A Perfect Start to the Summer

For those of you who lived in a tropical country like me, summer doesn't mean sunshine and holidays. But it does signal something else. It brought a whole bunch of blockbuster movies coming to the theaters.

The first of these movies, are Marvel Studio's Iron Man (2008), based on the company's comic book character. It hits the theaters at 30 April 2008, and based on last night viewing, if the rest of them is at least as good as this one, we're in for a real treat.

Prior to his involvement in the long running Civil War storyline in the comics, Iron Man wasn't one of Marvel A-list character. If one wasn't a comic book fan, he or she probably never heard of Iron Man before.

But I reckon after a few weeks, most people would know what he's all about. In the hands of Jon Favreau (Swingers, Daredevil), Iron Man looked like every bit a summer blockbuster should be. It's fun, it has fantastic special effects, it has also surprisingly good story and acting too. Perhaps it helps that the four main actors in this movie, was nominated for an Academy Award sometime before in their career.

As with any first comic book movies, this one starts with an origin story. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a genius with a knack at electronics and machinery. Continuing his father business with his father old friend Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), he made his millions as a weapon designer and manufacturer, selling them to the US Military. As with people who have serious amount of money, Stark was living in the fast lane. He parties and slept with beautiful women. He spent ridiculous amount of money on art works, cars and everything else he can buy.

Stark life took a drastic change after he was captured in Afghanistan by a group of terrorist after he demonstrate his latest invention, a high tech missile called The Jericho. The terrorist ordered him to build this missile for them. But instead, being a resourceful guy that he is, he used the resources to built his way out of there, in the form of a high tech armor suit.

Stark's beginning to re-evaluate his life after this experience. He found that the terrorist already used some of the weapons that comes from his company. His friendship with Yinsen (Shaun Toub), an Afghanistan doctor who is a fellow captive, made him realised that his life doesn't have a purpose before. And he wanted to make sure that he had one this time around, by building a better version of the armor and put it to good use.

Even though as I said before, the cast was full of talented actors, this is clearly a tour de force by Robert Downey Jr. His acting hit the all right notes as the cocky and arrogant Stark, but still very likable. His personal journey from a jerk to a jerk with a heart was acted really well. I don't think I've ever seen an actor nailed a part like this so completely, other than Christopher Reeve's Superman.

The rest of the cast was pretty good. Gwyneth Paltrow played Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, Stark personal assistant (and love interest) well. She wasn't given that much, but she has good chemistry with Downey, and she doesn't play the annoying damsel in distress role. The writers did a good job in not forcing the romance between Stark and Pepper. Jeff Bridges, without giving too much away, was also really good in his role. Terrence Howard as James Rhodes, a military officer liaison for Stark company, was underused, but there are hints that he'll playing a much more important role in the sequel.

The special effect was breathtaking. Stan Winston really outdo himself in creating the armor suit. I like the fact that Favreau took the time to create an actual armor for shooting rather creating all the Iron Man shots with CGI.

I'm not particularly wasn't an avid reader of Iron Man, only read his comics here and there. But if this movie doing as well as I thought it should be, I reckon there'll be a whole new generation who will loved Iron Man because of it.

This is going to be a good summer.

PS: Oh, and make sure you stay until the credits end. There'll be a nice surprise for the comic fans.