Movie Review: Iron Man

It's been out for just a few weeks, but has made box office records becoming the second best "non-sequel" comic book release, earning well over $200 million. Iron Man definitely has his share of fans from the Marvel comic world, and the movie does a great job at introducing us to this heroic man of metal. Robert Downey Jr. takes on the role of Tony Stark, a wealthy bachelor who loves partying, women and enjoys a careless sort of attitude. He's also a weapons manufacturer and dealer, behind the powerful Stark Industries. Stark travels to a small mid-eastern town to showcase his latest Jericho missile to military personnel and prospective buyers. After the missile display is a success, the enemy attacks the military trucks, one of which is transporting Stark. Stark escapes the ride, but manages to get badly injured. He wakes up a captive of the enemy. But he also finds another problem. Shrapnel has entered his chest and is dangerously close to his heart. Luckily his roommate in the cave prison is able to build a special magnetic device to stay in Tony's chest, keeping him alive and "ticking". From there Stark must escape from the heavily guarded cave, in the process building a powerful metal suit complete with weapons. After arriving back home, Stark has a change of heart in several ways, and devotes himself to more just purposes rather then arms manufacturing. He refines the suit, its weapons and abilities, and sets off to do battle with various enemies. The battles are worth the wait of watching Tony build and test his new suit out for a while. The movie was a little light on humor when compared to movies such as X-Men and Spiderman, but holds its own and deserves to be mentioned with those great films. Overall, I recommend this movie to comic book fans, or fans of the high powered full force special effects movies that tend to rule the Hollywood box office. Iron Man makes great use of its cast and special effects. Things have come a long way since the days of Robocop, with Iron Man moving gracefully yet powerfully as he battles those up to no good. The movie also features a brief cameo from Marvel comics legend Stan Lee, and a short musical piece from Wu Tang's Tony Stark, Ghostface Killah. The movie not only stars Robert Downey, Jr. but also award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, actors Jeff Bridges and Terrance Howard. There's a special part at the end credits as well featuring Samuel L. Jackson, so be sure to stay all the way through if possible, a sequel is in the works!