Iron Man (DVD, 2008, 2-Disc Set, Ultimate Edition)

Rest assured, Iron Man is an absolutely amazing movie. I won't dare spoil any of this remarkable movie for you but I do recommend it as highly as I possibly can. Marvel needed to get in to the solo movie making business long ago. Instead of leasing out their characters to other studios, they're making movies themselves. Most everyone knows Iron Man is their first effort and what a great lead off film! This movie helps take the comic book genre to the highest level. Just like they did in the books, they reinvent standard epic adventure by "Marvelizing" characters and making them more believable. The Spider-Man and the X-Men movies did this to a degree but only as far as their respective studios wished to stay true to the source material. Anything added or amended was for the benefit of the live action adaptation. Director Sam Raimi pulled this off by talking to the summer crowd, not down to them with the Spider-Man series. Jon Favreau has done the same thing here but I think he's done it even better. Raimi intentionally threw in a little cheese. Favreau adds nice bits of humor but not too much. He also grounds the action and the suit of armor in firm reality. I've said it before but it's brave to reach for the highest common denominator with a big budget film and Favreau delivers a movie with as much feeling as it has action and intensity. Needless to say, Robert Downey Jr. and company deliver the goods. It's a movie that has a wonderful balance that delivers intelligence with its fun.

The amazing yet realistic action is paced by the plot and characters that keep you interested from start to finish. What absolutely blew me away were the phenomenal special effects. I know they built a practical, working armor. What I loved is the use of CGI was used to augment the real life armor and not create something from scratch. Most all CGI constructs feel fake somehow but the stuff in Iron Man didn't seem fake even for an instant. As great as everything looked, what really drives the movie is the emotional resonance and down to earth nature of the plot. Sure the concept is wild but it's all presented so that you really believe it could happen. I doubt anyone will find fault with this movie unless they went in trying to dislike it.

So the world premier of Iron man to regular movie going audiences happened to be here in Seoul Korea on an army installation. I got to check it out and I was delightfully surprised.

Much against the hype, I thought this movie would have been torrid trash acting mingled with cheesy fight scenes. I mean Robert Downey Jr as an action superhero? But I am glad to admit that I misjudged the movie completely. Downey played a very good Tony Stark, in generally every way. From his jokes to his obnoxious lifestyle he looked and walked the part very well. His banter with his right hand assistant Ms. Pepper Potts isn't mind numbing and actually found myself laughing aloud at some of the wit.

The movie itself moved at a very good pace. Mixing action, comedy and some drama to just about the right proportions. As with most superhero movies, its rather predictable, but in all the right ways you'd want a superhero movie to be. The animation used was almost seamless, and of course the Iron Man costume was kicking major ass.

My only gripe with the movie was the fact that several characters were thrown into the mix with little behind them other than 2D character attributes. Leslie Bibb's character, Christine Everhart, is pretty useless other than the two or three lines she has. Hardly worth a hardbody like Leslie Bibb to play. Several other characters didn't feel fleshed out at all. Raza (Faran Tahir), Obediah Stone (Jeff Bridges) , and even Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) feel hollow in the fact that they have little justification for many of their actions.

So All in all, I'd give this movie an 8.3. Fun for the whole family, great pacing, and a Superhero movie to give the next Batman movie a run for its money.

Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow star
in Jon Favreau's 2008 action film. A billionaire playboy
turns hero after he creates a super-engineered suit of
armor. Robert did great in this and I'm glad I got this
dvd set that has nice picture and sound plus cool
extras. I recommend this great comic book film.

Out of all the summer's genre offerings, Iron Man was the best of the bunch. Most people I spoke to liked both The Dark Knight and Iron Man have the opinion that the Batman epic was better. I disagree. I found Robert Downey Jr. a most engaging Tony Stark (Iron Man's alter ego) and I began to really like the character more so than Bruce Wayne (Batman's identity). But I agree that both were amazing. The bonus DVD in the two disc set was well done, with a making of documentary and Robert Downey Jr's screen test as a highlight for me. Disc One has the deleted scenes that most enjoy with any DVD purchased or rented. Try to obtain the hard to get 2 Disc version with the Iron Man comic book packaged within it. The comic was exclusive to Walmart stores and only had a limited amount available to each outlet. It expounds on the movie's ending, and done really well. I stayed in the theater and after all the credits, there was a bonus one minute or so hint to a future Marvel movie based on the Avengers with Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury. The Avengers is Marvel's version of DC's Justice League which features Iron Man as a key team member. Check this out on the DVD as well. All in all, superhero fan or not, you will enjoy this movie.

Robert Downey Jr. gives a great performance as Iron Man in this Movie and Marvel Comics scores another hit following the SpiderMan movies.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges have outstanding roles in the movie.

Iron Man holds your attention from the beginning when Downey, captured by terrorists, dreams up "Iron Man" all the way to the end when he fights the final battle. (And don't miss the extra scene at the end of the final title sequence).

Any comic book fan will love the movie as well as anyone who loves a good action adventure movie.

Rated 5 of 5 for great acting, great directing and well done movie.

Don't miss it.