The Invincible Iron Man (2007)

Film Title: The Invincible Iron Man

Released: January 23, 2007

Directed by: Patrick Archibald & Jay Oliva supervised by Frank Paur

Written by: Greg Johnson & Craig Kyle based on a story by Avi Arad based on characters created by Stan Lee & Larry Lieber

Starring: Marc Worden, Gwendoline Yeo & Fred Tatasciore

Plot: When industrialist Tony Stark is critically wounded by insurgents as he is raising an ancient Chinese city, he creates a suit of armor to escape. He then uses this armor, becoming the superhero Iron Man, to fight an ancient evil that has escaped from the Chinese ruins. 

IMDb: 6.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: No score
My Score: 2.5/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Appearing almost a year and a half prior to its live action counterpart, The Invincible Iron Man offers a similar but variant origin story of the titular character than either the later film or the original comic books. In all three versions, the basics are the same: billionaire genius Tony Stark is injured by villains who kidnap him; severely injured, someone saves his life with a device that is the only thing keeping him alive; once stabilized, the villains force him to build weapons for them but instead of weapons for the bad guys, Stark builds a prototype armor with the help of the person who saved his life and escapes his captors. In the comics (Tales of Suspense #39, March 1963) Stark is kidnapped by a group led by Wong-Chu and saved by Ho Yinsen who dies in the escape attempt. As Stark is making his way back to the American forces, he comes across a wounded Marine fighter pilot, James "Rhodey" Rhodes. In the live action film, Stark is kidnapped by the terrorist organization the Ten Rings, led by Raza, and saved by Yinsen, who dies in the escape attempt. Stark is then found by Rhodey, with whom he was already friends with. In this animated feature, Stark and Rhodey are both kidnapped by the insurgent group the Jade Dragons, led by Wong Chu. Rhodey saves Stark's life and they both escape their captors alive. The Jade Dragons are a group of guerrilla warriors trying to sabotage Stark's attempts to raise an ancient Chinese city because they believe that in doing so, the spirit of the Mandarin, an ancient dictator and mass murderer, will be released to wreak havoc upon the world once more. I have to say that I wasn't overly impressed with The Invincible Iron Man. The marriage of computer and traditional hand drawn animation isn't all that seamless and it takes the movie quite a while to really get rolling. In spite of that, there were a few moments where I was surprised by the hard edge the film took, like when Wong Chu shoots a fellow prisoner in the head to persuade Stark to build his weapons for him. A few small plot twists are refreshing but not really enough to overcome the fairly two-dimensional characterizations of most of the cast. Certainly not the worst animated film I've ever seen, but if you want to be satisfied by an Iron Man feature, I'd suggest the live action Jon Favreau version over this one. The movie features the talents of several accomplished voice actors including Marc Worden as Tony Stark, Gwendolyn Yeo as Li Mei, Fred Tatasciore as the Mandarin, Rodney Saulsberry as Rhodey Rhodes, Elisa Gabrielli as Pepper Potts and James Sie as Wong Chu.

Iron Man (2008)

Film Title: Iron Man

Released: May 2, 2008

Directed by: Jon Favreau

Written by: Mark Fergus, Matt Holloway, Art Marcum & Hawk Ostby based on characters created by Don Heck, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee & Larry Lieber

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges & Gwyneth Paltrow

Plot: When billionaire playboy genius Tony Stark gets kidnapped, he creates a suit of armor to escape. Once free, he improves upon the design and becomes the hero known as Iron Man.

IMDb: 7.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 93/100

My Score: 4/5

Iron Man is the 2008 blockbuster that kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, a huge shared universe of various Marvel Comics superheroes whose first phase of films culminated in Joss Whedon's The Avengers in 2012. Robert Downey Jr is Tony Stark, a deeply flawed, arrogant genius billionaire who is equal parts womanizer and philanthropist. Downey Jr is pitch perfect in the role, giving us an egotistical bad boy that we fall in love with and root for all the way. Gwyneth Paltrow is Pepper Potts, Tony's long-suffering assistant who becomes a budding love interest once Stark starts to get his priorities straight. I'm not sure that I've ever seen Paltrow look as good as she does in this film and she plays Pepper with a healthy dose of spunk, matching Downey Jr quip for quip with ease. The chemistry between these two is so believable and natural that you never once question their relationship. Jeff Bridges is Obadiah Stane, an old partner of Tony's dad, Howard Stark, and runs Stark Industries with Tony. Bridges brings more than enough gravitas to the role as required by the character's story arc. Lastly among the principal cast is Terrence Howard as Lt. Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Tony's best friend and confidant. If there was one actor I felt dragged the move down it has to be Howard. His portrayal of Rhodey made me dislike the character immensely as he just comes across as a jerk 95% of the time. I feel like the only reason he and Downey Jr are friends is because the script says that they should be. The great thing about this movie is the combination of action and humor. Downey Jr has great banter with the robotic assistants in his workshop providing several moments of levity, and the sequence of trial and error experimentation of trying to build the suit is entertaining and hilarious. Iron Man is an origin story that doesn't feel like an origin story and that is one of the its greatest strengths. The final battle between Iron Man and Iron Monger is truly something to behold. As the first film in the MCU, the movie marks the first appearances of Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (in the post-credits scene). Co-starring its director Jon Favreau (as Happy Hogan), Leslie Bibb, Bill Smitrovich, and Paul Bettany (as the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S.), the film also features cameos by Peter Billingsly, musician Tom Morello, comedian Ahmed Ahmed, and Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee. For those who don't know, Lee has a cameo in several films based on Marvel characters (most of which he had a hand in creating), a practice that stretches back to the 1989 TV movie The Trial of the Incredible Hulk. Iron Man won seventeen awards, including three Saturn Awards (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Actor: Robert Downey Jr. and Best Director: Jon Favreau), two Taurus Awards (Best Fire Stunt and Hardest Hit) and the AFI Award for Movie of the Year but was nominated for a whole lot more, including two Oscars. In a particularly painful defeat, the film was nominated for a Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie but lost to High School Musical 3: Senior Year. Ouch.