Iron Man

So I'm a little late to this party, so sue me...I only saw the movie today (figuring to go with less people in the theater, a more enjoyable experience for me). First of all...we didn't get to see the new Batman trailer, we got 2 Indiana Jones trailers instead. 2? Really?

Now, on to the movie, this might come as a shock but I'm going to have to give it 2.5 stars.

I'll pause to let those who have seen it recover from their outrage before I go on. Go take some deep breaths and then come back when you're in control of yourself.

Right up until the last 20 minutes: great movie, I would have given it a 3.5 deal (taking a bit off because lets face it...it's a bit cheesy and over the top. I love that stuff, and eat it up, but it's kind of silly). But the last boss battle just really really damaged the entire movie for me. What's about to follow is kind of a spoiler, so avert your eyes.

*Spoiler alert*
Did you notice something really missing from this movie? Say...Iron Man really kicking ass and taking names? You had a pretty cool fight with his prototype outfit at the onset (one that we've seen most of in the trailers), and then a pretty cool fight, but very one sided and brief, with the red shirt ensigns of the 10 rings evil conspiracy people. It all was building to an awesome fight with the main baddy, wearing the other suit (Iron Monger I think his name is?) where you get to see two robots (essentially) unleashing the full power of the suits, wreaking havoc, and just being amazing. Instead you got the Iron Man suit only at 20% power...not able to fight for more than a few seconds, instead trying to "out think," outrun, out hide, and out trick the other suit. It wasn't bad in and of itself...but it was a terrible let down against the rest of the movie. We never saw Iron Man challenged and using his suit to full capacity. Having the main fight with your hero crippled...and getting his ass beat (as opposed to say in Gladiator where the hero is so awesome that you can only have parity with the baddy if Maximus is crippled), after never really seeing him kick ass is just a giant let down. The movie had carefully culled back his power having him go against under matched opponents he didn't really need to go balls to the wall against, building to a crescendo that never came. Huge disappointment, I'm docking it a full star for that.

*end spoilers*

The scene at the end of the movie: pretty cool...but I'm not going to nerdgasm over it just yet. It's not until 2011 that the Avengers movie is supposed to be released...I'll get a little more excited in 2010.