LogFAQs > #950599469

Paratroopa1
This is the point on the list where I really like every film left and I have to put something at 18, so here's the first Iron Man film. Behind Robert Downey Jr's character-defining performance, it's really easy to see how this film completely breathed new life into the genre, since the only good lighthearted popcorn-muncher superhero flicks recently had been the Raimi Spider-Man films (the Nolan Batmans also existed, but very different vibe there). For an origin story, it's really well crafted - going from Tony Stark breaking out of an encampment with a hastily thrown together metal suit to eventually testing out and completing his Iron Man suit works really well, and the movie does a good job of pacing and ratcheting up the stakes until the final showdown. What complicates this film for me is that it's very much a Bush-era Iraq war film, and that makes it feel outdated to me in a way that's tough to grapple with - the movie IS critical of the military industrial complex, but it's not particularly critical of patriotism in general and it's certainly not critical of billionaire cult worship. It tries to imagine and lay out a way in which a billionaire war profiteer can redeem himself and walk a moral path, but at the end of the day it's still a movie in which we need the billionaire to save us and even after what Tony Stark goes through in this movie I feel like he gets let off the hook for being, well, a billionaire war profiteer. I'm able to forget about this in future movies, but not this one; this movie makes it feel too real, whereas the sheer surrealism of future MCU movies make it easier to gloss over, especially as Stark comes into his own as a character. This, plus the fact that the movie doesn't have much of the fun MCU connectivity for being the first one (especially with Terrence Howard as Rhodey) and the fact that it's a little older makes it feel rougher around the edges. Also I hate the dad rock score.

StifledSilence
I feel this is the weakest of the three Tony flicks, but it had the best villain. Is that weird? Whatever. No such thing as a bad Iron Tony Man movie.

VengefulKaelee
I have never been particularly fond of this movie, possibly because I didn't see it back when it came out in 2008. It's very of-its-time, between the blatant jingoism of its portrayal of Afghanistan and Middle-Eastern terrorism, and even the way that Tony Stark is portrayed as such a lovable asshole billionaire. It just kind of rings hollow in a lot of ways for me. I realize Tony Stark's portrayal in these movies is probably quite accurate to the comics (which I have never read), but all in all, of the primary Avengers cast, he's the one I care for the least, and this movie showcases a lot of the reasons why.

PrinceKaro
A spoiled billionaire ends up captured by the most incompetent terrorists ever who run in terror from a nerd who is wielding a gun like a grandma, and don't seem to notice Tony is building a suit of death armor instead of an advanced missile system.
So in a very awkward and forced manner Stark suddenly becomes woke because he only just now realized that weapons kill people and he shouldnt build them. He instead decides to build an advanced flying battlesuit that is armed to the teeth because clearly he should be the only person allowed to blow shit up.
Like most of the early MCU films, the movie's supporting cast is filled with largely forgettable characters and a generic 'evil corporate guy' villain.
You can see the beginnings of the sense of humor that would become the trademark of the MCU, albeit in a somewhat unrefined form. But at this point things just hadn't gelled yet and it is trying way too hard to be cool in a manner a MCU movie shouldnt need to. The music in particular is godawful compared to the rest of the MCU.
Is it a bad movie? No. But it is one that is a product of its time to an uncomfortable degree, and is lacking in any umph other than a message about weapon proliferation that ends up so fangless that it needs a pair of dentures.

Eddv
I fucking hate this movie mainly because I hate Robert Downey Jr's smug ass performance Setting the stage for my dislike of this franchise. There are worse movies in this franchise, probably, but this one holds a special place for because without it a lot of other mediocre and overhyped movies would have never been made.

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