David Salpeter
Amazing is the first word that comes to mind when thinking of the new Iron Man movie. The action, the acting and the story were all great. From the moment the movie started with the capture of Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) by terrorists, I was hooked.
The movie is nonstop action with incredible fighting scenes that look just like what a comic book would look like if it was brought to real life: bad guys getting punched twenty feet in the air, getting blasted by Iron Man’s hand blasters, and stuff exploding left and right from rockets.
It’s exactly what the comics were all about. It’s the best comic book movie since “Batman Begins.”
The story was interesting. It followed almost the same story line as the comics of a rich weapons entrepreneur who gets kidnapped by terrorists and finds out they are using his weapons against him. When captured, Stark almost dies from shrapnel in his chest that threatens to pierce his heart. With help from a man he meets in prison, Yinsen (Shaun Toub), he creates a magnetic chest plate to keep him alive. The terrorists ask Starks to build them a weapon he designed, but instead he and Yinsen start working on building an armored suit and Stark sets off to destroy and stop all the people that misuse his weapons.
As for Downey Jr.’s acting, it was spot on. He played the part of Tony Stark to a tee. He was smart, arrogant, funny and a ladies’ man. Also, the part where he learns to fly was great, how he takes some time to learn how to do it. It’s not like he knew right off the bat. Downey Jr. is not the only impressive actor in this movie. Everyone did an amazing job. Gwyneth Paltrow did a great job as Stark’s assistant, Virginia “Pepper” Potts. She was loveable, sexy and smart. Terrence Howard was great as usual playing the part of Jim Rhodes, Stark’s best friend. Jeff Bridges was also great as Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger. He made you really believe he was one of the good guys at first, which is really hard to do. Usually, most people figure out who the bad guy is after the first couple of scenes.
But my favorite thing about this movie is how they bring in characters from other parts of the story that not a lot of people would know about unless they were Iron Man fans before the movie. Like Jim Rhodes/War Machine (Terrence Howard), Iron Man’s future partner, Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) from SHIELD (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), leader of SHIELD and member of the Avengers.
Marvel is doing this because they are planning a new project. Taking some of their superhero movie characters, such as Iron Man and The Hulk, and the upcoming Captain America, Nick Fury and Thor, they are planning to release an Avengers movie starring all of the same actors and their characters.
I would suggest seeing this movie as soon as possible and staying through the end of the credits to see the after-credits ending. The movie was amazing and I give it an A+.
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