So Saturday, Marc, CK, Mel, and I went to see Iron Man, joining the throngs of people evidently also doing so, by the looks of this weekend's take. I don't think Marc, Mel, or CK knew much about Iron Man at all prior to the movie, while I have a bit of knowledge about the character, mostly through osmosis from RPGnet (and I read a lot of comics when I was back in middle school). For all of us, I think, the movie was definitely a hit out of the park; for me, Iron Man is now competing with Batman Begins as my favorite superhero movie of all time. As Jeremy pointed out though, the two are so different in tone that it is hard to really compare them.
Robert Downey Jr. does an awesome job as Tony Stark (evidently alcoholic playboy is not a hard role for him to grasp), and he definitely nails the personality in each aspect -- Tony as the pre-epiphany playboy, Tony as ubergeek, and Tony as post-epiphany superhero. The supporting cast is good too -- Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, and Jeff Bridges all do a good job, and the movie isn't overly crowded with villians or supporting cast like some recent movies have been (see the latest Spiderman outing, for instance). There was plenty of stuff that was obviously for real fans of the comic book (I'll give some examples behind the cut), but you could definitely enjoy the movie without ever having read the comic. The special effects, while impressive, never overshadow the rest of the movie, and "in helmet" shots of Stark keep Downey from being a glorified voice actor for much of the film, as can sometimes happen with movies heavy on the CGI.
This is a movie I'm definitely looking forward to getting on DVD, and I'll probably try to pick up the soundtrack as well, which was pretty good.
Robert Downey Jr. does an awesome job as Tony Stark (evidently alcoholic playboy is not a hard role for him to grasp), and he definitely nails the personality in each aspect -- Tony as the pre-epiphany playboy, Tony as ubergeek, and Tony as post-epiphany superhero. The supporting cast is good too -- Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, and Jeff Bridges all do a good job, and the movie isn't overly crowded with villians or supporting cast like some recent movies have been (see the latest Spiderman outing, for instance). There was plenty of stuff that was obviously for real fans of the comic book (I'll give some examples behind the cut), but you could definitely enjoy the movie without ever having read the comic. The special effects, while impressive, never overshadow the rest of the movie, and "in helmet" shots of Stark keep Downey from being a glorified voice actor for much of the film, as can sometimes happen with movies heavy on the CGI.
This is a movie I'm definitely looking forward to getting on DVD, and I'll probably try to pick up the soundtrack as well, which was pretty good.
Other than the main characters, who were all pulled from the pages of the comic, the movie features appearances by agents of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, which Pepper Pots and Tony Stark continually mock as being too cumbersome (leading to the final scene with the much-put-upon Agent Coulson saying to just call it SHIELD). The group that kidnaps Stark in the beginning is the "Ten Rings," which is a callback to the Mandarin, who is a possible villian in the next film. After the credits, there is a bonus scene with Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury -- doubly amsing since the Ultimate version of Nick Fury was modeled on Jackson (with his permission). Rhodes glances back at the "Mark 2" prototype of the Iron Man prior to the final showdown and says "Next time, baby," possibly hinting at an appearance of War Machine in the next Iron Man film (already announced for 2010). While knowing all of these isn't really important to the film itself, it is a bit of a bonus feature for fans of the comic.
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