What if you could have a Michael Bay-sized, big-budget action picture, with a fantastic cast, that didn't actually suffer from the equal number of bad things about being a Michael Bay action film? Well, here is that film. It's also near the very top of the list of comic-book-based movies.
Writing: If you go into the movie with the correct "comic book superhero genre" mentality and expectations of reality, this script holds up quite nicely. Like the second Spider-Man movie, I think the planned sequel might have the best potential (one could only hope the second is even as good, let alone better), now that the "origin story" aspects of this first film are out of the way. What we get in this first entry is, of course, just such an origins story, which does a nice job of setting up the characters and giving them their first franchise adventure, so to speak. Characters are pretty well defined. Dialog flows well, and is fun (I have to imagine there was a good amount of improv on this one). The plotting is straight forward enough, functional, but still engaging. If I have any criticisms, they aren't specific enough to really point out, or matter. Perhaps some little details here and there, and the bits and pieces here and there that my genre-adjusted, reality-based, rational mind can't quite completely overlook. And for the record, I only had a passing familiarity to the Iron Man character in previous forms. I knew the basics but little else. So I can't evaluate the writing in terms of fanboy accuracy.
Production: There's absolutely nothing to complain about here. While there might be just the slightest of not-completely-perfect visual effects moments, 98% of it is absolutely beautiful. This film smacks of wild and impressive production quality. Production design is absolutely gorgeous, from both the technological designs to the stunning set designs. Matthew Libatique's cinematography is dynamic and beautiful (no surprise there, as he's the guy who's shot all of Darren Aronofsky's films), though it's slightly (intentionally, I would assume) restrained from something like an Aronofsky film. Editing is very good, particularly when I consider what it would have been if my example of it being a Michael Bay film had been true.
Cast: Robert Downey Jr. is a contender for the top spot on my favorite actor list. It's great to see him getting so many high profile and great roles these days. His role of Tony Stark in this film is nothing short of perfect casting. He can pull off the comedic and flippant aspects of the character perfectly, and easily meet the challenge of dramatically grounding the character. I'm also a big fan of Jeff Bridges, and it's cool to not only see him take a fun role like this, but to get to have him play it off of Downey on screen. I'm also a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow, who does her best work in roles like this. After having done such a great job on Sky Captain & The World Of Tomorrow (a movie I know I love more than most anyone else), she's easily qualified for the kind of golden-age type of performance and character that she has here as Pepper Potts. Incidentally, it's kind of amusing to notice that one aspect shared with her Sky Captain role is that name thing, since her character in that film was that of intrepid reporter Polly Perkins. Terrance Howard is a fantastically talented dramatic actor, but I never quite think he works completely in roles that aren't outright dramatic in nature. His character is the weakest developed in the film in my opinion (but not in a way that really detracts from the film), and despite good chemistry playing against Downey, his character could have used a bit more humor. His performance doesn't sparkle quite the way Downey, Bridges & Paltrow do. Supporting roles are well cast, from the enigmatic character played by Clark Gregg to Jon Favreau himself.
Music: Ramin Djawadi, yet another composer to emerge from Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions, comes through with a perfectly adequate score, but nothing particularly special. With a bit more edge than the traditional superhero score, it flounders a bit trying to find any particular unique voice or style. It's not a bad score, but I didn't notice much that impressed me. Definitely not as cool of a score as his work for Mr. Brooks.
Oh, and make sure you stick around after the end credits.
