This is a movie that really needs no introduction. After all, it not only resurrected the career of Robert Downey Junior, it launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has racked up a dozen successful films in the last eight years. It's reached the stage that predicting the failure of the next MCU movie is something of a cottage industry. One day the naysayers will even be right.
Downey plays Tony Stark, the brilliant and charming - albeit vain and shallow - wunderkind owner of a massive weapons manufacturing company. Stark's cavalier attitude to life gets a serious reality check when he's captured by terrorists. They attempt to force him to manufacture weapons for them, but instead he creates a miraculous armored suit and fights his way to freedom.
The experience changes Stark, as you might imagine it would, and he tries to put his company on a more altruistic path. There are forces within the organisation who have a vested interest in opposing his ambitions, however, and will stop at nothing to thwart his plans.
It's not hard to see why this film was a big success. It features great central performances from Downey as Stark, and from Gwyneth Paltrow as his assistant. It has a solid script with plenty of fun dialogue. And of course it boasts some slam bam action sequences. They might not impress quite as much now as they did back in 2008 of course - expectations have climbed since the release of newer MCU films - but they are still well put together.
A fine film that richly deserved its critical and commercial success.
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