Flashback: MCU Edition: Part One: Iron Man (2008)

    Hey everyone, so with the Marvel Cinematic Universe finally returning with WandaVison I thought it would be fun to look back on the films so far and see which ones have held up and which may differ from what we remember. This will be a reoccurring series until I get through all the films. This is one hundred percent my opinion if you have a different one I’d love to hear it in the comments below. With all that said, let’s start with where it all began, the original Iron Man film. 

   Holy crap, this was a lot better than I remember it being. I’ve always thought this was great, but the first 2/3 are a perfect superhero origin story. Sadly, the third act is a little weaker than the rest of the film. It was a risk back then, but now it’s impossible to see anyone but Robert Downey Jr. playing the role. He is beyond perfect for this character, perfectly playing the arrogant but loveable jerk. Gwyneth Paltrow does fine work here, but she got better in future movies. Terrence Howard is a good Rhodes, but overall I prefer Don Cheadle. Jeff Bridges is honestly the best villain of the Iron Man series and he is only ok. When he is just a business partner to Tony, it works well. However, once Bridges suits up as well, it gets significantly weaker. 

  The first act of this movie until he announces he is quitting the weapons industry is a 10/10. This is a flawless superhero origin story. You hardly get to know Yinsen, and his death hits hard. His last words mean even more now that we’ve seen Tony’s entire story. The second act is a 9/10. It’s still fantastic and a ton of fun, especially when Tony goes to Gumeria. But the flaws show, especially with some scenes with Bridges. The third act sadly is only a 6.5/10. It’s still a fun time thanks to a tense scene with Paltrow and Bridges, along with Downey Jr’s charisma doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Despite the weak action finale, the ending scene is an all-time classic of the genre-defying expectations with Tony announcing to the world that he is Iron Man. This moment gave me chills back in 2008 and it still does in 2021. 

   Now I feel you cannot discuss a marvel film without bringing up the end credits sequences. This one took me years to discover as I just let the credits run listening to the film’s great score. We get our first introduction to Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury as he says he wants to talk to Stark about the Avengers Initiative. Now by the time I discovered this scene I knew the Avengers movie was coming. Heck, we already had seen a trailer. But I cannot imagine how massive this was in 2008. Setting up sequels was a normal occurrence, but they had never done anything like this before. 

   Overall, Iron Man was a fantastic introductory point to the MCU. I now see why so many people put this in their top 10 films in the franchise. While the third act isn’t near as good as the rest of the film, this is still an exciting and hilarious ride 13 years later.