After being held captive in an Afghan cave, an industrialist creates a unique weaponized suit of armor to fight evil.
Director: Jon Favreau
Writers: Mark Fergus (screenplay), Hawk Ostby (screenplay), 6 more credits »
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard | See full cast and crew »
Storyline
Tony Stark. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Son of legendary inventor and weapons contractor Howard Stark. When Tony Stark is assigned to give a weapons presentation to an Iraqi unit led by Lt. Col. James Rhodes, he's given a ride on enemy lines. That ride ends badly when Stark's Humvee that he's riding in is attacked by enemy combatants. He survives - barely - with a chest full of shrapnel and a car battery attached to his heart. In order to survive he comes up with a way to miniaturize the battery and figures out that the battery can power something else. Thus Iron Man is born. He uses the primitive device to escape from the cave in Iraq. Once back home, he then begins work on perfecting the Iron Man suit. But the man who was put in charge of Stark Industries has plans of his own to take over Tony's technology for other matters.User Reviews
A Marvel superhero film done with class
When it comes to
ranking the Marvel superhero(live action) films, Iron Man is for me up
there with the better ones. It looks fabulous, the whole film is very
slickly made with top-notch special effects(which look like time and
effort was really put into it), awesome-looking futuristic gadgets and
Iron Man's suit will be a guaranteed delight to anybody who is familiar
or loves anything to do with the superhero. There is a pulsating
soundtrack that adds much to the tension of the first half of the story
and the enormously fun action sequences, which are exciting and tense
with expertly choreography. The script crackles with smart humour that
doesn't go overload, all of which is laugh-out-loud funny, yet the
hostage plotting that takes up the first part of the film is
intelligently written and somehow avoids being over-serious or
over-familiar. The story has enough to allow you to emotionally connect
with Iron Man(who I've always considered one of Marvel's most
interesting and multi-faceted characters) and has a clever mix of the
comic's 1960s origins and the effects of contemporary war, which will
provide plenty of nostalgia while also feeling relevant. Jon Favreau
does a great job directing, he never loses control of the story and he
doesn't do anything too fussy. Robert Downey Jnr's performance as Tony
Stark/Iron Man is a power-house and one of his best, doing much with the
smart dialogue while making the emotional side of the characters wholly
believable. Gwyneth Paltrow is a good, loyal side-kick with wise-cracks
that don't come across as annoying and Jeff Bridges is surprisingly
very good in an against-type role. Personally, the only disappointments
were the useless character of Christine Everheart and the somewhat
rushed and over-blown finale that wasn't quite as thrilling as it could
have been, other than that Iron Man was a classy addition to the Marvel
cannon and a great film on its own. 9/10 Bethany Cox
