Ok, first off I apologize for not writing about this sooner, but I’ve been very busy and I wanted to see it several times with several different groups of people before I made my official analysis of it and it is the same as after the first time. It is easily the best comic book movie of all time.
The reason for this stems of course from Marvel financing the entire thing after making their own movie production company, Marvel Studios, and not allowing any outside interference from other studios they previously sold their licenses to. This movie followed the stories perfectly, from Iron Man’s origin story, to the Armor Wars tone, all the way to Iron Monger. They connected everything in a way that made sense and did not sell out the comics, something that had not been done this well since the first Spider-Man movie. They even hint at War Machine and Mandarin (Clan of the 10 Rings was the terrorist group, come on folks!). The only noticeable difference that I could think of off the top of my head was that the terrorists were from Afghanistan and not Vietnam, but of course that is only because they updated it with current world events to make it a little more believable so it is a very forgivable move and that they went from Mark I Iron Man Armor to about Mark VIII in 3 suits, but this is due to it only being a two hour movie and not several years of comic book issues so again, a very forgivable move on their part.
This movie had everything perfect though. The tension between the strict, tow the line Jim Rhodes, played amazingly by Terrance Howard, and the flamboyant, care-free Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr. who gave an Oscar worthy performance; the other kind of tension between Tony and Pepper Potts, actually played surprisingly well by Gwyneth Paltrow; and the sinister, back-stabbing Obadiah Stane played perfectly by Jeff Bridges. Jon Favreau even played Happy Hogan and gave it his all, losing 70 pounds for the bit part, while directing the whole thing! The only thing a friend of mine mentioned was how cheesy the fake chest looked when Pepper had to replace his chest battery, but if he did not mention it, I would never have noticed it so to me it worked. Maybe I did not notice it though because the movie had me fully engrossed the entire time and at only 2 hours and 6 minutes long, not a single second dragged. It had comedy, it had drama, it had sex appeal, it was PERFECT. The performances were spectacular from all involved and the plot was well executed and it was believable. I cannot praise this movie enough. Of course the special effects were up to par, but we would not expect anything less nowadays. The sticklers were would these actors be able to pull off these characters and make you believe it and they did it. You could see a comic book movie win its first major Oscar for this; it was that good.
Only two things could go wrong now. They either let the actors go, which I don’t think they will because they all have been given three movie deals, or they do not do Mandarin and War Machine in the next movie after blatantly hinting at them throughout the movie. I will be gravely disappointed if Iron Man 2 fails to incorporate those two CRUCIAL characters and it will probably erase the success of this movie in the eyes of many comic book fans.
Also, I hope you all stayed through the end credits because I am sure you have all heard by now, it is official, THE AVENGERS will be a movie as showcased by Nick Fury (played by the king of all bad-asses and the hardest working man in Hollywood, Samuel L. Jackson) confronting Tony Stark after his blockbuster end press conference. More on that as it develops. For now, let Iron Man have his moment to shine.
-Ray Carsillo
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