Sunday, July 06, 2008

Movie Review: Ironman


Tony Stark is the billionaire playboy-wizkid-frontman-media darling of his family's business building hi-tech weaponry. The whole character itself would seem overblown and over the top were it not for a great, believable performance by Robert Downey, Jr. He handles the character superbly, and brings life and credibility to the part so well that not enough can be said.
Unfortunately, it stops here.
Any comment to the rest of the casts' performance is already saying more than is deserved.

Another in a long line of movies inspired by comic book superheros, Ironman is part Robocop,part Terminator, part Superman,part Giant Robot,part Spiderman, etc.
In other words, you seen everything here somewhere else before.
In a credit to Ironman, though, his superpowers are wit,intellect,hard work, creativity and ingenuity, making him not so super in the superhero kind of way. Instead, he's human. Just like us, only better at it.

Lots of whizz-bang for the buck,the action never really stops for long. Dialogues are clever and funny with lots of light touches.
Like I said, Robert Downey,Jr. carries the whole show and makes it work. Also stars Jeff Bridges and that goofy dame married to the Coldplay guy who named her kid 'Apple'. Her name escapes me at the moment.

Overall, not that great, but good enough. And considering the fare currently being offered at cinemas, it was probably the best I could do this week.

8 comments:

Brian said...

Saw this yesterday, too.

I thought Ms. Paltrow was not completely forgettable, which for her is pretty good. And I kind of like Bridges as a bad guy, though I kept wanting him to say "this aggression will not stand, man!"

But yeah, Downey carried the show. Perfect casting.

So did you, like me, also miss the surprise after the credits?

Kristopher said...

I'm surprised you took this long to see this movie. Now, you have to see the Incredible Hulk. Look for the cameos of Bill Bixby, Lou Ferrigno and Rickson Gracie.

Strolling Amok said...

I liked this one a lot. Yeah, it doesn't really do anything new with the superhero genre but it works very well within those conventions I think. My only two complaints are 1) that the big battle at the end was anti-climactic compared to some of the stuff earlier in the film and 2) they didn't actually play 'Ironman' until the closing credits. I kept expecting to hear Ozzy every time Stark put on his suit. Oh well

Gino said...

brian: i missed it,too. i generally stay through credits for art films. this didnt qualify.

kris: rule of thumb for me: i avoid comic book movies. this was an exception. i never even seen one batman flick.

SA: and i was expecting to hear the real version of ironman. not that cheesy remade version.

RobertDWood said...

I loved this movie. :D
Gino, don't feel bad about missing the batman movies. Only the last one was any good.

You might like Hellboy though. It's not the hugely commercialized type of comic movie.

As for your assumption of the movies this week, your right. Ironman is way better then Hancock.

Kristopher said...

Gino,

You still have to see the Incredible Hulk dammit. I'll mail you a check to see it for crying out loud. That movie was better than Ironman.

Plus, did I mention Rickson Gracie is in the movie and Lou Ferrigno?

-Kris

Gino said...

ok.
IF i go this weekend, i'll check it out.

Jade said...

I was really surprised by the movie... I didn't think RDJ could pull of a superhero roll, but it was a lot of fun. Gayle sat through the whole thing quietly and totally loved it, so that helps the whole movie experience in my book.