Finally! Summer movie season 2008 has begun! Iron Man is here, and it kicks off what could prove to be the biggest blockbuster summer since, well...ever. I saw the movie last night. So, what did I think of it? Read on.
First, I want to say that I liked this movie. The special effects were outstanding, from the rendering of Iron Man's suits to the battles and explosions (believe me, there is a ton of stuff that blows up and/or catches on fire in this movie). ILM did a great job, and I have to say that the effects were pretty seamless. It's very impressive stuff. And, Robert Downey, Jr. is perfectly cast as Tony Stark/Iron Man. As someone somewhat familiar with the comics, it never felt odd thinking off him as Stark. He brought a lot of humor to the character, but his performance never steered into camp or charicature. You get the feeling that playing Stark wasn't too difficult for Downey, yet you never get the feeling that he is mailing in his performance, like say Jack Nicholson in The Departed.
I also liked the tone of the movie. It plays it straight, yet you never really take anything too seriously. Iron Man nails the Marvel feel, and it's similar to the Spider Man movies in tone but without the melodrama. The movie never insults your intelligence, yet it doesn't try too hard to be something that it's not, either. Favreau took the material serioulsy but not himself, and that is a good thing.
The pace of the movie is never really slow due to the editing, which I thought was good, yet it does seem to drag somewhat, especially if you are already familar with Iron Man and the origin story. It is standard now that all comic book movies begin with the origin story, but I just kept waiting for something more to happen. I suppose you can't really blame anyone for this, because all origin stories are going to suffer from this to some extent (I think Batman Begins was an exception).
The goal of the firt movie of a comic book property is to launch the franchise sucessfully so more sequels can be made, and I think that Iron Man does the job well. Its not going to blow you away, and I don't think I'll be watching it 4-5 times in the theater, but it is definitely worth seeing. There's also a nice little fanboy treat if you stay until after the end credits. Now that the franchise is established, I have high expectations for Iron Man 2, and after seeing Iron Man, let's give Favreau a crack at The Avengers, please!
So far, we're 1 for 1 this summer. Next up to the plate -Indiana Jones!
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