Spoiler Warning! The fun stuff is below, but head over to Moviehole.net for the entire review.
“Iron Man” doesn’t do much wrong – it’s got some great action sequences, some amazing special effects, is pretty loyal to the comic, and most of all, features an insanely terrific performance by Robert Downey Jr (he could be my favourite actor to wear a superhero costume – he’s that cool!; can’t imagine it would’ve had the same effect had original choice Tom Cruise taken on the role). And though it does tread fairly predictable and well-worn territory, I suppose it has to follow a sort of formula, doesn’t it? Being a superhero movie, it can’t strive to be ‘too much’ more (everyone remember what happened when it was announced Jack Black was going to star in a comedic version of the superhero series, “The Green Lantern”!? the internet went bezerk. The project was canceled within weeks of the announcement).
Having said that, there are some things director Jon Favreau (“Elf”, “Zathura”) could’ve done to improve Iron Man. Firstly, he needs to reacquaint himself with a pair of scissors. The film is too damn long. The first half is especially sluggish – the whole ‘suit building’ sequence seems to take up a whole reel by itself – and it isn’t until about the forty-minute mark that the action kicks in. Even when it does kick in, it isn’t especially sensational stuff (the whole ‘battle in the city streets’ thing has been done to death). If he’d spent as much attention to punching up the storyline, and trimming the fat, as he did fine tuning the performances of his awesome cast (Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges also shine, Terrence Howard not so much – but maybe, since in the comics his character eventually takes over the guise of Iron Man, he’ll get more to do in the sequel), Favreau might’ve had a “Spider-Man” on his hands.
(On a side note : Those anticipating the first appearance as Samuel L.Jackson as Nick Fury, another popular comic character from the Marvel universe, originally set to make a cameo here, will have to wait for the DVDs deleted scenes – seems his cameo was cut out of the film).