Share BillinTV's profile
BillinTV
BillinTV's stats
- Review count1
- Helpfulness votes0
- First reviewMay 4, 2008
- Last reviewMay 4, 2008
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating5
BillinTV's Reviews
Overall rating
5
/
5
Iron Man Steals the Screen
PostedMay 4, 2008
BillinTV
from Washington, DC
Been waiting for a smart, stylish, action-filled, adventure film? It just landed at a cineplex near you! Get your fluids adjusted before Iron Man starts, because you're not going to want to miss a moment of director Jon Favreau's Marvel-ous adaptation of this comic hero's tangled tale. I've never read Iron Man or anything from its related family of comics, so I came into the theater with no background beyond what I'd seen in trailers over recent months. It proved to be two hours and six minutes of exciting value for my ten dollar ticket.
Casting is excellent, from Robert Downey, Jr., as brilliant but self-absorbed billionaire engineer, Tony Stark, to Jeff Bridges as the glib and ruthlessly ambitious Obadiah Stane, Gwyneth Paltrow as the Stark's loyal (but leggy) corporate sherpa and Terrance Howard, well-paced and plausible as Stark protégé, USAF Lt. Col. Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes. Other supporting cast also contribute very effectively to our immersion in the film, notably Sean Toub as Yinsen, and a couple truly nasty terrorists, very nicely portrayed by actors Faran Tahir and Sayed Badreya.
Visual effects abound and it's some of the very best photo-realistic digital animation and special effects you've seen. ILM, the other dozen or so VFX houses and literally hundreds of production artists, engineers, technicians, producers and visual wizards have put their best foot forward and collectively transported us into Starks brave new digital domain. Stunts are seamless and well-executed. Several give the audience a good laugh or a real twinge of the inflicted pain. Audio design, mix and a great musical score also contribute notably to the overall success.
The screenplay writers also signed-on for a major challenge: bring a popular story and characters from the world of comics to a much broader audience of theater goers and make everybody happy. They succeed in bringing story, characters and background to life for us through great writing, plucky dialogue and insightful exposition. Only good screenwriters can also bring out the personality and humor from a team of robots and an unseen computer.
The greatest applause here, however, really goes to Jon Favreau as director. It was fun seeing his cameos in the film as Stark's chauffeur, Hogan, but that's a good disguise for the enormous work he had to put into the creation, organization and execution of this very demanding story, script and visual elements. This was a huge leap from the fantasy world of Elf to the ultra high-tech gleam, glitz and gizmos of Iron Man, and he pulled it off with brilliance. Kudos, Mr. Favreau.
I always stay through the final credits of a film because they tell an important story of how a film was created, crafted and brought to life. Also, because writing and production is my own profession. On occasion this dedication to credit-watching also delivers a final surprise and Iron Man now shares that distinction. That's cool, but the real story to this epilogue is the number of audience members who remained in the theater to savor this little cinematic morsel. I'd say nearly a third of the audience for this 8 PM Saturday night feature remained in the theater. Many were clearly Marvel comic fans, aware that a bonus was about to be paid for their patience. No one was disappointed. Most left buzzing about what it all meant.
Marvel is onto something big here. I just hope it continues to keep Jon Favreau, and others on the creative team, busy making exciting and engaging films for quite sometime to come. It brings to my mind the successes of a franchise from a galaxy, far far away.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
Share:
0points
0of 0voted this as helpful.