Iron Man **** (For The Crawley Observer)

How can you be cool in an iron suit? Well Robert Downey Jr. who plays the Iron Man manages to pull it off with tremendous success.

Not only is his character arrogant and rich, but he has this tough exterior that really does make him delightfully mean, if that's ever such a thing. And with the film set showing how luxurious life can be if you're a successful businessman, his appeal grows even more as it encompasses his outstanding house, beautiful cars and all the designer clothes and accessories you can imagine.

The film isn't all about his wonderful life though; the amount of modern technology that's thrown into this is breathtaking. The use of imaginative and detailed scenes throughout the film means that Jon Favreau who directed this magic of a Marvel film, has proven his talent in the film industry.

Although, perhaps a bit long when you're sitting in the cinema and with a predictable twist, the film lives up to the Marvel characteristics with a brilliant bad character played by Jeff Bridges, amazing supernatural powers throughout and realism that will make you gasp. The comedic moments are provided from the sarcasm of Robert Downey Jr., and the action moments that are so intense you can't help yourself but get caught up in them. This is one successful action/superhero film with a cast of recognisable faces that are mostly well acted and make it that much more enjoyable to watch.

It does have to be said however, Robert Downey Jr. can't do emotional scenes and does seem out-acted by Gwyneth Paltrow who plays the very efficient lead female in this film. Although this film is meant to be about Iron Man and the discovery of him there isn't as much action as you'd expect or perhaps like.
The first and last scenes of the film are crammed with action, but as the storyline beings to build the action becomes lost making it seem quite a lengthy film as I mentioned earlier.

Also, when reflecting about the narrative of the story, it is actually quite sick and tormented. It contains brutal scenes of captivity and very graphic and painful looking fight scenes making it bizarrely uncomfortable to watch. Maybe we need to keep in mind that it is actually robots that are fighting, to keep this film in perspective.

Overall though, any fan of the Marvel films shouldn't be disappointed with this one. It contains all the stereotypes of a comic book hero, their successes and failures that would be expected as well as the modern day twists that can be created in films today.