Iron Man – Movie Review
Iron Man has been released in India at the same time as the rest of the world. Great huh. Well, that’s what the Hollywood biggies do when it comes to action films…they expect them to do well in markets such as India. The movie has made an impact in just one weekend in theatres across U.S and Canada and there is no reason to think that the producers will be disappointed with India.
The movie (directed by Jon Favreau) is a cinematic adaptation of Marvel Comic’s superhero and is just what we wanted to take us away from the now stale (and boring) masked heroes flying around.
This one seems is for real. Iron Man’s super heroism is not in his genes like in the case of Superman or Spiderman. He builds it. Reminds one of another superhero – “The Mask” although the mask has magical powers. The armoured suit that Iron Man dons has no magical powers…it is an engineering feat, a machine that needs to be powered.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is the “billionaire industrialist” and “genius inventor” who builds such a suit machine. It all starts when he is on a trip to Afghanistan to test the weapons made by his company. He is kidnapped and imprisoned in a cave but genius that he is, he manages to escape by building a hi-tech armoured suit powered by a gizmo which gives superhuman strength and does strange things like fly. One is not sure how exactly Tony builds the thingmajig though..but then this isn’t SF. It’s adventure.
The beginning seems a bit slow specially if one expects to find a flying superhero in action from the start. The first half is more about Tony the inventor and Tony the person. I think the director builds up well to the scenes where Tony finally emerges in his superhero suit…to want to save the world.
Enemies lurk everywhere…from the United States Air force and the Security Agencies who want to know what exactly he is up to, people in his own company who want to stop him on his “self-destructive” path and the goons in Afghanistan. It does seem as if the whole world is against him…but then he has Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) his executive assistant. Beautiful and efficient she is someone he seems to be secretly in love with but his philandering ways leave no room for any romance…I think this has been saved for the sequel which is sure to be out.
The acting is superb all round. Robert Downey is brilliant as the unpredictable, emotional genius. Paltrow is good too although I didn’t like the way she looked. Too thin.
The movie is technologically brilliant and even though we are now used to Hollywood finesse, one is impressed. And why not, considering that Iron Man cost $135 million to make.
I think there was some censoring of scenes in India. A bedroom scene just whizzes by and one isn’t even sure what happened! And there are other scenes which must have been cut. The movie is 126 minutes long but our experience at the PVR multiplex was that the movie started around six p.m (or six ten?) and by eight p.m. we were all trooping out of the theatre, after the credits were over. If one takes about 10 minutes for the interval, then at least 15 minutes of the film have been chopped. A pity.
If you love action movies this isn’t one that you can miss. It’s the best.
Related Reading: Speed Racer Movie Review
Khuda Ke Liye Movie Review
More movie reviews of some of the latest movies.
A wide angle view of India 
Wow… this is the third amazing review I’m reading for iron man! Now I gotta go see it!! And does Robert Downey Jr look old and wrinkled? I’m not sure why they chose him for the role! 😀
No doubt the movie is amazing. And I too would have preferred a younger looking and better built Tony. 🙂 But the man has a paunch although he is not fat or anything! But by the middle of the movie you forget what he looks like and get into the character. I too wonder why they chose him…but not really. He does an excellent job. In a way it’s good that he doesn’t have the deadpan model type looks that the latest Superman had. At the same time he is better than the Spiderman actor. Well, that’s what I thought.
I just beat you by a few hours. 🙂 I agree the movie is not worth a miss. Somehow this superhero has the same depth as Batman. Its believable. And I really liked the scenes in which he creates the advanced prototype using his computers. The special effects there were amazing. Remember that Recycle bin scene?? And the scene with the fighter jets was also wow.
I just loved those graphics! Just for that I don’t mind seeing the movie again. Fabulous! – Nita.
OK. Me giving in to h’s demands. Me will go watch it 🙂
Thanks, Nita!
You are welcome everytime. 🙂 – Nita.
Am I taking it wrong or you really wanted those censored scenes in movie? 😛
Seems like, this weekend, I need to revisit some theater. 😀
Sure, I want to see those scenes! Whether it’s about sex and violence, whatever. I am an adult and I detest the moral police. I don’t like others deciding what’s good for me. 🙂 – Nita.
Actually, if one would wait after the end credits, there is a scene where Samuel L. Jackson makes a special appearance as Nick Fury. But the end credits is very long, I waited only because I read it in some other blog.
I didn’t see Samuel Jackson. Actually I waited only until the visuals finished. But I didn’t notice jackson. The minute the black screen with names appeared people started getting up and so did we. – Nita.
i am having exams so can’t see, i am using this post in my blog..
hope u don’t mind..
i don’t have anytime to watch Iron MAn
Kaushal, I presume you don’t mean the complete post. You need to follow the internet rules. The link and a few lines at best. Thanks. – Nita.
@Nita: I think he meant complete post
,also the link to your blog is also broken.
regards,
Anshul
thanks Anshul. I went to the post and requested her to remove my post. – Nita.
If anyone has seen till the credits end, there is a teaser of the planned sequel too.
FYI, I haven’t seen the movie yet. I went for ‘The forbidden Kingdom’ instead.
before watching movie i can’t say any thing but according to review i am satisfied.
Looks like a good movie . . . I can strongly empathise with unpredictable,emotional and flawed geniuses who are out to save the world even if there is a chance of destroying themselves in the process.
From what I can tell you saw the same version we saw. It was rated pretty low in terms of who could go see it, the theatre I saw it in was full of eight-year old kids. So, no sex. The closest Marvel has come to a ‘mature’ movie was “The Punisher” from a few years ago, and I think that was rated 13 and over.
I didn’t enjoy Iron Man. I thought the Afghanistan stuff was actually insulting… the action sequences reminded me of a TV show from the 80’s called The A-Team where people would be blown twenty feet into the air by an explosion, then run away after they landed. And the “bad guys” were straight out of “True Lies”, the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie where if the character was brown then all he wanted was to kill an American or a random child.
I couldn’t figure out how the terrorist group, which seemed to consist of fifty guys and their leader, could have reconquered Khan’s Asian empire with a couple of missiles.
The special effects were mostly good, although I would have preferred the last big fight have taken place during the day. But I found the plot to be obvious and not very well planned out… and the way The Press was used to advance the plot was just weird.
I liked Robert Downey as the lead character. Tony Stark was an alcoholic womanizer and mostly sleazy, so it almost fits.
I think, if they had skipped a chunk of the Afghan stuff — maybe replaced the 80’s-style caricatures of terrorists with something or someone actually threatening — I would have enjoyed it a lot more…
** (out of five)
If Kaushal doesn’t remove your post send an email to Blogger.com telling them of the situation. It’s a clear violation of the Terms of Agreement, which you can find here:
http://www.blogger.com/content.g
If he doesn’t remove your post he will lose his blog.
Iron Man was practically flawless as a super hero flick; its makers drop some pretty obvious sequel hints too… i’m thinking the next one should be equally great
Raj, you will only like this movie if you like superhero movies.
Patrick, thanks.
Gabriel, I checked again this morning and to my relief I saw this comment on Kaushal’s post:
And I hadn’t even complained! I don’t know how they found out as they have so many blogs.
About the movie, well I can’t disagree with you about the Afghanistan scenes.They were clumsy.
I didn’t know about the actual Marvel character but now I understand why they chose Robert Downey Jr. I liked him in the movie too.
sorry..:(
Thank you for coming back Kaushal to acknowledge your mistake. I think you genuinely had no idea that it wasn’t done. Well, I guess this experience was a learning experience for you… so cheer up. 🙂