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Iron Man
This film falls neatly between films like Spiderman and Batman Begins. It balances the cheese of a movie like Spiderman with the darker, grittier side of Batman Begins.
The whole storyline at the beginning really strikes hard as it is something that is a concern with the situation over there, and concern for the safety of the troops. Granted, I doubt that any of them are going to build a suit like Tony Stark doe sin a cave, but it touches on a slightly touchy issue for some, but it doesn't get preachy (one way or the other) which is a nice thing. The rest of the storyline works out solidly as well. It does a fine job of balancing the life style and attitude change of Tony Stark along with the typical superhero flash and fighting. The fact that Stark seems more human then most superheros is also nice, I think that he seems just as human as Batman, if not a little more.
The acting in this film is also very solid. Robert Downey Jr. is cast brilliantly in his role. He has some experience being that character, and comes off nicely as that brash, playboy, millionare character. I was also very impressed with Pepper Potts, I thought that the scenes between that character and Tony Stark worked out quiet nicely. Paltrow does a very good job in that role. Jeff Bridges was also a pleasant surprise. I wasn't sure how I would like him in an antagonist role, as I always think of him as "The Dude", but he pulled it off very nicely. Was definitely strong in his role and believable as the bad guy. I think the only star name in that film that I thought was only average was Terrance Howard, and some of that was because he had a fairly lesser role. He just didn't stand out a ton in his role. It wasn't bad by any means, but he was over shadowed by all of the other characters in his scenes.
Visually this was also a very solid film. I liked the fact that they used as little CGI as possible because that just gave it a bit more realistic feel. They could have gone with a Fantastic Four type of feel to it, but they didn't (thankfully). All of the scenes were quite impressive, and were visually solid. There were a few early scenes where I felt like they tried to be too tricky with the camera work as they shook it around during the first attack and then the escape, but it didn't detract too much from the film.
Overall this is a very good superhero film. It definitely is a step up after the last two superhoer films with X-Men: The Last Stand and Spiderman 3, even though I didn't find either of them terrible. It was a good combination of the light hearted and the more serious. Very well done superhero film.
Overall Grade: B+
Story: A
Acting: B+
Audio/Visual: B+
This film falls neatly between films like Spiderman and Batman Begins. It balances the cheese of a movie like Spiderman with the darker, grittier side of Batman Begins.
The whole storyline at the beginning really strikes hard as it is something that is a concern with the situation over there, and concern for the safety of the troops. Granted, I doubt that any of them are going to build a suit like Tony Stark doe sin a cave, but it touches on a slightly touchy issue for some, but it doesn't get preachy (one way or the other) which is a nice thing. The rest of the storyline works out solidly as well. It does a fine job of balancing the life style and attitude change of Tony Stark along with the typical superhero flash and fighting. The fact that Stark seems more human then most superheros is also nice, I think that he seems just as human as Batman, if not a little more.
The acting in this film is also very solid. Robert Downey Jr. is cast brilliantly in his role. He has some experience being that character, and comes off nicely as that brash, playboy, millionare character. I was also very impressed with Pepper Potts, I thought that the scenes between that character and Tony Stark worked out quiet nicely. Paltrow does a very good job in that role. Jeff Bridges was also a pleasant surprise. I wasn't sure how I would like him in an antagonist role, as I always think of him as "The Dude", but he pulled it off very nicely. Was definitely strong in his role and believable as the bad guy. I think the only star name in that film that I thought was only average was Terrance Howard, and some of that was because he had a fairly lesser role. He just didn't stand out a ton in his role. It wasn't bad by any means, but he was over shadowed by all of the other characters in his scenes.
Visually this was also a very solid film. I liked the fact that they used as little CGI as possible because that just gave it a bit more realistic feel. They could have gone with a Fantastic Four type of feel to it, but they didn't (thankfully). All of the scenes were quite impressive, and were visually solid. There were a few early scenes where I felt like they tried to be too tricky with the camera work as they shook it around during the first attack and then the escape, but it didn't detract too much from the film.
Overall this is a very good superhero film. It definitely is a step up after the last two superhoer films with X-Men: The Last Stand and Spiderman 3, even though I didn't find either of them terrible. It was a good combination of the light hearted and the more serious. Very well done superhero film.
Overall Grade: B+
Story: A
Acting: B+
Audio/Visual: B+