The family and I went to see ‘Iron Man’ yesterday afternoon. While I enjoyed it, I didn’t think it was deserving of the “rave” reviews. It’s a fun movie. It’s a “popcorn by the handful” kind of flick. It has all of the requisite “origin” story development required of a superhero film and the way in which they approach it is quite good. Still, I thought this movie was very hollow.
I think a lot of the issues I have with the movie surround the villains. I thought they were extremely weak. Jeff Bridges doing “The Dude” as a suit, didn’t really work for me. I thought he was one of the lamest elements of the story. The battle at the end of the film is mediocre at best. There really isn’t an emotional investment. I never buy off on the fact that these guys want to kill one another, and their hearts don’t seem to be in the game. Betrayals, the likes of which bring about the ending sequence would evoke from me a real anger. There was no anger in the finale of the film. It was smarmy one liners between punches. Where was the, “I’m going to tear your head off!” angst? Well I can tell you it wasn’t in the final moments of this movie.
On the positive side, Downey Jr. is excellent as Stark and Favreau has proven that he can handle the superhero genre. The special effects were first rate and the scene in which Iron Man faces off against a couple of fighters is great. There is something about the origin editions of these superhero films that always leaves them lacking. I guess the imaginations of the writers are constrained to explaining the why and the how so there isn’t much left to do after that. In an effort to show us where things might go, there is a short scene that rolls after the credits. STICK AROUND FOR IT, IF YOU ARE A FAN… it’s worth it! If you’re not a big fan… go ahead and leave, you won’t get the significance of the final scene anyway.
All in all, an adequate flick… but I think it is undeserving of the “best superhero flick ever” title that I hear people and critics tossing around.
