Reviews by Matt

Summer starts in mid-June right? Not if you are the movie industry. The first weekend in May is when the summer movie season starts. For the past few years this weekend has been huge. Last summer the third “Spider Man” movie had the biggest opening in the history of the industry.

This year’s summer opener was the eagerly anticipated “Iron Man”

Billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has made his money by manufacturing weapons for the army. One day while in Afghanistan showing off his newest missile, the convoy he is with is attacked and Stark is captured. He is told that he must build a missile for the terrorists or he will be killed. Instead he builds an iron suit that he uses to escape from the compound and eventually is rescued and brought back to the States.


He has a change of heart and no longer wants to make weapons and instead wants to use his company’s wealth to do good. Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) tells him because of this the board of directors has decided to temporarily remove him from the company. Stark uses his free time to develop another suite of iron and uses it to fight off those who are using his weapons for evil.


If there has been a more perfect casting than Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark then I have not heard about it. He embodies the character better than anyone else could. Downey Jr. has the same reputation as Stark. He had a partying reputation early in his career and was disliked for it. Stark is a jackass. He makes weapons and has made millions off of war. He has no qualms about what he does until he sees that his products are being used to kill innocent people. He is a jerk who redeems himself and become a hero.

This is one of the best comic book movies ever made. The action sequences and character development worked to make the movie work as well as it does. Director Jon Favreau, despite never having directed a movie of this scale, did a fantastic job finding the balance of awesome action sequences and great character development. The movie opens with Stark getting captured and then moves to before he went to Afghanistan. The entire movie is paced just like this and it works really well to keep the viewer involved and interested.

This is not going to make “Spider-Man” money. Iron Man is a peripheral comic book character. He is not the big name and does not have the audience that Batman or Superman has. It is still a great movie that is well worth the trip to the theater.

Stay after the credits to see “Iron Man 2” get set up for its release in 2010.

9 out of 10
Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content.
126 min