Welcome to the first movie in the second part of this MCU series. In the first part, we ranked all of the MCU movies. Now it is time to go back and rewatch them before ranking them again. The first movie on the list is Iron Man.

Iron Man Review

The Good

Stark Development

The first big up for this film was the development of the main hero, Tony Stark. Like many Marvel movies, the first movie of a trilogy tends to really focus on developing who the character is and what they are all about. This is done perfectly in Iron Man. We start off by seeing the cocky, arrogant and unlikeable Tony Stark. Even when he awakes in the cave he still seems like a bit of a prick that isn’t very grateful.

However, this is when he comes to realize that he has been given a second chance and because of that second chance, someone who saved him in Yinsen has to die. This is when we see a real change in the Stark character. From canceling the making of weapons to attempting to fix his company dealing with the terrorists in the movie.

This movie does a very good job of showing his challenges of becoming a “superhero” and why it isn’t always easy doing what he thinks is right. The slow transformation of Tony Stark is a great thing to see and very well done.

Villain Development

The next great part about this movie was the villain development. One of Marvel’s biggest issues is that they rarely put any thought into a villain. In Iron Man, it is obvious that Obadiah Stane feels he should be running the company and that he has been unrightfully playing second fiddle to Tony Stark.

While we will get into the plan and battle a little later, the actual villain development was very well done in this. Stane being a bad guy wasn’t the biggest plot twist by any means. However, it was cool to see the movie act as if one group was going to be the main bad guy and turn it around later in the movie.

“I Am Iron Man”

This is a much smaller part than the previous two, however, it had to be added in. While this is by far the second coolest time Stark will say this line in the MCU, this was still an awesome end to the movie and line in general. With the movie building towards him denying it and being another secret identity superhero, Tony Stark turns the world on its head and announces that he is indeed the superhero by saying “I am Iron Man.”

A cool way to end the movie and certainly a solid cliff-hanger in terms of what it means for future movies. Stark knows this will put a target on his back, however, feels it is important to start telling the truth, once again tieing back to the character development thing.

The Bad

Final Fight

Now to look at the bad, starting with the final fight. This was one of the worst final fights the MCU has put out. It was very boring and almost cringy to watch. This isn’t even talking about CGI. However, it was 2008 so we won’t fault them for that.

Where this battle really goes south is having Stane say something every 5 seconds of it. Half the time what he was saying either didn’t need to be said or didn’t even make sense. It took away from the fight and made it feel much less important than it should have been. How Stark ultimately kills Stane is a bit questionable as well, however, at that point maybe it was just better the fight was done with.

Plot Logic

There were a few logistical points that didn’t make a ton of sense and were just kind of there for the movie to go on. The first was the logic of the terrorists locking two captives in a room with all the materials they could ever want and not having a guard there 24/7. Yes there was a bad video camera and yes it was meant to show off Tony is a genius, but thinking about it for even a second makes you realize it doesn’t make sense.

The next was the training logic. In the movie, it shows Stark takes a ton of time trying to figure out his suit perfectly and how to make it fly. This naturally makes sense as this is a new invention and it would be difficult to use. However, Stane then goes and uses his suit perfectly and has absolutely no problems flying at all. Something he could not have time to practice because he did not have the arc reactor before.

Both of these are a bit nitpicky but these were two massive plot points that both had some big flaws. It felt like the movie skipped it to make time for other things and to avoid a long run time. While this is fair, it still goes in the bad category.

Villain Logic

I mentioned I enjoyed the development of the villain in this movie. However, the sequence of events doesn’t make much sense. Stane tells Stark that he ordered the hit on him when he was showing off the Jericho missile and that it was actually him paying the terrorist group. However, the reasoning for doing this doesn’t seem smart at all. Yes, he wanted control of the company. But it’s not like the company was doing bad, it was thriving with Stark.

It would have made sense if Stane turned after Stark shut down all weapons manufacturing and lost the company millions. However, the only reason he did that was because of the hit that Stane put on him in the first place.

Also, the final fight scene logic made no sense either. Stane’s plan seemed to be to kill Stark in very plain view of everyone while making a giant mess. What then? Where do you even go from there, because you would have every government agency tailing you forever? It seemed like a very flawed plan. The villain’s overall development was great, but his logic had some big holes.

Overall

Overall, Iron Man was a very enjoyable movie. It was also a very solid series and universe starter. This movie is very likely overrated in rankings, however, it can get some bonus marks for kicking everything off. The movie was good but the final battle puts it down a bit and there just wasn’t many or any huge standout moments in this movie.

It ranked 12th in the original rankings and in all likelihood it probably won’t go too much in either direction from there. It was a solid movie that isn’t near the bottom of the MCU but definitely isn’t at the top either.

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