For all the rave reviews, I thought the movie was at best three out of five stars. Robert Downey Jr. was superlative as Tony Stark, but then Downey is a superlative actor.
I thought it got off to a slow start, frankly. They could have cut 10 minutes off the front part of the movie easily. The James Rhodes character served no real purpose, and Terrence Howard was the wrong actor for that character anyway. And Stark didn’t spend enough time in the armor. And the anti-war message was simplistic, and laid on a little thick.
So count me among those who are disappointed.
I did stick around to the end of the very long credits to see the “Easter egg.” And a very cooooooool Easter egg it was. All I can say is that they have more than a few heroes left before than can do a movie about those cats.
Cross posted to It’s Billy’s Blog.
first off, awesome to see a peoria based comic blog (even if the name reference is DC; make mine marvel!)!
I agree that Downey proved a good choice. Stark need not be a physical specimen but the audience must believe in his intelligence and his drive. and somehow be empathetic to his gigantic egotism. I enjoyed every minute downey was on screen. ok, the garden variety “protagonist builds something” montage notwithstanding.
howard is a fine actor and i didn’t expect to dislike his performance but he wasn’t right physically. for a military guy, albeit of the brainy tech variety, he still seemed physically awkward. many of his lines throwaway and his presence useful only so downey wasn’t in soliloquy for long stretches.
the cgi was pretty damn cool for marvel’s first in house film (meaning budget constraints).
the plot was decent and non-fans were probably more surprised than I. that said, i think another foe couldve been worked in. sure we had IM fighting 10 rings to destory stark weapons but that was just a show of power and not a match. would require departing from source material but black widow couldve made small appearance or justin hammer. something to leave hanging out there (more, i suppose than fury or 10 rings). and stark got too involved for my taste with pepper too fast. but most disappointing was that stane’s death was not from comic. i have that comic and can picture the panels. maybe pg13 wouldnt allow but i think i better shows the psychological toll on our players and foreshadows tony better than falling into a stupid explosion.
all this said i look forward to IM2 which box office dolllars will produce but worry about mandarin as villain. the “realism” tone already set and bringing in magic stuff mixes fine in comics but not in movies (no good mixtures come to mind; maybe “ring of fire”). and how else doe we give mandarin something to match IM? just a steady line of arms manufacturers? would be a boring, “top this” degeneration into cgi effects following armor wars storyline (with demon in bottle of course). ultimates does a fine job of melding the worlds.
Iron man has always felt like some very literal psychodrama and maybe thats why it cannot sustainably appeal to the summer blockbuster crowd as well as be a coherent piece of moviemaking. ill just wait and see if they can really make a thor movie that anyone will see.