Iron Man: "Retro" review

Since Iron Man 2 is coming out, and i'm not seeing it at midnight, which sucks, i decided to rewatch the first one. While some changes were made to update the story the film is fairly close to the comic series. Marvel has a history for their filsm beign more family friendly than DC's, sure Iron Man may not have as much violence as X Men 2(well comic violence anyhow), it's still their best made flick.

It starts off with ACDC's Back in Black, as we see military hummers driving down the road. We are introduced to Tony Stark(Robert Downey Jr) who is very cocky & somewhat misogynistic, and in classic Tony fashion, is drinking booze. While in the midst of a photo being snapped the hummer in front of them blows up. Terrorist have attacked and have taken Tony hostage, using Stark Industry weapons i might add. We then see Tony Stark held captive and used in a hostage video, in one of the best opening i've seen in recent memory. We then get a glimpse at Tony's personal life, with his backstory, and how he behaves at award ceremonies, we meet James Rhodes(Terrence Howard) and Obadiah Stane(Jeff Bridges). While doing a piece for vanity fair, we're introduced to Pepper Potts(Gweneth Poltrow), TOn'y assistant. From there we see as Rhodes is the straight man of the two, not wanting to gamble, drink or have women dance very bad in front of him, though he winds up doing all three.

Fast forward and Stark is a hostage, he meets Yinsen, another prisoner who helps him build the Iron Man suit, the terrorist beleive he is working on a bomb, but he soon blows them all away, literally! Back in the states Tony Stark has question his action as a was profiteer, and has began building a better Rion Man suit. Tony's partner Stane was the one to set him up overseas and wants control of Stark Industries, he build his own suit and the two have a battle at the end which of course Iron man wins. Throughout the film we are greeted to the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, which is obviously the Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division, aka SHIELD, and after the credits we meet Nick Fury(Samuel L. Jackson). Now i always preferred Sgt, Fury but i'll admit his cameo was pretty fucking cool, and it sets up the forthcoming Avengers film, Downey Jr. even had a cameo in Hulk. The film is not with out flaws, as it takes liberties with the source material but not to great lengths and i would've prefered to see Stark as a full blown alcoholic but i get it Marvel wanted a wider audience, and the film worked, it's Marvel's best film. I kept hoping it's be there Batman Begins, but it was not, Iron Man was great, but 2 months later the Dark Knight changed how comic book films could be made. Now with Iron Man 2 released how will it compare, some say it's better, some say it fails, well, we'll see, one thing for sure is, it'll be no Dark Knight!