Iron Man Review

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

Directed by: Jon Favreau

Starring: Robert Downey Jr

Terrence Howard

Gwyneth Paltrow

Jeff Bridges

During a business trip to Afghanistan to demonstrate his company’s new weapon system, Tony Stark (Downey Jr) is attacked and kidnapped by a terrorist group called the Ten Rings that order him to build them a version of Stark Industries’ “Jericho Missile”, an extremely destructive, multi-warhead weapon. Instead, over the next three months with the aid of a fellow captive, Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub), he builds a crude but very strong power armor, powered from a miniature arc reactor Stark and Yinsen built to power an electromagnet “pacemaker”, which protects Stark’s heart from the embedded shrapnel in his chest. Dr. Yinsen is killed in the ensuing escape attempt when he stalls the guards to buy Stark enough time to charge the suit. Killing several terrorists and destroying their stockpile, Stark is able to get away, and is later picked up by the Air Force. Upon returning to the United States, Stark declares that Stark Industries will no longer manufacture weapons, a move which his business partner Obadiah Stane (Bridges) tells him is blocked by the board members shortly after.

During his self-imposed sabbatical from public life, Stark tinkers with the design of his power suit, refining it to be capable of flight, and builds a more powerful and reliable arc reactor, both to power his pacemaker and the suit. During his first public appearance since his kidnapping, he is shown pictures of Stark Industries weapons in the hands of terrorist groups, including the system he refused to build for them. He also discovers that Stane has been “dealing under the table” to both sides in the conflict, as well as being the one to shut Stark out of the board while he recovers. Faced with the realization of what his company has done, Stark dons the power suit and flies to Afghanistan, rescuing a village from terrorists and destroying their weapon stockpiles, accidentally drawing the attention of the United States Air Force and his friend Jim Rhodes (Howard).

Determined to make amends for his mistakes, Stark sends his assistant Pepper Potts (Paltrow) to find the shipping records of Stark Industries, so he can track down the illicit shipments and destroy them. While hacking into the system she discovers that it was Stane who hired the Ten Rings to kill Stark, but they had reneged on the deal when they realized who the target was. She also discovers that Stane has recovered the power suit prototype (Iron Man Mk I,) and has reverse engineered his own version, but not before Stane has stolen Stark’s arc reactor right out of his chest to power it, leaving Stark for dead. Using his first reactor, which was not designed to power the suit, Stark does battle with Stane in Los Angeles, defeating him when the larger arc reactor that powers Stark Industries is deliberately overloaded. Stark barely makes it out alive when his reactor almost fails completely, but reactivates.

Review

I remember reading a review from MSN Movie about this movie that said had Iron Man been released years earlier, they’ll be a mega blockbuster (sort of, can’t remember the exact word). I had to agree with it as Iron Man fails to wow their audience (well, to be exact me) completely. If it had been release earlier, let say,the same period the first Spiderman movie did, I would have give them two thumbs up. For me, the first Spiderman wasn’t that good either but since the audience that time haven’t seen Spiderman look so cool before, they all raves about it. Back to Iron Man, the beginning of the story starts out pretty smoothly and the moment Stark got himself freed, the storyline seems to be a bit too rushing at some point and sluggish sometimes. Plus, the storyline seems strangely familiar but I can’t think of the name of that movie they reminicense right now. In terms of acting, Robert Downey Jr is the only one worth mentioning and the rest especially Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper did not raise the bar to match Downey’s excellent performance. Had some other guy was ask by Favreau to don the iron suit, the movie will certainly fall flat. In terms of CGI, its quite good but still miles away from Transformers (I know some people might not agree with it). The action scene was not that impressive too. They are certain comedic scene from the movie that could give you some hearty laugh but overall it felt a bit short from what I expected. I bet the sequel of Iron Man would be better.

Pros: Robert Downey Jr and his funny robots

Cons: Gwyneth Paltrow and the action scene

Rating:3/5

Plot summary courtesy of Wikipedia. Thanks Wiki..