Iron Man

So the good news is Iron Man is a big bunch of Saturday fun out at the movies. There are good laughs and there is great action and special fx, and there are more quiet character driven moments that remind me a lot of similar scenes from the best of the Spider-Man flicks.

This is a film that does have a few nitpicks with some of the standard Marvel Comic ways of film making. Though, good news, it is by pure force of will and guts that these are soundly over come by the aggressive style of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man and director John Favreau who creates some solid practical effects instead of overusing CGI. Favreau also is pro active in not making Iron Man yet another Marvel Zombie film by making the film a sci-fi / tech / geek / gear head adventure rather than a superhero film. This allows him to massage his way past some of the worst offending cliches of such films and move it into a more real world / real film scenario, and for the most part it works. You find yourself caught up in the characters and what's going on more than you are caught up in spectacle ala Transformers. Robert Downey pushes the film along so fast and so intensely that when it's over, after nearly 2 hours, you feel like you're just getting warmed up for the big event, and after the credits you find out what that big event will be by the time Iron Man 2 and 3 roll around with a nice cameo from Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury as portrayed in the Ultimates comic book universe that Marvel runs outside the continuity of the regular Marvel universe - where Nick Fury is a fifty something white guy. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch basically drew Nick Fury as Jackson in this comics universe that is more tied into the Marvel movie universe as we shall see with the Hulk, Thor, Captain America and Avengers flicks.

Alongside the DC Batman and Superman franchises, this is a good example of how you do a comic book adaptation correctly. Favreau and Downey went so far as to bring in the current creators of the Iron Man continuity to be a think tank and script advisers. They also hired in top talent from Industrial Light and Magic as well as having top actors in all key roles in the film. Suddenly they have a film that people want to see, that's well made, that's not dumbed down and that is respectful of the source material. Wow. Imagine. It's big box office and on top of that, was not affected at all by the release of other popular video games and movies at the same time! So now finally, the big realization has forced its way into Hollywood execs brains - you do a comic book movie on the cheap and it's a dud, you treat it and its fans with respect and top quality and you're rolling in the dough... and how long did that take?

This summer we're getting Iron Man, Batman, Narnia, a Will Smith Superhero flick and The Hulk. Way to go Hollywood... now if you can just put together in your head the idea that when you release months worth of crap films, no one goes to the movies... because they're crap films you might actually find a way to make a consistent dollar and become an art form instead of just a feature length trailer for folks to buy the DVD...

So... go see Iron Man if you have any need to see wide screen sci-fi / comic book guys throwing down with big bad super villains - you will have fun.

I give Iron Man 4.5 out of 5 stars, way up. Robert Downey is Tony Stark and an acting force to watch out for in the future.