Rating of
2.5/4
Review - Iron Man (2008)
Delorted - wrote on 05/02/08
I'm going to cut the formalities and jump right into this one. In the first fifteen minutes or so, we are introduced to Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr. He's a hard-working slacker who's in control of his late father's arsenal company. He the kind of guy who spends most of his time with women in bars and casinos. Basically, they make you instantly either love or hate him. Unfortunately for the filmmakers, I chose the latter.
Soon enough he's captured by terrorists who want him to make them weapons, but at this point I really don't care what happens to this guy. This is, however, how we lead into the real attraction of the film, which is the titular Iron Man. I figure they realized the fans would be sick of the slow pace thus far, so the story speeds ahead while Stark builds his suit. Now we get to what you may have paid up to $12.50 to see: Iron Man in action.
But is it worth the money? Well, if explosions are your thing. I've never been a fan of the comics, and I'm definitely sick of the summer CG action flick ever since “Transformers” last year. I have mixed feeling about this one though. The story is thin and the romance is generic. The action is fine, but it's not very interesting when you think about the fact that most of it is just Iron Man blowing things up. There are a couple interesting moments, but it's really nothing new. It also comes off as being campy, with the action and some character interactions seeming too much like a comic book when the movie is clearly made to be a movie set aside from the comics. Or maybe I'm analyzing it all wrong. Maybe I'm analyzing it too much. I don't know, but I know that it was hard to enjoy with so many small problems making up one big one.
I wanted to enjoy this movie. I gained no interest from the trailers and knew no history of the characters, so I really hoped the movie would impress me. Unfortunately, it came off as I mentioned, being too campy and too generic to really be anything special. It's not a bad movie, really, I just think it's more for the fans than anything. Actually, I think it's more for the money than anything. Regardless, it's a hard movie to review when you aren't the target audience. Oh yeah, and the final fight is ridiculous.
Acting: 8/10
Writing: 4/10
Video/Editing: 7/10
Audio/Music: 8/10
Entertainment: 4/10
Final Score: 6.2/10
