D6

by Wayne Brideau - From a Guy's Perspective

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

I really don't know where to begin, so I'll start with this: I was never a huge Iron Man fan. Sure, I played the game on my old Play Station many years ago, and I might've read the odd comic with him in it when I was younger, but I was never one of those die hard fans. The movie, however, has changed all that. From the opening scene until the credits finished rolling (and there was that little surprise scene at the end) I was stuck to my seat. There was no way I could've been dislodged from where I was sitting. I was absolutely floored by how well Iron Man was done as a movie. I really enjoy superhero movies (aside from The Incredible Hulk and Superman) and The X-Men films were my all-time favourites, until now. Yes, Iron Man was that good! It's one of those movies that leave you thinking about it well after you've left the theatre (I'll still be thinking about it when this gets printed). I'll give you a little background into the story…

The movie begins with our soon-to-be (and unknowingly) superhero and billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) being escorted by a military convoy through the deserts of Afghanistan. Before you know it (and who couldn't tell, really!) the mess hits the fan and we find our beloved, hedonistic Mr. Stark being held captive by a group of your typical Middle Eastern terrorists. You're probably wondering why terrorists would be interested in him, and the connection is quite simple: wouldn't you want the head of Stark Enterprises, the biggest weapons developer and manufacturer on the planet, on your side? You don't have to work at NASA to figure out where the terrorists were going to go with this. Anyway, it's here that Tony has a seemingly change of heart (pardon the pun for those of you who go and see this film) and soon becomes the man he was meant to be. After a harrowing escape he returns to America to discover that the weapons he developed were being sold (unbeknownst to him) to those same terrorists. This causes Tony to re-evaluate his life and he decides that rather than be a harbinger of death he would rather be seen as a champion of good. He quickly revamps his old design of his suit and comes up with what'll be seen as a symbol of righteousness. However, all is not well as his family friend and business partner Obadiah Stone (Jeff Bridges), who was the one that's responsible for double dealing with the terrorists, gets his hands on the original plans for Tony's suit and begins making them for himself for his own diabolical reasons (greed). It's these events that set up the titanic battle at the end of the movie (and I won't spoil it anymore for you).

What I liked best about Iron Man was that it had a mixture of everything for everyone. It had action; it had comedy; and it had hotties. Younger kids wouldn't get a lot of the hidden stuff, like, when Tony was asked why he was late and he replies "I got caught doing a piece for Vanity Fair" after sleeping with Christine Everhart (Leslie Bibb) of Vanity Fair. And yes, she was sizzling hot! A lot of the comedy was obvious though. For instance, after growling at his robotic assistant for dousing him with a fire extinguisher we see Iron Man crashing through the floors of his house until he hits the basement where his dutiful assistant again douses him (this time real good). Then we have the hotties. Aside from the aforementioned Leslie Bibb, there's Virginia ‘Pepper' Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Now, I'm not a huge Paltrow fan, but I have to give it to her as she looked pretty damn good in the dress at the party. Finally, the best thing about this movie was Tony Stark himself (pre-Iron Man). I mean, how could you not like the guy (he had a stripper pole in his airplane). He was the true guy's guy.

All in all I'd have to say that Iron Man was an excellent movie. The one little flaw I had with it was when Iron Man was battling it out with the Iron Monger. For one brief moment it reminded me of the fight between ED-209 and Robocop, and to me, Robocop was just an okay movie. Other than that I have no complaints whatsoever about this movie. I give it a healthy two thumbs up and five stars out of five. I might even have to go and see it again.

Pros: great action, fast paced, funny, Leslie Bibb

Cons: none.