IRON MAN - Full Review

You wait 2o years for something like an Iron Man movie to become a reality and when it finally does and exceeds your expectations - the rush is incredible.

Jon Favreau seemed the most unlikely director for a multi-million Marvel movie, the first that the Comic book publisher would fund and produce itself. There was a lot riding on this; they took a big gamble and now it's paid off.

IRON MAN ROCKS!!!

Favreau selected key points, character's and events from Tony Stark and Iron Man's comic book past, reformed it in his own way and recreated an origin story using celluloid magic. He proved that he was a serious fan and was very faithful to the 40 year history of the character.

The characters are a hodgepodge collection from the comic books, Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, Stark's PA and Driver respectively from the 70's comics played most satisfactorily by Gwyneth Paltrow and Jon Favreau himself. Obidiah Stane, the villain of the piece from the 80's run played by a smooth headed Jeff Bridges an even a cameo from The Ultimate version of Nick Fury from this decades books run played by Samuel L. Jackson. Terence Howard delivers a good performance as Rhodey but Robert Downey Jr. drink-in-hand with spot-on comic timing steals the show pulling of a 100% perfect performance as Anthony Stark who as a care-free playboy, gets the wake-up call of a lifetime.

All of the $186m it took to make this movie is on the screen, it's impossible to tell where Stan Winston's recreation of Adi Granov's Iron Man armour design stops and the CGI begins. The music is an exceptional work of art in itself being delivered by Ramin Djawadi and they even worked in a jazzed up version the old Iron Man cartoon theme!

It's not a fault, but this movie is obviously just the first of what I'm sure Marvel hope to be a long franchise with obvious allusions towards The Mandarin "hidden" in the name of the terrorist organisation and Rhodey's eye catching the Mark II armor which by little stretch of the imagination could be War Machine. But it's Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s appearance here (and Tony Stark's appearance in the forthcoming The Incredible Hulk) that has the most ramifications for a glorious future of dozens of interconnected Marvel movies that take place in the same universe - the world will never be the same now that Marvel have full control over their own productions.

Final Verdict: On the strength of his debut movie, Iron Man has been catapulted to the top place in a long line of Marvel movies, surpassing in greatness even 2nd sequels to Blade, X-Men and even Spider-Man. It's quite simply the greatest Marvel Super Hero Movie ever.

Colonel Creedon Rating: *****+