While I typically shy away from seeing a movie on opening weekend, I just couldn’t resist heading down to my local theater knowing Iron Man was playing twelve times a day. So Sunday morning Aly headed down to our local multiplex to see Robert Downey Jr. portray Tony Stark in one of the most accurate live action characterizations of a comic book character I have ever seen. I read Iron Man for years as a kid, but once I hit college I became disenfranchised with the character and for the most part stopped following him completely.
With that being said, Iron Man the movie was amazing. Usually I hate the first movie in a new comic book franchise because I can’t stand having to sit through the first half of a movie learning about how the hero gained his powers. Since I am a comic book reader and already know the back stories of these characters I am looking for action and to see how the movie interprets the characters I’ve known for years in comics onto the silver screen. In recent years the only first movie I’ve enjoyed was Batman Begins…until yesterday.I found myself actually interested in watching billionaire Tony Stark create his first version of the Iron Man armor. Maybe there is some connection between Stark and Batman/Bruce Wayne in that they both had to find ways to turn themselves into heroes as opposed to Superman, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four who had things happen to them which gave them these incredible powers.
Not only did I enjoy the first half of the movie but I actually liked the supporting cast, something I can’t say about most super hero movies. I take back any of the reservations I had about Jeff Bridges being the movie’s primary villain. His portrayal of Obadiah Stane was awesome and watching his transformation during the course of the movie into a true villain was remarkable. I couldn’t believe this was the same actor who played The Dude in The Big Lebowsky, but he pulled it off effortlessly and I never once viewed him as anything else but Stane.
With reports that Iron Man made $100.8 million over the weekend, it seems like Marvel has another hit franchise on their hands. According to an article on USAToday.com, Iron Man’s opening weekend box office is “the ninth-highest debut of all time and second-largest for a movie that wasn’t a sequel.” (link) Iron Man’s “tally far exceeded expectations of an opening in the $70 million to $80 million range for the three-day period beginning Friday.” (link) It’s interesting to note that “of Marvel’s dozen PG-13 movies, which include the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises, 11 have opened at No. 1 (Elektra being the exception) and taken in an average of $200 million domestically and $400 million world wide.” (link) The USAToday.com Iron Man article is pretty interesting, especially the way it compares Marvel’s blockbuster success to Pixar’s history of successful feature films, and I definitely recommend taking a few minutes to read it here.Iron Man’s huge opening weekend is exciting news because it means at least two sequels are sure be coming over the next few years. Jon Favreau did a great job directing the movie and I’m interested in seeing his ideas for future sequels, which hopefully will include Terrence Howard’s Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes donning the War Machine armor. If you haven’t seen Iron Man yet I wouldn’t wait around for this one to come out on DVD, it’s the kind of entertaining fun action movie that needs to be seen on the big screen.