The Invincible Iron Man

by: Average Joe 1 year, 9 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 22 hours, 15 minutes ago

Release Date:

1/23/07

Price:

19.99

Company:

Marvel/Lionsgate

Series:

The Invincible Iron Man

 

Over the past year Marvel and Lionsgate have been hard at work producing a series of animated feature films that have raised the bar as far as animated feature films go. Their first release Ultimate Avengers treated fans to an animated version of the popular Marvel series The Ultimates in which Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Giant Man, Wasp, Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D try to stop an alien invasion all the while having to deal with a rampaging Hulk. While the film didn’t follow the comic book exactly, it still kept the spirit of the first few issues of The Ultimates alive, and treated us to some of the most fluid animation in a long time.

The second installment of the films, Ultimate Avengers 2 told a completely original story and introduced us to the Ultimate version of Black Panther. While the second film was enjoyable, and once again featured beautiful animation it lacked the epic feel that the first one had....namely the battle between the Avengers and Hulk at the end.

After Ultimate Avengers 2 was released Marvel/Lionsgate announced two more titles being scheduled for release. The first one would center around Tony Stark, and tell the origin of his alter ego Iron Man, while the second film would be based on the “Sorcerer Supreme,” Dr. Strange and is currently scheduled for release in August of 2007.

Having just watched The Invincible Iron Man for the second time, I can honestly say that Marvel and Lionsgate are on a roll with these films, and if the rest of the films they’ve got on slate are as impressive as the first three, there’s no reason why they can’t keep producing these films for years to come.

Anyone reading this should be familiar with the origin of Iron Man, and if you’re not then shame on you because I’m not even going to go into full detail. While helping to raise the ruins of a long buried Chinese kingdom, Stark unknowingly becomes involved in an age-old prophecy that foretells the resurrection of the Mandarin, the ruler of China’s darkest and most violent dynasty.

Without giving too much away I will tell you that Stark’s origin has been “updated” a bit for modern times. Rather than have Stark suffer his heart injury during a war, instead he sustains the injury during an attack by Chinese rebels that need him and his technology to help unearth the ancient Mandarin. After the attack Stark comes to and relealize that he is being kept alive by an iron lung, and after telling Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes to “streamline” the healing process, the fun begins.

True to the comics the first suit of armor that Stark builds is his classic grey armor, only this time around he doesn’t just look like someone wearing a cheap halloween costume, he looks seriously imposing in this thing and he packs enough firepower to take on a small army by himself. In a great scene Rhodey asks Stark "how’d you come up with that?" (the suit) and Tony replies "it sort of just came to me." The first time Stark dons the armor not only shows us the power Iron Man posseses, but really flexes the muscle of the film’s animation as Stark transitions from traditional 2D animation to a fully rendered CGI character...it really is amazing how fluid it looks.

After building his armor and escaping his captures Stark and Rhodes return back to Stark Tower where Tony reveals to Rhodey that his idea to build a suit of armor didn’t just come to him, in fact it’s something he’s been working on for some time. At this point we are shown Stark’s armory for the first time, and told about the different functions for some of the suits. During the quick glimpse we can see the Hulkbuster armor, Ultimate armor, aquatic armor, and the suit that will eventually belong to Rhodes, the War Machine armor....it’s sure to make any geek smile, I know it did for me.

During the course of the film we see Stark don 3 suits of armor for different missions. He starts off in the classic grey suit to help he and Rhodey escape from the Chinese rebels. Later on he uses the aquatic armor for an underwater mission, and of course would Iron Man film would be complete without an appearance from the classic red/gold armor? And incase you’re wondering the design of this armor is closer to what can be seen in the Adi Granov illustrated books.

The movie itself is fun, fast paced, and action packed. While I enjoyed the film immensely, I did have a problem with the way the Mandarin was portrayed. In the film he’s been dead for centuries and awaits the discovery of the five rings of power so that he can be resurrected once again on Earth. That’s all fine and great, but I was hoping to see the Mandarin and Iron Man square off against each other like they’ve done so many times before in the comics, and what I got was.....not that. In a weird way, I almost felt cheated. As if dealing with the imposing threat of the Mandarin’s impending resurrection wasn’t enough, the real villains in the film are the four elemental creatures (all beautifully rendered in CGI) that seek the five rings of power in order to resurrect the Mandarin. You’ve got your fire creature, wind creature, ice creature, and the baddest of the lot, the earth creature.

Without giving too much of the story away I can tell you that the battles Iron Man has with each of these creatures are pretty intense, especially the final battle he has against an entire army of undead Chinese warriors. My reservations about the film’s villains aside, it was still cool to see Iron Man flex his arsenal against some pretty unique characters, even if I didn’t get my epic showdown between Iron Man and Mandarin....ah well, maybe in the sequel?

For me, the film’s strongest points come in the amazing blend of 2D and 3D animation, and the film’s cast. The producers of this film made a wise decision in using CGI to animate the Iron Man armor scenes, because it allows each variation of his armor to really jump off the screen in a way that is usually difficult for traditional 2D to handle. Each time Stark dons a new suit of armor I was amazed at how the light reflected off of it, and how “real” (well as real as you can get in an animated film) each of them looked....it really makes me anxious to see what they’ve got in store for us with the big budget film due out in 2008.

The cast in the film is to be commended for the superb performance each of them put forth with their characters. Marc Worden returns for a third time to reprise his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man, and to be honest with you I can’t get enough of him as the character. Tony Stark is portrayed as one part Howard Hughes (he even looks a lot like him), and one part James Bond. It’s one thing to write a character as cool as this, but the writing can only get you so far, you need the right actor to pull off the combo convincingly, and Marc Worden does just that. Worden manages to nail the suave and charasmatic side of Stark almost effortlessly, and at the same time pulls off the more intense side heard once he puts on the armor and goes into battle. Having heard Worden in the role three times now, I honestly can’t picture another actor doing the voice. For me Worden has the definitive voice for both Tony Stark and Iron Man, and I hope to hear him reprise the role in all things Iron Man.

Rounding out the rest of the cast we’ve got Rodney Saulsberry who delivers a solid performance as Tony’s best friend Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes, Elisa Gabrielli as Pepper Potts, Gwendoline Yeo as Li Mei, John McCook as Howard Stark, and Fred Tatasciore (he voiced the Hulk in “UA” and “UA2") as The Mandarin. Each actor brings their respective characters to life in such a great way that if you’re anything like me, you can now hear the actors voice the next time you read an Iron Man comic.

Overall The Invincible Iron Man is yet another action packed thrill ride from the team of Marvel and Lionsgate. It’s a fun way to spend 80 min of your time, however the ending left me wanting a little more. The use of The Mandarin almost felt wasted, especially for an Iron Man origin film. My gripes aside I think your casual Iron Man fan will enjoy it while the hardcore fans might take a pass.