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Since our two regular movie critics, David Koon and Matt Reed, were super-amped for “Iron Man,” and since reams of straightforward reviews have already been written, we decided to take it on discussion-style, a little more conversationally. This’ll appear in Thursday’s paper, but lest it be old news, I’ma go ahead and post it here. We give fair warning for spoilers.
Lindsey Millar: I know that we’ve all been anticipating “Iron Man” for months now, pouring over screencaps, sending each other links to new versions of the trailer and crossing off days our calendar. Anytime a studio teams a director with a relatively smart, offbeat track record (Favreau of “Swingers” fame) with a serious actor (Downey Jr.) and stupid-cool F/X tricks, my expectations get a little silly. But fellas, I gotta tell you, I wasn’t really let down.
There’s no question that “Iron Man” belongs in the pantheon with the first “Spiderman,” “Batman Begins” and “The Flash” (joking). Are we all in agreement? Who deserves credit? Marvel Studios? Favreau? The writers and rewriters? Downey Jr.?
Matt Reed: I agree, this is one of the best superhero movies ever made, and Favreau and Downey and the writers deserve the lion’s share of the credit. Downey was tailor-made for this sort of role. It’s even better if you grew up with some of his comedies in the ’80s, like “The Pick-Up Artist.” Smarmy guy with heart of gold stuff. In fact, that’s “Iron Man” for me: “The Pick-Up Artist” with robot suits. And everyone knows that if there’s anything better than picking up chicks, it’s picking up chicks in a robot suit.
David Koon: You know, Matt, I’ve gotta disagree with you on RD Jr. being tailor-made for the role. The lovely part about great actors — Brando comes to mind, as does Johnny Depp — is that they have this uncanny ability to take on roles that have you scratching your head and then knock your friggin’ socks off. That was RD Jr. in Ironman. When I heard he was doing this, I honestly couldn’t see him in the role. Now that he’s done it, I can’t see anybody else. Ditto on Christian Bale in “Batman Begins,” and ditto on Ed Norton in “Incredible Hulk,” which makes me think that one’s going to rock as well.