Road to Endgame: Iron Man (2008) Review

Directed by Jon Favreau (Marvel Studios)
Release Date: May 2, 2008
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges
Box Office Worldwide: $585,174,222

Marvel Studios is the GOAT. Why bother watching new movies when I can watch Marvel movies for the billionth time? I mean, it’s to the point where these movies mean more to me than half the people I know…

Holy shit I need help.

That’s why I decided to kick off my new website with a“Road to Endgame.” Every 5-ish days I’ll be re-watching a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie and writing reviews and ranking all the MCU movies leading up to Avengers: Endgame.

**NOTE: Watching order will be in the order of release dates.

Iron Man (2008): Iron Man was damn near a perfect movie to kick off the MCU. It could’ve kicked off with Hulk, a well known and extremely popular hero, but they went with Iron Man instead… kind of a ballsy pick. What makes it ballsier is that Robert Downey Jr. was selected to play Iron Man. Even though he was coming off a couple successful movies, this dude was a former drug addict and wasn’t too far off from some stints in prison.

I mean, the guy was pulled over for speeding and the cops found him butt-ass naked and tripping balls while driving a Porsche! Heroin, crack, booze and guns were his Avengers at one point in life, but Marvel Studios still took a very risky shot on him… and it worked out BIG TIME.
(BTW, RDJ was also the guy who played a black guy and got nominated for an Oscar, so he’s a damn good actor. I also don’t think 2019 would approve of that nomination)

Anyways, RDJ you’re the best. Here’s my Iron Man positives/negatives, overall grade and MCU rankings:

Positives

As an origin story, this is a 10/10 movie. It’s such a badass way to introduce Iron Man to the audience. The audience is introduced to this cocky, intelligent playboy philanthropist Tony Stark who gets caught by a fictional Taliban (The Ten Rings) and is forced to build the suit in a cave to survive. Awesome!
- Stark’s arc (reactor… lol… get it?) in the movie is great, too. Starts out as the arrogant, poon-driven partier and ends the movie as the arrogant, “possibly looking for a girlfriend” superhero. He grew up more in 2 hours of screenplay than I have in 22 years of life.
- Also, we see a cute tease to Pepper & Tony’s future relationship. The RomCom fan in me loves to see it!
I already mentioned it above, but RDJ kills it as Tony Stark. The line between reality and fiction is blurred with his performance and he knocks it out of the park! It’s unfair to ask, but can you picture anyone else portraying Tony Stark as well as RDJ does? Doubtful. He’s as Tony Stark as it gets.
The movie gives us a couple of terrific moments: The “I am Iron Man” speech at the end and the clip of Stark holding his hands out in front of the Jericho missile exploding.
- I can’t stress the “I am Iron Man” speech enough! It is the exact opposite of what we’ve seen in previous superhero movies (Batman: hidden identity, Superman: hidden identity, Spider-Man: hidden identity). That scene alone does so much for the MCU and superhero genre.

It also gives us, arguably, the best chirp of the MCU. Pepper Potts says to the latest harlot, Christine Everhart, Tony brings home: “I do anything and everything that Mr. Stark requires. Including occasionally taking the trash.” Go and get wrecked, Christine!
Stark’s first time putting on the big Mark 1 suit is awesome. The entire sequence of his escape from the cave is very satisfying.
- When he upgrades the suit to the fully-painted Mark III, then we get to see the famous red and yellow Iron Man suit and it kicks ass!

The Nick Fury post-credit scene is a thrilling introduction to tease the Avengers and the entire MCU today!
P.S. Stan Lee (EXCELSIOR) as Hugh Hefner is one of the best cameos in the MCU.

Negatives

The last fight between Iron Man & Iron Monger is okay. It’s kind’ve a slow, sluggish battle. There are a couple awkward moments that makes it a disappointing end to the movie. It also hurts reviewing this 10 years after the movie since we’ve seen a lot bigger and better battles.
- The whole 3rd act with Stane making his move against Stark to steal his arc reactor falls a bit flat. It’s a fine plan and sinister at times, but something about it just feels off. It’s nothing terribly detrimental for the movie, but not as good as the first couple acts.

Villains are okay in the movie. Obadiah Stane is decent before he puts on the Iron Monger suit, but once he puts the suit on something, again, just feels off about him. The Ten Rings were the faux villains for most of the movie and they were treated as henchmen. I don’t think you hear what the Ten Rings’ leader’s name is in the movie… It’s Raza, BTW.
- The part that REALLY bothers me the most about Stane is when Pepper finds out he tried to have Tony killed. Stane has a file on the COMPANY’S COMPUTER SERVER that contains a video from the Ten Rings saying “hey, guy, you didn’t tell us we were killing Tony Stark.” WTF? Why wouldn’t you delete it!? Or can’t you at least put the file on your personal laptop? I understand it’s on a ghost drive, or whatever that is, but why not keep it to yourself… or delete it? Ya big dumb idiot.

Overall Grade: A-

Overall, I love this movie. It’s a great way to kick off a shared cinematic universe with a bang, and it still holds up after 10 years. It’s a terrific story of someone growing as a human being and bettering themselves and because of that, the ending being average doesn’t hurt it enough to damage the grade for me. The acting and character development is through the roof with RDJ, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges (even if I have some issues with Obadiah Stane). In terms of its impact, I think it’s obvious. It kicked off one of the greatest, if not THEE greatest, cinematic runs with 21 MCU movies and changed the superhero genre.

MCU Rankings

Iron Man (It’s the only movie I’ve ranked so far so it has to be #1… smitty werbenjagermanjensen would be proud)

NEXT UP: THE INCREDIBLE HULK