Thursday, May 8, 2008

Iron Man

"Oh yeah. I can fly."

One of the best lines of this movie.

This is a fun and funny film with a great cast. The role of Tony Stark is perfect for Robert Downey Jr. who manages to bring some gravitas to the character without turning it into Christian Bale's Dark Knight (which also looks amazing!). Jeff Bridges is a terrific villain (although the rol could as easily have been played by William Hurt) and Terrence Howard is subdued yet not too introspective. And I didn't mind Gwyneth Paltrow at all.

It's a superhero movie for adults and Stark is in throes of the ultimate middle-aged crisis. I love that he's accomplished a great deal in his life, made some money, had some fun and then realizes that he needs to do more with his life. So instead of getting a new sports car, he gets a really cool suit that can fly and repel RPGs and proceeds to help strangers.

Kudos to Jon Favreau who directed the underrated "Zathura" before this and of course to Stan Lee, one of the creators of Iron Man. The character is as timely now as it was when he debuted in the 60s and fighting the Vietnamese.
Three out of three 3 Vees would dig this.