Iron Man Film Review

Iron Man as a character that was for the longest time seen as being a B plus player in the wider the Marvel Universe with the character not really being popular enough to spawn his own theatrically released movie but being popular enough to spawn his own somewhat remembered animated show in the nineties. As such it was seen as being a huge risk when the newly formed Marvel Studios chose to him as the character to launch there new film studio with and not only did it work it worked well as thanks to this film not only is the character more popular then he's ever been with him appearing in numerus films both animated and live action but he's also coming full circle with the launch of a kids animated series called "Iron Man And His Awesome Friends" and so then join me as I review the film that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the film in question being called simply just "Iron Man" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when world-famous industrialist and master engineer Tony Stark discovers that weapons that he's created are being used by terrorists he resolves to rid the world of the same terrorist group that kidnapped and almost killed him. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with this films plot doing a good job of telling the origin of Iron Man in a way that is not only as faithful to the comics as they could possibly get but also in updating it for modern audiences as well and while yes this films plot could be seen as being a bit to cheesy and a bit to over the top at times it's also a plot that really isn't afraid of being a plot from a comic book movie as while it doesn't understandably fully embrace the fact that it's the plot of a comic book movie it also doesn't fully shy away from it either with it finding the perfect middle between being hokey and over the top and also being serious and cinematic and while over later MCU films like both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame for example would have much more better plots to them for there first film out Marvel Studios really did craft a solid enough plot that whilst it does leave alot of room for improvement for a comic book movie that was released in the mid to late 2000's it's also a plot that's alot more better then what it really any right to be as well with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man and Terrence Howard as Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes. Also starring in this film is Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger , Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts , Leslie Bibb as Christine Everhart , Shaun Toub as Doctor Ho Yinsen , Faran Tahir as Raza Hamidmi Al-Wazar , Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson , Bill Smitrovich as General William Gabriel , Sayed Badreya as Abu Bakaar , Paul Bettany as the voice of  J.A.R.V.I.S. this films executive producer and director Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan , Peter Billingsley as William Ginter Riva , Tim Guinee as Major Julius Allen , Kevin Foster as Jimmy Ryan , Garrett Noel as Adam Pratt , Eileen Weisinger as Ramirez , Ahmed Ahmed as Ahmed , Fahim Fazli as Omar , Jim Cramer as Himself , Javan Tahir as Ezil , Jeannine Kaspar as Trixie , Stan Lee as Himself , Zorianna Kit as Herself , Ben Newmark as Ben , Marvin Jordan as Kenneth Smith , James Bethea as Taylor and Samuel L. Jackson as Director Nick Fury.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With all of this films actors really brining their A game to this film and while yes some performances are better then others that is always going to be the case and isn't something that's exclusive to this film and while he only played the character for this film even tho he was contracted for three films Terrence Howard is still really fun to watch in this film and even he didn't come back for any other Marvel film it's still fun to imagine how the character would have tuned out if he had continued to play the character with there not really being a single bad performance in this film which is something that does go to show you just how good of a director that Jon Favreau really is as he does manage to get some really good performances out of all of his actors and while his character isn't that well done in the film Jeff Bridges does still manage to turn in a good performance and make you believe that he's this truly evil person and while it doesn't really need to be said it's kind of obvious who the best actor in the whole entire film as it's obviously going to be Robert Downey Jr. as he is the only actor who much like alot of those involved with the making of this film had alot to proof as casting him in any movie when this film was being made was seen as being box office poison and yet he still somehow managed to not only make Tony Stark his own but be so good at playing this character that it brought his career back to live with the acting that's in this very film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the CGI for this film is Industrial Light & Magic , Pixel Liberation Front , The Embassy , The Orphanage , Prologue Films , CafeFX , Giant Studios , Lola Visual Effects , Media Factory , Scanline VFX and Whiskytree. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good even for the time that this film was being made in as when you think of mid to late 2000's CGI you don't really think of anything good as you instead of think of CGI that whilst it's decent clearly hasn't aged all that well with it being the opposite that's true for this film as all of this films CGI has aged really well as you can tell that all of the effects artists that worked on this film set out to make the best quality CGI that they could have done given the technology that was available to them at the time and while yes some of the flying shots don't look as good today as they did ten almost twenty years ago now that was something that was always going to be case as you can't have picture perfect CGI in every single scene but the fact that the overall quality of the films CGI is one that's really high it's forgivable to have one or two scenes that haven't aged all that well and while yes the CGI Iron Man suit in those scenes doesn't look at that good either with the same thing also being true for the scene where we see Obadiah's head come out of his Iron Monger suit all of this films bad looking effects look ten times better then all of the good and bad looking effects from Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania combined.

 

One of the things that alot of the more modern comic book movie fail to do and do well for that matter is the hero's journey. As nine time out of ten the hero straight away answers the call and becomes the hero that they wanted to be where as here we see Tony not only struggle to come to terms with being a hero but even struggle to answer the call in the first place as he has to convince so many people that what he's doing is what's best for busisness in the long run with even Tony himself first being presented as someone who would never become a hero and would much rather go gambling then go and save the world but not only over the course of this film but also over the course of all of the MCU films that the character appears in he learns to be the hero that he was meant to be and what it truly means to be a hero and because we the audience have been with him through all of his ups and downs and seen him conquer his demons it means all the more when if the last two Avengers movies he becomes that hero and someone who is willing to make the ultimate choice not because it's easy but because it's something that would mean protecting the whole world and that is something that is lost today as we don't get to see that development playout not only over the course of a film but also multiple films as well and heck it could even be argued that James Gunn's Superman is the latest superhero film not to go this route as when the film starts Clarke Kent is already a hero and knows what it means to be a hero whereas all of the best superhero movies have the character discover that aspect and learn to be a better hero over the course of the film.

While there are quite alot of good things to be found in this film there are quite lot of negative things to be found in it as well. Like for example even tho this is kay to help making the character of Tony Stark work his relationship with Pepper Potts isn't that well developed with them going from nothing more then work colleagues to two people who may or may not have a thing for each other in the blink of an eye and it's something that really doesn't make all that much sense as we the audience don't get to see there relationship reach that point where we want to see them together with the makers of the film instead being more focused on telling us the origin of Iron Man which does make sense as the film is all about him but the same time tho the makers of this film really should have put just as much thought and effort into making the Tony Stark aspect of the character all the more interesting as outside of being kidnapped Tony himself has nothing interesting going on in the film and that does include Pepper Potts as the makers of the film could have used some of the dance scene to further develop the characters and not just have Pepper make jokes about how Tony didn't get her anything for her birthday and so she just brought herself a dress with his money as while that does show that they are close friends something which even the scene where she reaches inside his chest near the start of the film also implied it doesn't really say that either of them have any kind of romantic feelings towards each other with this being something that could have been done just by having either character just look at the other whilst the other is with someone else as while that is a very small thing it would at least plant the seeds for their to be relationship between the two of them somewhere down the line.

The other thing that really doesn't work in this film is also the same thing that doesn't work in alot of these very early MCU films and that's the fact that Obadiah Stane is just a weak villain. With the villain not really having any clear goals and motivations outside of possibly wanting to take other Stark Industries and wanting them to continue to make weapons but that's really it and even that is a very weak goal for any villain to have granted it's perfect for his character as Obadiah is meant to be like a clone of Tony only without realizing what it is to be a hero but even so how he goes about it doesn't really fit in with his character as this is someone who should be like Mark Zuckerberg in that he's a showman someone who's all about putting on the best front possible all the while he's doing something far more sinister underneath that's who Stane is and that's not what we got from this films take on the character as in this film he's someone who doesn't even try to hide the fact that he's a villain as it's obvious right from the get go just based off of the fact that he's played by a big named star with what would have made this character being if his goal was something far more grander that getting back control of Stark Industries as that get him much power anyway but say if his goal was to become president of America for example that would not only grant him more power but would also grant him access to alot more weapons that could then be used to fire at any one that he doesn't like or just to keep a war going as if he was president he could then force Tony of the company and seize control of it himself and thus keep on making weapons and money off of them and yet by thinking far to small he's now making sure that he can't leave that much of an impact on the film as he is a really forgettable character due to how badly written that he is in the first place.

Now then this movie has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hours and six minuets and one second. Which is the prefect running time for this film to have as this film really does have the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time however in saying that tho this film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as the plot of the film as good as it is isn't as strong as it could have been something which does come from the fact that this films plot isn't that well developed it's not to the point where you can hardly tell what the plot of the film even is in the first place but it's done enough so that you can notice that there's something wrong with the plot of the film with this being something that would have been hard to fix as on the one hand having alot of the focus be on Iron Man's origin does make alot of sense due to him being the main character of the film so you can't really cut alot of those scenes out as you might miss something important to the plot of the film but on the other hand you also can't give this film a longer running time as the plot of the film is pretty thin as it is and dragging it out even longer would be stretching a thin plot even thinner with this film not even being able to fully develop it's characters either as while Tony and Pepper get some character development to a degree we don't get to see that turns Obadiah evil in the first place with it being something that does come out of nowhere despite it being a key plot point as he's the films main villain and even James Rhoades doesn't get alot of screen time to set up his character with alot of his screen time being spent mostly sting up things for Iron Man 2 and that's really it but I really will admit that this film really does have some really pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty so much better that what it could have been. As by all rights this films action should have been really bad as it's main hero is someone in a metal suit with no powers and yet even so this films action is just so good with the makers of the film really having the time of their lives in coming up with up with some exciting action sequences all of which feel like that they belong in a comic book movie as while they are over the top in a goofy and fun kind of way there not so over the top that the audience that doesn't read the comic books won't buy into them with the action in this film striking that very fine balance between goofy and over the top and just flat out cool with the best action scene in this whole entire film oddly enough not being the films action packed third act but rather it's the scene where Iron Man saves a group of people from some terrorists and then blows up one of there tanks all the while walking away from the explosion which is just so cool to being but what made it the best action scene in the film is the fact that we got to see Iron Man be a hero and actually save someone something that we very rarely if ever get to see other superheroes do in there own comic book movies and while the rest of the films action is really good nothing will ever top just how cool blowing up a tank whilst walking away from the explosion will ever be as that's just a cool image in it's own right in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall without this film we would not have the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it to be as this was the film that really started it all and while other MCU films are better this film is a really perfectly solid start to what was a really good cinematic universe of films in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10  from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Disney fandom wiki page , the official Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom wiki page and IMP Awards . Com. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great the official Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom wiki page this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from the official Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom wiki page are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid the official Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom wiki page really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.