|
Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search
Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
64
Appaloosa
69
Ashes of Time Redux
68
August Evening
54
Battle in Seattle
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
67
Black Balloon, The
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
50
Breakfast with Scot
63
Changeling
84
Christmas Tale, A
xx
Dostana
62
Duchess, The
46
Dukes, The
63
Eden
xx
Extreme Movie
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
26
Filth and Wisdom
28
Fireproof
80
Frost/Nixon
43
Gardens of the Night
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
54
Good Dick
30
Guitar, The
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
31
Hounddog
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
47
How About You
73
Hunger
72
I Served the King of England
70
I.O.U.S. A
40
Igor
78
I've Loved You So Long
64
JCVD
26
Lake City
82
Let the Right One In
xx
Let Them Chirp Awhile
xx
Local Color
89
Man on Wire
34
My Name Is Bruce
29
Nobel Son
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
75
Pool, The
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
82
Rachel Getting Married
56
Religulous
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
53
RocknRolla
85
Slumdog Millionaire
57
Special
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
67
Synecdoche, New York
82
Tell No One
83
Trouble the Water
43
Tru Loved
83
U2 3D
59
We Are Wizards
55
What Just Happened?
89
Man on Wire
85
Slumdog Millionaire
84
Christmas Tale, A
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Let the Right One In
80
Frost/Nixon
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
73
Hunger
72
I Served the King of England
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
August Evening
67
Black Balloon, The
67
Synecdoche, New York
64
JCVD
64
Appaloosa
63
Eden
63
Changeling
62
Duchess, The
59
We Are Wizards
57
Special
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
50
Breakfast with Scot
47
How About You
46
Dukes, The
43
Tru Loved
43
Gardens of the Night
40
Igor
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
31
Hounddog
30
Guitar, The
29
Nobel Son
28
Fireproof
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
26
Lake City
26
Filth and Wisdom
xx
Dostana
xx
Local Color
xx
Let Them Chirp Awhile
xx
Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Iron Man
Paramount Pictures, Marvel Studios
 |
|
FILM:
GAMES:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content
Starring
Robert Downey Jr.,
Jeff Bridges,
Gwyneth Paltrow,
Terrence Howard,
Shaun Toub,
Leslie Bibb,
Bill Smitrovich,
and
Nazanin Boniadi
Tony Stark is a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who is kidnapped and forced to build a devastating weapon. Instead, using his intelligence and ingenuity, Tony builds a high-tech suit of armor and escapes captivity. When he uncovers a nefarious plot with global implications, he dons his powerful armor and vows to protect the world as Iron Man. (Paramount Pictures, Marvel Studios)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Adventure
|
Drama
|
Sci-fi
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Larry Lieber (characters), Jack Kirby (characters)
Don Heck (characters), Stan Lee (characters)
Matt Holloway, Art Marcum
Hawk Ostby, Mark Fergus
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Jon Favreau
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: September 30, 2008
Theatrical: May 2, 2008
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
126 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Ever-eclectic director Jon Favreau, who briefly pops up onscreen as a Stark minion, maintains a brisk but not frantic pace, and, in concert with lenser Matthew Libatique, production designer J. Michael Riva and the first-rate visual effects team, has made an unusually elegant looking film for the genre.
100
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
The gadgetry is absolutely dazzling, the action is mostly exhilarating, the comedy is scintillating and the whole enormous enterprise, spawned by Marvel comics, throbs with dramatic energy because the man inside the shiny red robotic rig is a daring choice for an action hero, and an inspired one.
100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
You hire an actor for his strengths, and Downey would not be strong as a one-dimensional mighty-man. He is strong because he is smart, quick and funny, and because we sense his public persona masks deep private wounds. By building on that, Favreau found his movie, and it's a good one.
91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Is it possible to have yet another expensive excursion into this genre that seems in any way fresh, original and alive? The answer, surprisingly, is yes.
91
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Downey and Favreau and the special-effects team transform the trying-out of the armor and its powers into slapstick cadenzas. But equally entertaining is Stark's and Potts' recognition that they share more than a mere working chemistry.
90
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
Loyal assistant, Pepper Potts, isn't much of a part, but Gwyneth Paltrow is a presence. She stands around looking amused and flabbergastingly pretty, slinging wisecracks with serene aplomb.
90
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Downey plays off his own bad-boy image wonderfully. The writers give him great lines to work with and ditto that for his Girl Friday, Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts, whose own svelte lines cannot be improved on.
90
Village Voice
Scott Foundas
Iron Man, too, is something that people will see regardless of the reviews, but here is the point: Where Michael Bay (Transformers) has mastered a kind of sensory-assaulting pop art, Favreau is a born storyteller who engages the audience's imagination rather than crushing it in a tsunami of digital noise.
90
Time
Richard Corliss
Some of us knows that there's an American style -- best displayed in the big, smart, kid-friendly epic -- that few other cinemas even aspire to, and none can touch. When it works, as it does here, it rekindles even a cynic's movie love. So cheers to Downey, Favreau and the Iron Man production company. They don't call it Marvel for nothing.
88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
All praise to acting dynamo Robert Downey Jr., who brings so much creative juice to the party that Iron Man achieves instant liftoff.
88
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
When it comes to tone, Iron Man achieves something at which many of even its most celebrated predecessors have failed: it doesn't FEEL like a superhero movie. Instead, it's bigger and more inclusive.
88
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
With such smarts and outstanding special effects, I eagerly await a second Iron Man movie, which of course is virtually promised in the final scene.
88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Until a final conflict that more resembles a monster-truck jam than a superhero showdown, Iron Man is solid gold.
88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
As big-budget comic book adaptations go, this one's a gratifying freak--the right kind of conflicted, as well as quick-witted. It's a lot of fun.
83
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Even at his coolest, Downey's Iron Man remains a ghostly, neurotic crusader -- one whose life, in the Marvel tradition, has become a grand spectacle of overcompensation.
83
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
Iron Man is the rare comic-book movie that makes the prospect of a sequel seem like a promise instead of a threat.
83
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
There are more compelling stories to be found in the comic book world, and there are more expressive directors than Jon Favreau. But on the bases of wit, verve, spirit and whiz-bangery, it's pretty tough to find fault with.
80
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
The result is the first comic-book movie in a while that actually feels like a classic comic book: fast, furious and flip. Forget about superheroes with love problems and tortured souls.
80
Newsweek
David Ansen
Downey and Favreau give the movie a quirky flavor it can call its own. For that we can be grateful.
80
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Has the advantage of being an unusually good superhero picture. Or at least -- since it certainly has its problems -- a superhero movie that's good in unusual ways.
80
Slate
Dana Stevens
When it's idling in neutral, and we're watching Stark putter in his workshop or seduce unsuspecting journalists, Iron Man abounds in that rarest of superpowers: charm.
80
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
The movie's climactic battle scene is mildly thrilling -- although it's not nearly as exciting as simply watching Downey and Bridges work together. Bridges makes a great villain precisely because he's such a relaxed, affable presence.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
And Favreau? If you'd told me 12 years ago that Swingers' comic linchpin would end up helming one of the best, most visceral, and downright fun foray of all the comic-book franchises waiting in the CGI wings, I'd have told you to amscray, kid. But what the hell? Turns out irony's good for your blood.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
A brain-free ride on a cinematic bullet train.
75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Iron Man's biggest strength is that the fantastically armored suit doesn't overpower the intriguingly flawed character encased within.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
An action sci-fi blockbuster extravaganza that provides cartoon thrills for thinking people. It's the best movie of its kind since the second "Spider-Man" movie four years ago.
75
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
A dark delight that combines pop-culture wit and genuine emotional depth.
75
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
Iron Man is the first Marvel Comics superhero movie I would willingly sit through a second time. This is the result not just of what the movie does, but what the movie doesn't do.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Cynical, hip, politically opportunistic and loaded with kick-ass comic action.
75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
It's a fantastic special effect because it doesn't look like a special effect: The movie sells the illusion that the suit could maybe, possibly, exist.
70
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
The movie is so clever and smoothly paced that it's easy to overlook the odious story line.
70
Film Threat
Pete Vonder Haar
As comic book movies go, Iron Man is a solid entry. Downey and company help drag Favreau out of the genre holes he digs, making for a decent experience.
63
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Downey appears to like all this make-believe. Even the clunky dialogue sounds witty out of his mouth. This is not a part that makes great demands on his talent, and his slummy approach to it is amusing.
60
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Though Iron Man is diverting enough in the comic-book-movie mode, there is one thing it doesn't have, and that is dramatic unity. Unlike the irreducible element that is its namesake, Iron Man the movie is an alloy, a combination of several different and disconnected components that don't manage to unite to make a coherent whole.
60
Empire
Dan Jolin
It's not sure where to go once the final Iron Man suit is constructed, and seems in a rush to get there, but Downey Jr and the supporting cast are so perfectly placed we're already looking forward to the bound-to-be-better sequel.
58
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
I suppose it's asking too much for a great actor to be matched up with a great director on a project like this. On the other hand, there's always the sequel.
50
The New Yorker
David Denby
[Downey] can make offhandedness mesmerizing, even soulful; he passes through the key moments in this cloddish story as if he were ad-libbing his inner life.
50
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
It succeeds only fitfully. Toggling between Stark's impish goatee and Iron Man's full-metal body condom, and amid so many generic fireballs, kill shots and earsplitting thumps, bumps and crunches, the film finally collapses under its own weight.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 428 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Read more user comments...
Discuss this movie in our forums |
|
