Movie Review: Iron Man

This summer has officially started off with a bang. I listed Iron Man #2 on my movies to see this summer. The only concern I had about this movie was Robert Downey Jr. I wondered if he could pull of Tony Stark. Would he be Bale in Batman Begins or Ben Affleck in Daredevil? Not only does he pull it off, Downey looks like he’s having fun doing it.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark, a billionaire weapons maker who is as rich as Bruce Wayne combined with the intelligence of Peter Parker. Stark is kidnapped and mortally wounded on a trip through Afghanistan. His only escape is constructing a metal suit to fight his way out.

After escaping Starks devotes his life to fighting the very people who use his weapons for evil. He uses the prototype metal man suit he made to engineer a sleeker version, giving us Iron Man.

Robert Downey Jr gives us one of the better super hero performances. It’s easy to hold a moviegoers attention in the Iron Man suit. The special effects, gadgets, eye-popping special effects, or even the cool colors can sell themselves. The scenes where he’s not wearing the suit is where we need to see the actor shine. Downey does a masterful job with his witty performance as Tony Stark. He’s so believable as a billionaire/playboy/egomaniac that I’m not even sure if he’s acting.

Terrance Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jeff Bridges round out the supporting cast in the film. All accomplished actors who did a really good job. Whoever casted for this film did a wonderful job of getting actors who could hold up the scenes that didn’t have explosions or cool Iron suits in them. I didn’t find myself bored, staring at my watch waiting for another action sequence.

One of the villains in the movie is Raza played by Faran Tahir. Raza did not have a lot of lines in the movie, but his presence seemed necessary. I look forward to seeing him in some more movies.

My suggestion: Iron Man is a fun ride for everyone. One of the better comic book adaptations that’s been made over the years. Jon Favreau did a magnificent job constructing this film, and including some of the nuances of the comic book. The storyline is good, the action is great, not to mention the script is funny and keeps you engaged for the whole film. The action reminds me of mornings sitting up ignoring my chores, reading comic book after comic book. I would have never imagined we would see those same comic book heroes on such a big stage. Next up, The Hulk!

Not So Fantastic Sequel

Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer

This summer’s movie theme should be, “The Summer Of The Sequels.” I can think of 8 off the top of my head. They market these movies like it’s new material. It’s not! It’s just a remix of a film I watched 2 years ago. I know how I feel about a movie when I respond to questions my friends ask. Here is the actual exchange between me and my friend after the movie:

Friend: How was the movie?
Me: I bought tickets for Transformers

When the first thing out of my mouth is how I bought advanced tickets for another movie 10 days away, not good sign. Some would say it’s a bad sign. You be the judge. Our newest comic sequel , Fantastic 4 , fits the bill with familiar faces, likeable characters, new villains, and the same old story.

The movie opens with the media craze surrounding the wedding of Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) and Sue Storm (Jessica Alba). The movie quickly picks up pace as there are sightings of a silver “comet” like figure on US spy satellites, along with these massive holes in the ground. The Four quickly piece together the what is going on. There have been planets with the strange matter activity and were being destroyed 8 days after the first Silver Surfer sighting. In order to fix things quickly team up with Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon) in hopes of finding the surfer and saving the world.

The movie has on ok premise, but seems to be stale at times. In Spiderman 3 if you took away all the special effects and cheesy dialogue, there was some sort of substance left in the movie. Fantastic 4 lacked that. Not that it was a bad movie, but that it could have been a better movie. One thing that bothers me the most was that the villains weren’t villainous enough. Dr. Doom sort of shows up, does a few bad things, and then leaves. You never got the feeling that they were really in any sort of danger. The relationship between the Surfer and Glactus was talked about but it would have been great to open the movie with a little back-story. I just didn’t feel connected if you know what I mean.

The comic relief of the movie was Johnny Storm (Chris Evans). He has some pretty good one-liners in the film that kept you laughing. Somehow they went away from that in the second half of the movie. The special effects were also very good. The scene where Galactus is eating earth is amazing. As you’ve see in the trailer the Surfer just looks cool, and thanks to Laurence Fishburne he also sounds cool. The first thing my friend said to me after the movie was “I would like to have seen more of the Surfer.” I couldn’t agree more.

My Suggestion: - See it if you need to. I wouldn’t wait in line to see it. There are at least 5 more sequels to come this summer so your $9.75 can wait for Rush Hour 3.

My Grade: 2.0 – Maybe you should study harder, but nobody else is so why should you.