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I’m late to the train on this one, I know, but I was a little miffed by all the great press Iron Man received when it first came out in theaters, so I never bothered to see it. My sister raved about it, but since I’m a contrarian, that just made me want to see it less, not more.
Well, tonight I finally gave in and watched it. I must say, it lives up to its hype. I don’t know much about Iron Man in the comics, and I don’t follow any Marvel heroes regularly (aside from a couple obscure X-Men), but I was pleasantly surprised with this rendition of Tony Stark. Robert Downey, Jr., is a lovely, lovely man [cough*eyecandy*cough], for starters, and he’s a great fit for the character. He’s self-assured, cocky, and just plain rich, but in the end, he’s still a good guy. Over all, the movie is well-paced and not too mushy/romantic/sappy. Stark’s love interest is his secretary, Pepper Potts, and there’s not even a kiss between them in the entire movie—a good thing, let me assure you. It’s understood that Stark is a playboy and beds plenty of women, but the one close to his heart is the one who “takes out the trash” in the morning (an awesome comeback on Pepper’s part early in the movie, by the way).
The main baddie is Obadiah Stane, a man who stood in for Stark and held Stark Industries together while Tony got his act together after graduating from MIT at age 17. Unfortunately, the power’s gone to his head and he tries to take out the main character more than once before the movie is over. In the end, he loses. Duh. I won’t tell you how, though I’m sure if you’re reading this you’ve already seen the movie.
Anyway, one thing is for sure: I want a suit that lets me fly, too. [insert childish tantrum here] I’m pleased to say that Iron Man redeems Hollywood from some of its poorer comic movies. If you’re looking for a good show all around, this one is on the list.
