Summer Movie Review 2008 # 1: Iron Man

Iron Man is 2008's first movie in a long line of summer blockbusters slated to come out in the following months. Good thing the film comes out a day earlier here in the UAE compared to its premiere in the US. The theatre was packed, but surprisingly, most of them were adults. I guess I'm not the only superhero geek in this country. The narrative was good, and immediately you are placed in action scenes you'd only see in a comic book. Robert Downey Jr. was perfectly cast as billionaire and genius Tony Stark. He played the part convincingly, definitely showcasing that his talent has not faded away. Gwyneth Paltrow makes a surprising comeback in this film, playing Tony's personal secretary and psedo-love Pepper Potts. While she graves the screen as always with her films, I felt her character is a bit underused, but I guess Director Jon Favreau (who also has a small role in the film) didn't want to make her another damsel in distress. Terrence Howard was cast a military officer and good friend to Tony Stark and a welcome additon to the great cast. The villain, played by Jeff Bridges seems to look like a chiche with all other villians in films. The monolouging and self-praises sometimes gets too much. The action scenes were superb and visual effects looked so real it seemed it were happnening in real time. It's good to see a normal guy turn into a superhero without any help from a spider bite or even cosmic radiation - he turns into one becuase he just wants to. Seems to look like Bruce Wayne-ish to me, but that's another story. All in all, it was a fun and exciting ride. This is one of the better superhero films to come out this year (After the good yet too melodramatic Spider-Man 3 last year). They've definitely crafted a nice movie here and judging by the way the scene goes after the end credits, I guess we will see more of Iron Man in the future. Iron Man: 8/10