The Invincible Iron Man

-Lion’s Gate Home Entertainment (2007)

Summary

Iron Man, Iron Man, does whatever an iron can.  

My Thoughts

Um.. excuse me, but I believe it was my turn to ride Iron Man.

I was a big fan of Ultimate Avengers: The Movie and then for some reason (namely I don’t give a damn about Black Panther) I skipped out on the sequel. Since the same production company made The Invincible Iron Man, I figured it would be a good enough flick to at least make it worthwhile to give it a spin. Unfortunately, this one didn't turn out as well.

If you’ve been reading the Civil War comics by Marvel, I’m sorry. Iron Man has been kind of a dick lately. Forget about all that. This film is an origin story for everyone’s favorite armor wearing non-political hero. It strays greatly from the original origin and creates its own sort of beginning that works in the confines of this film. Basically, Tony Stark is a sexy rich man that gets injured and is forced to use a machine to keep his heart pumping. Not content to live his life in a boring iron lung, Stark goes that extra comic book step further to create some really kick ass armor. Most of Iron Man’s supporting cast is found in this story, although the events depart greatly from the comic book source material. If you’re an uber-critical Iron Man fanboy, you might get your panties in a bundle over this film.  

As events play themselves out I found it was an enjoyable enough film with some action and drama, but the question I had to ask myself was, “Where’s Iron Man?” This film feels like a Hollywood film, but not for the right reasons. Just like in a movie there are a couple of battles featuring the super suited superhero, but not that many. Most of the time the film follows the adventures of Tony Stark as he tries to outwit the police. That’s not the animated feature I signed up for. The armor on the cover of the DVD case is barely in the movie, and a scene depicted on the back of the DVD case itself isn’t even in it at all. I was expecting this huge showdown between Mandarin and Iron Man and never got it. Total rip-off. And speaking of rip-offs, Shawn and I easily identified two scenes/plot lines in the film that were direct rip-offs of the film Clear and Present Danger and Batman Begins. Well, if you’re going to steal scenes from other films, they might as well be good ones.  

The third act is where the film really becomes disappointing, despite a nice little twist. While Iron Man pulls off a really cool bad guy beat down, as I’ve alluded to before, his showdown with the Mandarin is less than stellar. The Mandarin was taken down way too easily; in fact Iron Man doesn’t even do anything to beat him. I don't understand how this could have made it past the scripting process. A superhero has to do super heroic acts, not act as a cheerleader.   

While the voice acting is done fairly well, the animation is a bit of a let down. There’s a mix of CG and traditional animation that isn’t always the greatest. This definitely feels like a step down from Ultimate Avengers in terms of production quality. 

In the end you’re left with a decent enough film, but not what you’d really hope from an outing with Iron Man. Please Marvel direct to DVD crew, put more superhero in my superhero film! 

You better like this shot of War Machine, because you'll only see it once.

Extras

Invincible Iron Man may have been a bit of a letdown, but the special features are actually quite nice. In addition to some nifty motion menus you get:  

Alternate Opening: It gives a nice background to the Mandarin, but nothing was really lost in the cutting of this bit. 

The Origin of Iron Man: This is a short featurette that is basically an excuse to talk about how great this movie is. There’s a little bit about the comic book origin, but you’re better off just going to Wikipedia for the same information. 

The Hall of Iron Man Armor: Now this is a nice feature. It goes through a ton of different Iron Man suits and gives you a bit of history on each. Nice work.

Iron Man Concept Art: The name says it all. 

A Look at Doctor Strange: I’m probably more excited about this opening to the upcoming straight to DVD Dr. Strange movie than anything else on this disc. This opening is awesome, but after watching The Invincible Iron Man I’m a little worried it will suck.  

Score:

Film: 5.5

Extras: 7.0

Edition: 7.0

-Paul