Iron Man

IRON MAN (2008) - May 3, 2008
A better-than-average, though flawed, superhero film. For one thing, the film is too long; there's much more setup here than is really needed (the whole first hour probably could have been condensed into 15 minutes). Jon Favreau's direction is very good, if somewhat bland. The film never feels too action-heavy, though it does feel a bit action-light in the first hour (in fact, the first time Tony Stark gets into his real Iron Man suit and dispatches some bad guys, it suddenly occurred to me that, yes, I am watching a superhero movie -- something I had pretty much forgotten up to that point. I guess that's either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view). Robert Downey Jr. was just as good as everyone has been saying, though I'm not sure if the film itself was quite up to his level. Certainly, it's nowhere near the ultimate superhero film everyone seems to be proclaiming it to be. ***