Prior Viewings: 3-4
I, like a lot of people, have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the MCU, a relationship that I'll explore more thoroughly at a later date. For now, I'll just say that I'm interested in seeing how well these movies hold up now that the Marvel empire has all but collapsed. The plan is to cover everything up to Endgame eventually, and it only makes sense to check them off in order (especially given the continuity), so let's start with the one that got the ball rolling.
Watching Iron Man nowadays is a strange experience, not just due to how unwieldy the Avengers franchise became, but also given the current state of Hollywood. But that's not exactly fair of me, is it? Like, yes, this movie is arguably patient zero for much of what came later (safe storytelling, lifeless visuals, quippy dialogue, annoying fan service, post-credit stingers), but, taken on its own, I think it's a really solid origin story.
Something this movie gets right, and something many of its follow-ups got wrong, is scale. What really works for me is the simple story, the character-heavy drama, and the low-stakes conflict. It's refreshingly small and sweet, which causes Favreau's quick pacing and action bombast to feel like a welcome burst of energy, rather than a smothering, paint-by-numbers irritant.
Like most origin stories, though, the movie falls off a bit once Stark's backstory and suit are finished.
Grade: A-
No comments:
Post a Comment