but then BAM some dude with no accent shows up speaking English, and laying down the law. That was an interesting twist. Also, Jeff Bridges losing his mind was not terribly convincing. I mean, yes, he did get his hit exposed by Paltrow's character, but then he just decides to suit up? He doesn't try to flee? He just goes nuts? I think maybe if Jeff Bridges had whipped out a silenced pistol and killed the leader of Ten Rings I would be a little more okay with his suiting up at the end of the movie. Point being, he didn't do enough explicitly bad things (aside from ordering the hit) to make me buy the suit donning. I guess he did later say that he didn't have the stomach "for this kind of thing," but that seems very insufficient.
I think as far as comic book movies go, this has to be near the top for me. My first introduction to Iron Man was The Avengers. I loved the Avengers, and specifically Robert Downey, Jr. It is pretty easy to kind of do whatever you want technology wise when your protagonist is a billionaire weapons manufacturer. You can just have him invent stuff. I feel like the movie ended perfectly to set up the next in the series. In this movie SHIELD's involvement is somewhat confusing, but it doesn't take away from the movie. You probably just think that there is no reason for them being there. That is assuming you aren't familiar with the comic book universe, or The Avengers.
I wonder if I would like this as much if someone else had played Iron Man. I also wonder how much of the character is just just Downey, Jr. himself, and not acting. Come to think of it, he is like this in pretty much every movie. That's not a knock on Downey, Jr., but more of an observation.
All around, I would totally watch this again. I would recommend it to others, but I think a great many people I know have already seen it.
8/10, will watch again, probably buy too, seriously fun.
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