Iron Man

[argonath]

I saw the sneak preview of Iron Man last night. Holy crap, what a way to start off the summer movie season! I think of all the Marvel-based movie series to come out in the last several years, it is by far the best franchise launcher. Robert Downey Jr. is perfectly cast, and Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard were excellent in their roles. Even Gwyneth Paltrow was pretty good. The story was well-done, but parts of the movie seemed to drag. It could have been trimmed from its almost 2 hour running time to 90 minutes, but this is a pretty minor complaint.

As far as the action sequences, they are outstanding. The gadgets and weaponry on the suit are just badass, and the flight scenes were very cool. Even the CGI was pretty believeable for the most part: some scenes during the last battle relied on it a bit too much, but overall the animators did a good job. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say that it was a first for a superhero movie. Still not sure if that's a good or bad thing...I guess we'll see in 2-3 years when the sequel comes out (and there will be one--Iron Man will do EXTREMELY well over the next couple of weeks).

I give it a 4 out of a 6 pack. Go check it out!