Iron Man

Hey everyone. I’m finally back for another blog post. To be completely honest, I have not been very consistent with writing my blog posts because I have been waiting until the week they are due in my English class. But enough of that, lets get to the movie. Today I will be reviewing Iron Man (2008). This movie is known for being the first installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and also one of the most bad-ass movies of all time. In my opinion, it is the best film from the Iron Man trilogy, and one of the best of all the Marvel installments so far.

Movie cover courtesy of http://www.forbes.com

Robert Downey Jr. plays billionaire genius Tony Stark, and I absolutely love him in this role. Downey Jr. was actually not supposed to play Iron Man when casting first started, instead the role was given to Tom Cruise. No offense to Tom or anything, but I don’t know how well that would have gone. I am very glad director Jon Favreau fought to cast Robert Downey Jr. He did an excellent job of showing every aspect of Tony Stark’s personality, from his cocky, self-obsessed billionaire side to his warm-hearted, heroic side. I really enjoyed watching Stark’s personality transform throughout the movie. He starts off as kind of a dick, and is very selfish and self obsessed. But after being held captive in the Afghan cave, Stark opens his eyes and realizes what he is meant to do: be a hero.

The supporting actors and actresses in this movie were spot on as well. Gwyneth Paltrow starred as Tony’s assistant/girlfriend Pepper Potts. Jeff Bridges played Obadiah Stane and later the evil Iron Monger, Tony’s co-manager and later arch-enemy. Terrence Howard played Tony’s best friend Colonel James Rhodes (soon to be War Machine). All these actors fulfilled their roles very well. I especially enjoyed Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane. For those who have not seen the movie before, he really tricks you into thinking he is one of the good guys. But when you realize he is actually helping the Ten Rings, he is as evil as it gets. I think Terrence Howard also did an amazing job as James Rhodes. Although there is one flaw. Howard was unable to return as Rhodey in the later films; instead his spot was taken by actor Don Cheadle. I was unsure at first because I was pleased with how Terrence Howard played the role, but Cheadle took the War Machine reins just as well.

One of my favorite parts of following the MCU is the abundance of easter eggs. There are easter eggs everywhere. For those of you who do not know what an easter egg is, it is a hidden message in a video game or movie. Often, they predict the future or make references to the original comic books. I am not going to explain every easter egg in this movie, but if you want to know them, click here. My favorite one in this movie is the scene where Rhodey comes to Tony’s house to see what he is working on. Tony puts on the suit and flies away, leaving Rhodey left with the original silver prototype suit. He then says “Next time, baby” as a reference to the future, when he becomes War Machine.

Iron Man being a bad-ass courtesy of http://www.comicbookmovie.com

As for the story, it was awesome like the rest of the movie. One thing that I really enjoy about Iron Man is that is is somewhat realistic. There are no superhuman beings or magic involved, only technology and science. I liked the antagonist in this story, the Ten Rings. The Ten Rings is like a modern day Al Qaeda or terrorist group. In my opinion, the first half of the movie is the best, when Tony Stark is abducted by the Ten Rings and builds the original Iron Man suit. But that’s just my opinion. The whole movie is great. Great enough to receive an overall score of 9/10.