“Iron Man” is f****** awesome. Excuse the language but there is no other way that I can think of to describe this movie. In fact, there is no word to describe just how awesome this movie is so I am forced to create one. And that word will be “ultra-awesometatious”.
“Iron Man” has everything you could ask for in a summer blockbuster. Action, some comedy, and a whole lot of cool explosions. It probably won’t win any Oscars but if it does, it will be for visual effects. Watching all the little air foils flap up and down as Iron Man soars through the sky was just plain impressive. Industrial Light and Magic paid so much attention to the little details in the suit that it almost makes you believe that an Iron Man suit is an actual engineering possibility.
Robert Downey Jr.’s performance as Tony Stark, the president of a weapons manufacturing company, is excellent. Downey Jr. brings a natural wit and sort of jerk quality to Stark that you will love. They couldn’t have gotten anyone more perfect to play Iron Man.
The story is simple. After giving a weapons demonstration to the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, Tony is kidnapped by terrorists. During his capture, Tony starts to second guess his place in the world after seeing the same weapons his company produces in the hands of terrorists. In exchange for his release, the terrorists force Tony to build them the ultimate missile. Tony agrees but instead of building the missile he uses his engineering genius and plots his escape by building a suit of iron equipped with rocket launchers, machine guns, and rocket boots. Thus Iron Man is born. The rest is a series of twists and turns that will make the two-hour runtime feel like just one.
“Iron Man” follows the superhero movie formula that we’ve all become familiar with, but it is by far the best superhero comic adaptation that I’ve ever seen. The first thirty minutes introduces the protagonist who will then go through some sort of transformation. The protagonist then goes through some kind of emotional crisis and decides to use his/her new found powers for good. It even has a bit of romance that doesn’t really lead anywhere. Although “Iron Man” follows a very familiar plot line, it puts all other superhero movies to shame, particularly incredibly disappointing “Spiderman 3.”
The soundtrack also adds to the thrill ride. Black Sabbath’s “Ironman” was not played once during the course of the movie but only at the end credits. As much as Black Sabbath rocks, that song would be just too predictable
The producers even brought legendary guitarist, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave and that guitar battle from “Guitar Hero 3,” to record all the guitar tracks for the movie.
Bottom line: see this movie. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the nine dollar admission price was worth it and after watching this you’ll probably agree. And stay until the end of the credits for an extra dose of “ultra-awesometatiousness.”
