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IRON MAN
I watched this movie in an 11:45 late night show last Saturday (day after it was released). The theatre was so crowded, approximately around 95% full. My friend and I entered five minutes into the movie and we could barely find seats. We had to settle for ones that were just two rows behind the gigantic screen. And this ELDERLY man seated just behind us could not just stop clapping and whistling for every scene in which Iron Man kicked some arse.
Well, the story is pretty simple. A hero (would be) gets detained and tortured by terrorists which compels him to make an armored weapon for himself enroute of a successful escape. He returns home, a different man who wants to change the whole structure of his large Weapons Manufacturing Company citing ethical reasons and at the same time begins working in the innovation of his Iron Combat suit. And with the help of that suit he becomes IRON MAN and goes about knocking the hell out of all the bad guys out there.
For those who were expecting just hardcore sci-fi action (like me), this movie might not enthrall you at the same level Transformers or SpiderMan 2 might have had. However, the storyline demanded less action and the amount of time that the movie gave to character development of the superhero (just like SpiderMan) can only reap benefits (for future box office success). More than half the movie is spent on giving the viewers an idea of how Iron Man came into existence, so that people can connect more with the superhero.
The acting by Robert Downing Jr as the Iron Man is just surprisingly superb. He has the perfect maturity level to go with the comic timing required of the character and does not disappoint a bit. Gwyneth Paltrow acts her part pretty well but the movie could have afforded someone more gorgeous for her role as IronMan’s secretary (love interest?). Terence Howard, as an Army General (I might be wrong!) is awesome and when he and Downing shared screen time, all they did was make the audiences hysterically laugh. The baddies also enacted their role with much efficiency.
I see a lot of people and EVEN critics going gaga over the action/sci-fi scenes but I think they were plain ordinary. Must say I expected better and usually the last fight in such a high budgeted summer action movie is a special effects extravaganza but I cannot say the same about this one. And just like any other Sci-Fi, this one is not without its share of errors. How the heck could an armor be built in a highly supervised cave?
Anyway, Iron Man scores and will probably be the blockbuster leader of 2008 with not much competition to go with. I fully recommend seeing this one and its sequels are bound to better with more action sequences. Forget SpiderMan, it’s time for