Movie Review: Iron Man

The short of it: 7 of 8 Nations

Beware: Spoilers after the jump!

The long of it: Folks, Iron Man has joined Spider Man, Spider Man 2, X-Men 2 and Batman Begins in the pantheon of Super Hero Movies Who Nailed It Perfectly.

It's a simple formula, really. It's okay to tweak, but you have to keep and touch on enough of the original source material to make it feel right. And indeed, Jon Favreau and company got it.

First off, any mention of this movie has to start with Robert Downey, Jr. The only man in his age bracket (the 40 to 50 year old one) with as much acting talent as him is Johnny Depp. I've loved the casting choice of Mr. Downey since I first heard about it, and he did not disappoint. He WAS Tony Stark - the cocky asshole before his capture by the Afghan terrorists (a nod to the times; his origin in the comic book had him captured in Vietnam), before eventually transforming to cocky super hero.

Some of the things I liked:

a) The original armor was as it should have been; grey, and it looked put together out of scraps and what not.

b) The supporting cast members were great, even Favreau's cameo as Happy Hogan. (Side note: Favreau sure looks like he's lost weight now that he is not doing Dinner For Five anymore, no?) Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts (who became Mrs. Happy Hogan in the comics) was fine as she did not underwhelm or overwhelm any scene she was in. Terence Howard as Rhodey -- well, we'll get to Rhodey in a second, but Howard did not embarrass himself in the 20 minutes of total screen time he had.

c) One of the reasons why fans were so excited about the casting of Downey was the fact that Tony Stark's battle with alcoholism is one of the seminal story lines in Iron Man history, which led to Rhodey donning on the armor for a while and eventually becoming War Marchine. And if there's anybody who knows about battling the demon of addiction, it's Robert Downey Jr. The eventual alcoholism is hinted at already in the first one, what with all the drinking Stark does. And they also hint at Rhodey becoming War Machine with his "Next time, baby" comment to the other armor in Stark's workshop. That's how you keep the geeks salivating for more, throw them scraps with the promise of a future feast.

d) I did like Stark revealing himself as Iron Man in a press conference (a tongue in cheek reference to The Civil War storyline perhaps?). The Iron Man is Stark's bodyguard bit which was in the comics for forever until Civil War would have worked, don't get me wrong, but I like the Ultimates version more where it's out in the open who Iron Man is.

e) The Nick Fury cameo at the end; the buildup for the Avengers movie has begun! Yes, there are rumors that Iron Man 2 will have Fury and Stark going after the Mandarin. But the bigger picture in all this is that now Marvel has begun to establish continuity amongst their movies tiny piece by tiny piece, with the eventual end result being an Avengers movie in 2011. Expect a Tony Stark cameo in the Hulk this summer, and start the casting rumors as to who will be Captain America.

Ultimately, Iron Man was a great start to the summer movie season. I had high hopes for this flick, and I was not let down for one second. Great action, great humor, great acting, and the promise of a lot more future goodies from the Marvel Movie Studio - and not just for Iron Man, but for Marvel Universe as well.

Again, welcome to the pantheon.