Iron Man Review

“The way to do it right”

 What a way to start this summer’s (comic) movie extravaganza than with a blockbuster (comic) movie! Yes it’s true: Hollywood has become the land of Asian horror remakes, Off-kilter indie movies about family dysfunction and comic book blockbusters. And Iron Man is certainly the latter of those three, offering a grand spectacle of how good a comic book movie can be. Notice I said good not great.

I was having a discussion the other day of what the best comic book movie’s of this generation were in order. I came up with Spider-Man 2 then Batman Begins, and so on down the line, ranking Iron Man a solid #5 spot. What Iron Man does perhaps better than any of the 4 movies above it is preform. It’s cast is really superior to the movies ahead of it. Robert Downey Jr. is easily the #1 in the list of leading men (sorry Christian Bale).
 

Other than having the better cast, Iron Man does everything well, but no one thing great. It has good action, good story and good effects…but it feels like something I’ve seen bits and pieces of before. This isn’t a bad thing. Jon Favreau clearly learned the pitfalls of his predecessors and sought to build a faster, better experience and certainly succeeds. It’s definetely exciting and fun to watch and stand alone a solid action flick.

But in the realm of criticism that it has to fall in, it’s a good movie, not a great one. So while it brings nothing new to the table of super-hero movies or the genre, it excels at doing the high points of said genre well, which makes Iron Man a success and a good movie. This movie get’s a high 8 out of 10 Bones for being the type of comic book movie that should be made, with a little more upping of the ante required.

RATING:PLUS!