In the weeks following The Avengers, a sleep-deprived Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) tells the story of how Iron Man met his match. Beginning the story at a New Years Eve party in 1999, Tony meets a disabled businessman named Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), who asks Tony to join him in a corporate endeavor he calls Advanced Idea Mechanics. Stark not only refuses, but humiliates Killian by telling him to wait on the rooftop and then leaving him there for the rest of the evening.
Fast forward to the days following The Avengers. Tony Stark is having panic attacks remembering the alien invasion. Plagued by hypnophobia, he spends countless hours building various versions of his Iron Man suit. However, when a string of bombings are traced back to a terrorist known as The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), including one that severely injures a close friend of Stark's, he issues a personal threat to The Mandarin, going so far as to give his home address. The Mandarin responds by bombing Stark's home, and he only narrowly escapes with an Iron Man suit, leaving the world believing that he is dead.
Long story short, Stark does a bunch of detective work linking the explosions to Killian, discovers that The Mandarin is a fraud, and has a massive fight on a loading dock in which every suit prototype is destroyed, and it's pretty awesome. But I won't spoil anything else for y'all.
Breakdown time. The movie will be scored a grade out of 100%. The grade will be based on
Quality of Film-35%
Concept and Storyline-20%
Performance of Actors-20%
Public Opinion (lifted from iMDB)-10%
Personal Interest-10%
Originality-5%
Quality of Film-30%
It's an Iron Man film, and follows the basic Marvel movie setup, except we see a new director for Iron Man. John Favreau steps out on this one, letting Shane Black step in, which may explain the non-linear storytelling. Still, overall, it's an exceptional Iron Man film, and a pretty decent summer blockbuster.
Concept and Storyline-17%
Once again, the storytelling is non-linear. It can be a bit hard-to-follow if you're not a Marvel fanboy like myself, and when I first saw the movie in the theater with my brother, I had been about 56 hours straight without sleep, so I will admit that I dozed off at one point, but the concept is really rather ingenious. The Iron Man weapons are destroyed, The Mandarin gives way to an earlier, more personal villain, and Stark's love life is almost ruined, which is always interesting to see. (Forty percent of a love life, anyways.) Overall, it was a satisfying installment.
Performance of Actors-18%
Robert Downey, Jr. is Iron Man. I know it, you know it, Stan Lee knows it. That's hardly acting. Now, Guy Pearce's Killian (especially earlier on) seemed a bit overdone. Other than that, you can't really complain. Once again, it's a Marvel movie.
Public Opinion-7.6%
Once again, from iMDB.
Personal Interest-10%
Iron Man is my favorite superhero, has been my favorite superhero, will always be my favorite superhero. I'm glad to see the trio completed and look forward to seeing Iron Man in future Avengers installments.
Originality-4%
You can't expect a modernization of a superhero staple like Iron Man to be too original. Nevertheless, the superhero movie has been around for a long time now, and it still fits the bill. The new looks at The Mandarin, Tony's inner demons besides alcoholism and being an asshole, and the inner workings of several fictional companies do bring plenty to the table.
Total Rating: 86.6% (B)
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