Ah yes, Iron man. The movie that started it all. It was every bit as good as I remember it being nearly ten years ago. It did kinda follow the whole "Superhero origin story" tradition to a T. Waiting until about the hour mark for the hero to finally put on his suit, spending the first half of the film setting up his character and his motivations, and the latter half putting him face-to-face againts some supervillain that he happens to know quite personally, giving him the perfect oportunity to put his newfound abilities and convictions to the test. Feels like every (good) origin story goes with this basic pattern, but I guess if it ain't broke, why fix it?
I was kinda surprised that the effects still hold up really well today, too. I actually feel like the VFX in this film were more convincing than those in Spiderman Homecoming.
As far as the actual story goes, it was actually a great origin story. The pacing was great and it did an excellent job introducing both the characters and the world, plus the movie was friggin' hilarious to boot! My one issue is I feel like the main villain was kind of weak, and the climactic final battle was weaker still. I'm at a complete loss as to what the heck his plan was by the end of the film. So he wants to kill Tony. Great! Then what? He's just going to spend the rest of his life in a prison cell, as his crimes were exposed by that point. His suit is powerful, but not invincible. He wouldn't be able to defy the US Government with it. I kinda feel like underwhelming villains is the biggest problem with the Ironman "trilogy", but I suppose we'll get to that in a few weeks. Where these films really shine is in their fantastic sense of humor and the great chemistry between the members of the cast, imo.
Overall I give it an 8/10. I'm tempted to give it a 9 just because of all that it accomplished, but I need to leave some room for some other films that are coming up. I really can't say where it ranks on my list yet, but it's definitely in the top half.
