What do you get when you put together an outstanding ensemble cast, witty dialogue, first-rate visual effects, and most importantly a good story? You get one heck of a summer send-off, and what might be one of the best super-hero movies ever! IRON MAN is the best film to start the summer blockbuster season in years, with an all-star cast led by a pitch-perfect Robert Downey JR. who embodies every aspect of his title character, Tony Starch. Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, and Gwyneth Paltrow flush out the supporting cast with every sensibility of charm and nuance in order to make their characters every bit as intriguing as Downey's Starch, though the lime light is definitely his.
Starch is a handsome, intelligent, sarcastic, heartless, womanizing poster boy who thinks he has something to offer the world by running the largest and most technologically advanced weapons manufacturing company around. Does this not fit Robert Downey JR's on and off-screen persona like a glove? When his weapons fall into enemy hands and his life is threatened, he if forced to create a mechanical suit of body armor that gives him the ability to fly, and to blow things up; think ROBOCOP meets the ROCKETEER only far better. IRON MAN soars through the sky like a speeding bullet with such grace you can't help but imagine yourself souring at the speed of sound right next to him. After learning that his weapons are being sold to middle eastern terrorists illegally, Starch vows to protect those that are being harmed by the weapons he created, and we finally begin to see that he may indeed have a beating heart underneath all the metal that he surrounds himself with.
The reason IRON MAN succeeds when so many other super hero movies have failed (PUNISHER, THE HULK, etc...) is that it does something that you rarely find in these types of films, or many other films for that matter, it develops memorable characters who think, feel, hurt, and most of all, who offer us a glimpse into their very soul. IRON MAN is the first movie this year to truly offer and deliver a fun and entertaining ride for audiences of all ages. Hopefully, this is just the tip of the ice berg of good summer blockbusters to come flying in to a theatre near you.
GRADE: B+
RECOMMENDATION: Go see it, and soar through the sky with IRON MAN.
Now that IRON MAN has flown, can INDIANA JONES still crack a whip, will PRINCE CASPIAN deliver more Narnian wonder, will WALL-E capture our hearts with his nuanced beeps and whistles, can the HULK be reborn, can M. NIGHT find his A-game once more (SIXTH SENSE and SIGNS anyone?), and will the DARK KNIGHT be everything we hope it to be? We will just have to wait...
LET THE SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER SEASON BEGIN!!!
It would seem that the filmmakers behind THE HOBBIT (Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro), not to be released until Christmas 2011, have possibly found their young Bilbo Baggins in James McAvoy. McAvoy became famous after playing Mr. Tumnus in 2005's THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, as well as being cast in last years Academy Award nominated ATONEMENT co-starting Keira Knightley. This is still just a rumor, but a fascinating choice altogether.
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