Iron(ic) Man!? (Iron Man (DVD))

Member Name: Wee_Jackie_163

Product:	Iron Man (DVD)
Date:	08/04/09 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: SOME GOOD EFFECTS, BARGAIN DVD

Disadvantages: GWYN'S ACTING!?

Whilst deciding what to do at the weekend, myself and my partner contemplated going to our local cinema and set about reading the film reviews online to try and decide which movie to see. There wasn't really anything that we both felt compelled to see, so in a bid to save a few quid (and avoid forking out the £13 for our joint entry fee to the cinema), we decided instead to buy a couple of cheap DVDs and stay at home instead.

We selected a couple of DVDs, one of which was Iron Man (my partner's choice). We got it from our local Tesco store for the credit-crunch friendly sum of £7. The film has a 12 certificate, and states on the cover that it is approx 121 minutes long.

Iron Man is based on the comic-book superhero, created by Stan Lee (of spider-man fame).

The film stars Robert Downey Jnr as Tony Stark, a very wealthy industrialist. Tony Stark makes and supplies weapons and bombs, and is on the brink of releasing a new weapon that he has made. He travels out to the desert, into some enemy territory to demonstrate to a group of army officials how good the new weapon really is (the weapon is a sort of powerful bomb/rocket type of thing).

Whilst in the desert, the group of soldiers that Tony is travelling with are ambushed by the enemy and this results in the capture of Tony. His captors videotape him in captivity (presumably for ransom purposes, we assume at the time) and tell him that he has to re-create the bomb he was demonstrating, so that his captors (who, it has to be said, appear to be terrorists) have control of this weapon. The captors assure Tony that he will be released, once he has made the weapon for them, which he doesn't believe.

It is during his period of captivity (in a sort of cave) that Tony, with the help of another 'prisoner' sets about making the bomb for his captors, or so they lead them to believe. In actual fact, Tony and his 'inmate' are building and developing a very high-tech and modern suit made from metal, to enable them to escape.

I found this bit of the movie particularly cheesy and more than a little far-fetched (I said as much at this point, to which my partner commented that of course it was far-fetched, it was a superhero movie!) But, I really did think it was a bit over-the-top. For one thing, the character Tony is supposed to be building a bomb, so where did all the metal and equipment to make a metal suit come from? (Bearing in mind that they are being held prisoner in a cave sort of establishment!?) And considering that Tony and his fellow prisoner were under constant surveillance from their captors (they had cameras set up so they could keep an eye on them) I found it a bit bizarre that none of the captors noticed that instead of a rocket or bomb, Tony and his 'inmate' were welding a mask, and arm pieces and the like. Hmm, perhaps I'm too cynical.

Of course Tony manages to escape from his captors and there are some good effects during these scenes, lots of machine guns and a few explosions, that sort of thing. When he gets back to the United States, his assistant, "Potts" (played, rather woodenly I thought, by Gwyneth Paltrow) is waiting for him affectionately. I noted at several points throughout the film (We are treated to a watery-eyed Gwyneth Paltrow more than once... Joy!) that there was a special sort of chemistry between Potts and Tony, and this part of the movie was no exception.

Back in the comfort of his luxurious home, (which has a built-in laboratory, of course), Tony decides to re-create the suit which lead to his rescue. Using all sorts of high-tech equipment, machinery and computers, he sets about making another suit, but this time (with the use of all his fancy gadgets, naturally), he is making it better, and more computerised and the like.

Again, at this point in the movie, I felt the effects were really good - there were lots of kinds of robotic equipment assisting Tony in building his new suit, which were very cleverly done. Also, I particularly liked the high-tech designs for his suit that Tony used, which were all computerised images but were on like an invisible 'touch screen' that he could easily amend and add detail to. It looked very clever!

With Tony's new suit complete, he sets about trying it out, and has managed to develop a new technology to enable him to fly whilst wearing it... these effects were my favourite, by far.

When an attack on enemy territory, right next to where Tony was originally captured and imprisoned, is discovered by the USA military, eyebrows are raised and questions are asked about who could have carried out this attack. Nobody within the military services is able to take responsibility for it, and everybody finds it a bit convenient that Tony was held captive at this exact spot in the desert and wasn't around at the time of the attack.

Tony now wants to put his wonder-suit to better use, and sets about trying to save people and innocent members of the public. Will he achieve his goal.........??

The character of Tony is a likeable one, and whilst he is a bit arrogant and over-indulgent at times, it is easy to understand why he is like that, as he is portrayed as being a man who has everything, has tremendous wealth and power, and is used to getting his own way.

Robert Downey Jnr really brought the character of Tony a lot of extra charisma, in my opinion. He added a smattering of traits like that cheeky lopsided grin, and a dry wit that other actors can't properly pull off. Robert Downey Jnr is not the best actor I've ever seen, granted, but I find that with the right roles he can do a really good job, sometimes exceptional, and I felt that his acting in this movie was of the latter opinion.

Gwyneth Paltrow plays the love interest in this movie. I have never thought she is a particularly talented actress, and this movie is no exception; both I and my partner commented whilst watching Iron Man on how wooden her acting was.

I didn't know anything about the Iron Man comics, or the superhero himself and what his powers were etc, and I don't feel that I had to know, in order to enjoy the movie. You shouldn't let it put you off if you don't know about the Iron Man character either, you can follow the movie easily throughout, and won't be missing out on anything.

The story throughout this movie was ok, nothing spectacular, although I tend to find this with a lot of super-hero movies in general. That said, with this type of movie, I find that it's the special effects that really make or break it, and if they are below par then I'm always left feeling really disappointed. Not so, however, with Iron Man. The special effects were actually really good, particularly towards the end of the movie, when Tony Stark has to fight off another "Iron Man" (I won't go into detail too much so I don't ruin it for you) but the fighting scenes were brilliant.

There are several explosions throughout the movie and I felt that the effects during these moments were very believable too... I also felt that the machine gun 'moments' throughout the film were cleverly done too.

There are other well-known actors who star in this film too, like Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard, both of which did a very good job playing their roles, in my opinion. Shame that Gwyneth Paltrow was picked for the love interest/assistant role, "Potts" really; I felt that she made you feel that there was something missing from the movie.

With regards to the '12' rating of the film, I would say that this is mostly down to the violent content within the movie, although there is some bad language (nothing too horrific, though) and one sexual scene (again, nothing major). I'd say that the explosions and violence are probably what earned this rating.

I'm going to award this film three stars. I feel that I definitely need to deduct one star for the wooden Gwyneth 'acting'. That said, and to be fair, she wasn't so bad as to put me off watching the film again, nor would her performance prevent me from recommending this film to other people, but I feel that she has to cost my rating one star, at the very least.

I'm also deducting a star because I love, love, LOVE superhero movies and I just felt that this one had something missing. It's the only way I can explain it, and I'm not sure what else it could have contained, but it certainly didn't have that "WOW" factor that I've had from other superhero flicks.

The DVD we bought does have one or two special features, like deleted scenes and extended scenes, although we ran out of time and didn't get around to watching any of them so I can't really comment on whether they are any good, sorry!

The Iron Man Dvd is also available from Play.com for £4.99, with free delivery. There is also a special collectors' edition 2-disc version, which you can get from various outlets. This is available from Amazon.co.uk for £12.38.

So there you have it, my experience of Iron man. Let's face it, for the paltry sum of 7 quid (or a bit less) it's worth a watch, and I've seen (much) worse.

Summary: Seen better, seen worse..!