palabras George "El Guapo" Roush

In my illustrious, glorious and world renowned movie reviewing career, I have given out only one A+. Oh sure, I’ve given out a few A’s, some A-‘s, but the A+ rating is something I refuse to give out unless I absolutely thought the film was one of the best ever made or the studio coughs up some dough. The last film I gave an A+ for was Superman Returns. Many, many, many, many, many, many, (this may take a while) many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many people do not agree with my assessment of that film. Yes, it had its flaws, and readers will say that perhaps...perhaps, I popped my A+ cherry a bit too soon. I will admit, maybe it deserved only an A looking back on it. Maybe I was mesmerized by Brandon Routh's manly package. But this review isn’t about regrets of the past. I will always stand by what I write and I still think Superman Returns was a fantastic movie. But even that film, for me, can’t hold a candle to Jon Favreau’s comic book masterpiece.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is an industrial billionaire and the main man behind Stark Industries, a weapons manufacturing company that uses the latest technology to give our military the advantage it needs to fight its wars. Tony is handsome, rich, and has a reputation for being a womanizer. Some see flaws in that character profile, I only see strengths. Sorry, but if you have enough money and you’re one of the most powerful businessmen on the planet, I see no flaw in having your own personal harem. I’m hoping my girlfriend only reads every other paragraph of my reviews.

While on a demonstration in Afghanistan for his latest missile creation, code named Jericho, he’s injured and kidnapped by a ruthless Middle Eastern terrorist organization who order him to build them a Jericho missile. Using his technological prowess, Tony creates the ultimate self powered weapon and escapes his captors. Now back at home, his partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) and confidant Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) are relieved to see he’s still alive and kicking. Especially happy to see him is his assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow, suspiciously absent from IMDB credit and a fully formed upper torso).

Now equipped with new found clarity and an artificial device that’s keeping shrapnel from piercing his heart, Tony dives into his own pet project and creates a Mark II version of his armored creation, eventually leading to his Mark III red and gold masterpiece. The Iron Man scenes themselves are fantastic to watch. The visual effects are jaw dropping and I never, ever thought Iron Man was going to look as bad ass as he did. Sorry, I’m not going to include spoiler scenes, but if you’ve seen any one of the 5,000 TV or trailer spots Paramount put out you’ve got a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about. I think Paramount is determined to show you half the film before it’s even released...maybe they've seen the movie too and are just excited about it. I'm guessing of course.

Those who were questioning Downey as Tony Stark needn’t worry, he captures the character perfectly. The acting by all was spot on, especially Jeff Bridges who steals this movie as the twisted Obadiah Stane. Stane is a man determined to take over Stark Industries for his own maniacal purposes and even swipes a page out of Tony’s robot book to create his own bigger, stronger version of Iron Man. And he’s a villain that you believe can and will beat the absolute shit out of our hero. The third act fight is one future comic book movie directors need to imitate when it comes to tension and excitement. I would give this advice to Mark Steven Johnson, who gave us Ghost Rider and Daredevil, but that means I would have to call him a director and I just can’t insult the profession by doing that. Yes, I’m proud of my cheap shots.

The script is smart, funny and each acts flows well into the next without any dead spots. Running at around two hours, I actually felt cheated by the runtime. I could have sat there for another two hours watching Stark build his armor, fly around or drop a deuce in his iron toilet. It’s just an engaging film and even the old, old, old couple next to me, who knew nothing about this character, loved the movie. The scene where Iron Man returns to the Middle East, ready to take out the terrorists who captured him, was so f-ing cool. I never saw so many white people throw their hands up in the air and yell out, “Awwww shit!!!” I usually have to go to Compton to see that happen in a theater. When Iron Man slams down to the ground, you know he’s going to start tearing shit up. Or he’ll give out a few self appreciating winks, shake some kid’s hands and fly away. I just can’t spoil the entire movie for you. Sorry.

I don’t need to go on and on about Iron Man. Everything about it was perfect and I can’t wait to see it again. I don’t geek out over movies too often, however, this one went beyond my expectations. Usually when something has this much hype, it tends to disappoint, but this film does not. It has what most comic book to film translations miss, and that’s heart. And a lot of people getting their faces punched in. Sorry Batman and Hulk, even if your films are good, I don’t think you’ll be able to topple this new comic book king of the mountain. I already know what you want to ask me, and that is, does War Machine make an appearance? Sorry Charlie. You’ll have to see for yourself. Let’s just say I’m first in line when the sequel comes out.

originally appeared on latinoreview.com