Iron Man (2008)

Director:

Jon Favreau

Writers (WGA):

Mark Fergus (screenplay) &
Hawk Ostby (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

2 May 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Fully Charged.

Plot:

When wealthy industrialist Tony Stark is forced to build an armored suit after a life-threatening incident, he ultimately decides to use its technology to fight against evil.

Plot Keywords:

Retractable Weapon | Billionaire | Malibu California | Body Landing On Car | Mansion

Awards:

2 wins & 5 nominations

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Robert Downey Jr.	...	Tony Stark / Iron Man
Terrence Howard	...	Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes
Jeff Bridges	...	Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger
Gwyneth Paltrow	...	Pepper Potts
Leslie Bibb	...	Christine Everhart
Shaun Toub	...	Yinsen
Faran Tahir	...	Raza
Sayed Badreya	...	Abu Bakaar
Bill Smitrovich	...	General Gabriel
Clark Gregg	...	Agent Phil Coulson
Tim Guinee	...	Major Allen
Will Lyman	...	Award Ceremony Film Narrator (voice)
Marco Khan	...	Insurgent #4
Kevin Foster	...	Jimmy
Garret Noel	...	Pratt

Also Known As:

Ironman (International: English title) (alternative spelling) (USA) (poster title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content.

Runtime:

126 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Persian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:12A | Taiwan:PG-12 | Brazil:12 | Canada:14A (Manitoba) | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | New Zealand:M | Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-13 | Australia:M | Peru:PT | Greece:K | Malaysia:U | France:U | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Hong Kong:IIA | Norway:11 | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | Argentina:13 | Italy:T | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Canada:G (Québec) | Germany:12 (uncut) (video) | Ireland:12A | Philippines:G (MTRCB) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #44328) | Iceland:12 | Sweden:11 | Germany:12 (cut) (theatrical)

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Dark Blades Films

Trivia:

Jeff Bridges, hearing that Obadiah was a biblical name, researched on the Book of Obadiah in the Bible, and was surprised to learn that a major theme in that particular book is retribution, which Obadiah Stane represents.

Goofs:

When Stark is lying on the table and asking Pepper to remove the power cell from his chest, the prosthetic chest used for the effect is moving up and down to simulate his breathing. If you watch Downey Jr.'s upper chest you can clearly see that his actual breathing is out of sync with that of the prosthetic chest.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Tony Stark: I feel like you're driving me to court martial. This is crazy. What did I do? I feel like you're gonna pull over and snuff me. What, you're not allowed to talk? Hey, Forest...
Jimmy: We can talk, sir.
Tony Stark: Oh, I see. So it's personal.
Ramirez: No, you intimidate them.
Tony Stark: Good God, you're a woman! I honestly, I couldn't have called that. I mean, I would apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first.
Ramirez: I'm an airman.
Tony Stark: Well you have actually excellent bone structure there. I'm kinda having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Forrest Gump (1994)

Soundtrack:

Damn Kid

Delivers Intelligence & Great Acting with its Fun

Rest assured, Iron Man is an absolutely amazing movie. I won't dare spoil any of this remarkable movie for you but I do recommend it as highly as I possibly can. Marvel needed to get in to the solo movie making business long ago. Instead of leasing out their characters to other studios, they're making movies themselves. Most everyone knows Iron Man is their first effort and what a great lead off film! This movie helps take the comic book genre to the highest level. Just like they did in the books, they reinvent standard epic adventure by "Marvelizing" characters and making them more believable. The Spider-Man and the X-Men movies did this to a degree but only as far as their respective studios wished to stay true to the source material. Anything added or amended was for the benefit of the live action adaptation. Director Sam Raimi pulled this off by talking to the summer crowd, not down to them with the Spider-Man series. Jon Favreau has done the same thing here but I think he's done it even better. Raimi intentionally threw in a little cheese. Favreau adds nice bits of humor but not too much. He also grounds the action and the suit of armor in firm reality. I've said it before but it's brave to reach for the highest common denominator with a big budget film and Favreau delivers a movie with as much feeling as it has action and intensity. Needless to say, Robert Downey Jr. and company deliver the goods. It's a movie that has a wonderful balance that delivers intelligence with its fun.

The amazing yet realistic action is paced by the plot and characters that keep you interested from start to finish. What absolutely blew me away were the phenomenal special effects. I know they built a practical, working armor. What I loved is the use of CGI was used to augment the real life armor and not create something from scratch. Most all CGI constructs feel fake somehow but the stuff in Iron Man didn't seem fake even for an instant. As great as everything looked, what really drives the movie is the emotional resonance and down to earth nature of the plot. Sure the concept is wild but it's all presented so that you really believe it could happen. I doubt anyone will find fault with this movie unless they went in trying to dislike it.

This is, without a doubt going to be one of my top 10 movies of 2008, quite possibly the number one film.