A couple friends and I kicked off the summer movie season a day early last night, catching a 9:00 showing of Iron Man.

Iron Man completely overpowered my expectations. I've always been more of a DC than a Marvel guy, so I haven't read that many Iron Man comics, but I'm familiar with Tony Stark, the origin story, and what role he's been playing in the Marvelverse recently. So when I heard that an Iron Man movie was in production, I was skeptical that a good superhero movie could be made about a guy with a heart condition.

Boy was I wrong. This is one hell of a movie. It happily forgoes being too heavy handed (though the first 20 minutes, setting up Tony Stark's playboy image is a little much at points) and revels in being a comic book movie.

There isn't a great ton of action, but this is a comic book movie with character development (gasp!). The choice of villain was superb, and the performances are top-notch all around, including the usually-annoying Gwyneth Paltrow.

This is a the best superhero movie since Batman Begins, and I want to see the sequel right now.

Also, make sure you stay through the whole credits for an interesting surprise.

Labels: Comic Books, Movies

Posted by Ryan S. on Friday, May 02, 2008 at 9:33 AM | Permalink |