the usual superhero origin story
I know it’s weird, but I never got around to watching Iron Man until after I’d seen two Thors, two Caps, and the Avengers. And honestly, my impression is… that’s it? Iron Man was fine, just a bog-standard superhero origin story, but certainly nothing to write home about. The characters are all one-dimensional tropes – the wise mentor who dies and brings about Tony’s reform, the corporate snake who’s behind every bad thing to ever happen, etc. The story is the typical one, of a guy who decides he has to protect people, then comes up with a means to do so, and defeats someone who wants to hurt people. There is nothing at all to differentiate this from Spiderman and all the other superhero origin stories. The movie picks up in the second half, but the first half is slow going. Of the six MCU films I’ve seen thus far, this is the weakest by a large margin.
Pffff
So I had a lot of work to get done and needed a movie that wouldn't distract me too much. And it served it's purpose. It's Marvel, and I just don't get excited about their superheroes. Iron man is pretty much the only one I find tolerable from their stable.
To be fair, as a movie it isn't too bad, it's got all the big effects and the tie-ins with all the other Marvel-movies is rather good.
Great
The first in the wave of superheros we have been hit with over the last few years. this is the transformation from Tony Stark to Iron Man - It has some very funny scenes and Robert Downey jr is superb as Stark - still it's not my favorite of the superhero-movies - but it's a close
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Robert Downey Jr. | Tony Stark / Iron Man |
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Gwyneth Paltrow | Virginia 'Pepper' Potts |
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Jeff Bridges | Obadiah Stane |
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Terrence Howard | Jim Rhodes |
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Leslie Bibb | Christine Everhart |
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Faran Tahir | Raza |
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Shaun Toub | Yinsin |
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Clark Gregg | Agent Coulson |
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Bill Smitrovich | General Gabriel |
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Sayed Badreya | Abu Bakaar |
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Paul Bettany | Jarvis (voice) |
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Jon Favreau | Happy Hogan |
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Peter Billingsley | William Ginter Riva |
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Tim Guinee | Major Allen |
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Samuel L. Jackson | Nick Fury |
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Nazanin Boniadi | Amira Ahmed |
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Marco Khan | Guard |
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Will Lyman | Award Ceremony Narrator |
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Stan Lee | Hugh Hefner |
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Joshua Harto | CAOC Analyst |
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Russell Richardson | Viper 2 |
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America Olivo | Airforce Officer |
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Gerard Sanders | Howard Stark |
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Kevin Foster | Jimmy |
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Fahim Fazli | Omar |
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Jeannine Kaspar | Flight Attendant |
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Tom Morello | Guard |
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Tim Griffin | CAOC Analyst |
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Meera Simhan | Reporter |
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Patrick O'Connell | Reporter |
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Matthew Libatique | Director of Photography |
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Stan Lee | Characters |
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Avi Arad | Producer |
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Ramin Djawadi | Original Music Composer |
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Dan Lebental | Editor |
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Jon Favreau | Director |
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Jack Kirby | Characters |
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Art Marcum | Screenplay |
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Matt Holloway | Screenplay |
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Larry Lieber | Characters |
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Don Heck | Characters |
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Kevin Feige | Production |
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Mark Fergus | Writer |
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Hawk Ostby | Writer |
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Stan Lee | Story Contributor |
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Jack Kirby | Story Contributor |
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Larry Lieber | Story Contributor |
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Don Heck | Story Contributor |
"Heroes aren't born. They're built."
Playboy and genius Tony Stark, who has inherited the defense contractor Stark Industries from his father, is in war-torn Afghanistan with his friend and military liaison, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes to demonstrate the new "Jericho" missile. The convoy is ambushed and Stark is critically wounded by one of his own missiles; he is captured and imprisoned in a cave by the terrorist group the Ten Rings. An electromagnet grafted into Stark's chest by fellow captive Yinsen keeps the shrapnel that wounded him from reaching his heart and killing him. Ten Rings leader Raza offers Stark freedom in exchange for building a Jericho missile for the group, but Tony and Yinsen agree Raza will not keep his word.
Stark and Yinsen secretly build a powerful electric generator called an arc reactor, to power Stark's electromagnet, and then begin to secretly build a suit of armor powered by the reactor, to escape. Although they keep the suit hidden almost to completion, the Ten Rings attack the workshop when they discover their intentions. Yinsen sacrifices himself to divert them while the suit powers up. The armored Stark battles his way out of the cave to find the dying Yinsen, then an enraged Stark burns the Ten Rings weapons and flies away, only to crash in the desert, destroying the suit. After being later rescued by Rhodes, Stark returns home and announces that his company will no longer manufacture weapons. Obadiah Stane, his father's old partner and the company's manager, advises Stark that this may ruin Stark Industries and his father's legacy. In his home workshop, Stark builds an improved version of his suit, as well as a more powerful arc reactor for his chest. Stane requests details but Stark keeps his work to himself.
At a charity event held by Stark Industries, reporter Christine Everhart informs Stark that his company's weapons, including the Jericho, were recently delivered to the Ten Rings and are being used to attack Yinsen's home village, Gulmira. Stark also learns Stane is trying to replace him as head of the company. Enraged, Stark dons his new armor and flies to Afghanistan, where he saves Yinsen's village and delivers a devastating blow to the Ten Rings. While flying home, Stark is shot at by two F-22 Raptor fighter jets. He phones Rhodes and reveals his secret identity in an attempt to end the attack. Meanwhile, the Ten Rings gather the pieces of Stark's prototype suit and meet with Stane, who subdues Raza with a sonic device and has the rest of the group eliminated. He has a new suit reverse engineered from the wreckage. Seeking to find any other weapons delivered to the Ten Rings, Stark sends assistant Virginia "Pepper" Potts to hack into the company computer system from Stane's office. She discovers Stane has been supplying the terrorists and hired the Ten Rings to kill Stark, but the group reneged. Potts meets with Agent Phil Coulson of the "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division", a counter-terrorism agency, to inform him of Stane's activities.
Stane's scientists cannot duplicate Stark's arc reactor so Stane ambushes Stark at home, using his sonic device to paralyze him, and takes his arc reactor. Left to die, Stark manages to crawl to his lab and plug in his original reactor. Potts and several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents attempt to arrest Stane, but he dons his suit and attacks them. Stark fights Stane, but is overmatched without his new reactor to run his suit at full capacity. Stark lures Stane atop the Stark Industries building and instructs Potts to overload the large arc reactor there. This unleashes a massive electrical surge that knocks Stane unconscious, causing him and his armor to fall into the exploding reactor, killing him.
The next day, the press has dubbed the armored hero "Iron Man". Agent Coulson gives Stark a cover story to explain the events of the night and Stane's death. At a press conference, Stark begins giving the cover story, but then announces he is Iron Man.
In a post-credits scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury visits Stark at home, and, noting Iron Man is not "the only superhero in the world", says he wants to discuss the "Avengers Initiative".
Theatrical : 2008-04-14 : Australia
Theatrical : 2008-04-16 : Netherlands
Theatrical : 2008-04-22 : Germany
Theatrical : 2008-04-23 : Italy
Theatrical : 2008-04-24 : United Kingdom
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Argentina
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Belgium
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Brazil
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : China
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Colombia
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Denmark
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : France
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Hong Kong
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Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Iceland
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Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Morocco
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Norway
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Panama
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Peru
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Philippines
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Poland
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Singapore
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : South Korea
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Spain
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Switzerland
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Taiwan
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Thailand
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : United States of America
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Ukraine
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Uruguay
Theatrical : 2008-04-30 : Venezuela
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Australia
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Austria
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Croatia
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Estonia
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Finland
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Germany
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Greece
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : India
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Israel
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Italy
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Kuwait
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Lithuania
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Netherlands
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Portugal
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Russia
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Slovakia
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : South Africa
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : Sweden
Theatrical : 2008-05-01 : United Arab Emirates
Theatrical : 2008-05-02 : Canada
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Theatrical : 2008-05-02 : Pakistan
Theatrical : 2008-05-02 : Romania
Theatrical : 2008-05-02 : Turkey
Theatrical : 2008-05-02 : United Kingdom
Theatrical : 2008-05-02 : United States of America
Theatrical : 2008-05-07 : Egypt
Theatrical : 2008-05-16 : Vietnam
Theatrical : 2008-09-27 : Japan
DVD : 2008-09-30 : United States of America