With Avengers: Endgame hitting cinemas and setting the record for the highest grossing movie of all time, it’s easy to forget that the entire series has spanned over 11 years in total, and all begin with one film in 2008: Iron Man. Starring the now massively-popular Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man came along when superhero films had all but drawn to an end, and it’s refreshing take on the superhero genre spawned an entire new decade of high-quality films with some of the best comic book characters of all time.
Iron Man directed by Jon Favreau, and the screenplay was written by Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus, who took inspiration from the titular comic book. It revolves around Tony Stark, a genius billionaire that decides to take matters into his own hands after he gets kidnapped. The film was released on the 2nd of May 2008, and received widespread critical acclaim, remains a good watch between games.
The Plot
Tony Stark is a billionaire playboy that owns Stark Industries, a contract company that supplies militaries around the world with modern arms. While demonstrating one of his latest weapons, his convoy is attacked by extremists, who kidnap him and take him to their base in the mountains. The fight that ensued left some shrapnel in Stark’s chest, and the prisoner he finds himself with after waking up fashions a magnet onto Stark’s chest to keep the shrapnel from finding its way into his heart.
Over time, the two grow close, and devise a plan to create a metal suit, complete with weapons, in order to secure their escape. While they finish the suit, Stark’s friend is killed in the process, and he manages to successfully escape before being rescued.
Once home, Stark announces that his company will no longer produce weapons, much to the disdain of his long-time business partner, Obadiah Stane. Stark begins work on a new Iron Man suit, this time more advanced, along with a special arc reactor for the magnet on his chest.
He tests out the new suit by attacking the same group that had kidnapped him, while they begin to reverse engineer the pieces of Stark’s original suit that he had left in the desert.
Stane reveals that he was working with the group that kidnapped Start from the beginning, and takes Stark’s arc reactor in order to power the reverse engineered suit of his own.
The two confront each other at Stark Industries, where a battle ensues on top of the building, with Stark eventually overcoming Stane in a climactic finale.
Accolades
Iron Man is one of the highest films in the MCU roster, with an aggregate of 93% based off of both audience and critical approval.
Many cite it as the best Marvel film ever to be made, and it’s legacy grew into the MCU series that has become the world’s most popular of all time. Downey Jr. is renown for embodying the famous character, and bringing the character of Tony Stark to life.