Review: Iron Man

Director : Jon Favreau
Main Cast : Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges

Not another comic superhero flick!

I was enticed by Iron Man ever since the first time I heard about it during pre-production because of the fact that:
(a) it's a comic movie directed by Jon Favreau (well, anyone OTHER than Michael Bay), and
(b) with Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard, it's got "proper" actors in the cast.

As a result of the above, I expected something more akin to the Spiderman films and Batman Begins, rather than, dare I say, Transformers.



So did it live up to the expectations?

Well happily it did, though at the same time it didn't actually exceed them. The action sequences were great, a lot of emphasis was put on using real costumes and effects rather than use CGI all the time. And when CGI was used, it did look as realistic as the robots in Transformers (come to think of it, the final fight between the two "suits" on the traffic laden highway was a bit of a deja vu moment).

Acting wise, Robert Downey Jr was perfectly cast, lending his natural charm and humour to the role. Jeff Bridges was decent in an unfamilar role as the arch-enemy, though he did ham it up a bit at the end. But then, what are superhero filcks without OTT villains, eh? Gwyneth Paltrow though was a bit wasted for my liking, as she had the typical blonde damsel in distress role, albeit an older version so as to not make Downy Jr come up as a paedo. The dialogue too didn't make you cringe, but you would expect that from a people-director such as Favreau.

Eh?

There were some "Eh??" moments in the film, the most memorable to me being:
(a) Everyone seems to stay only a couple minutes away from each other, ala 24. Especially so in the scene when Potts (Paltrow) finds out who the actual villain was. I presume she phoned Stark (Downey Jr) as soon as she could. But when she did, the villain had already managed to make his way to Stark's mansion, and then back to his lab long before Potts and the federal agents (who were in a nearby building) could make their way over to arrest him!
(b) The villain's suit was at least 3 times bigger than Iron Man's (which itself is larger than life). Question is, how the heck the the villain have long enough arms and legs (not to mention head and torso) to properly control the "suit"?

Don't leave early!

I read somewhere that there is some additional footage at the end after the credits roll. So I stayed and waited. And waited. And waited. And when it did come, was it worth it? You could say so, as it gave a taste of the future instalments of the movie franchise, in the shape of a well-known actor. Bring on Iron Man 2!!