The Invincible Iron Man

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source: The Invincible Iron Man

I have been collecting Iron Man comics since the early 70s and always enjoyed the character who is far far from the average clean cut hero and his many and varied enemies. There have been no less than three attempts at an animated series for Iron Man and only the original and part of the second have ever done the character justice. So I was somewhat hopeful that this newest version would be good. Boy was I wrong! The DVD art is VERY misleading and presents an image that is not the movie. Fist off the good, what little there is... The art and animation are well drawn and the writing and dialog are generally good, though with notable exceptions. Character voices are very well selected and each character is distinctive and well acted. Now for the bad... Unfortunately the writers opted to totally screw around with both Iron Man's origin and especially the Mandarin's. On top of that they decided to do Iron Man and his opponents all in CGI. Bad CGI. This makes them stand out almost as badly as live actors would in a cartoon. The CG work is often repetitive and glaring shortcuts are taken at times. The CG battles are clumsy as well, further enhancing the fact that CG and line animation do not mix well. The movie would certainly have fared better had they opted to actually DRAW all the characters. Another problem is that Iron Man is in his traditional Red and Gold suit for all of ONE battle! And its not even the big fight at the end. All this drags the movie down and it never picks up. ************ SPOILERS (or warnings) MAY FOLLOW ************ The movie starts off with an interestingly unusual stop motion credit sequence of machinery, welding and gears. Then we are introduced to what looks like a Chinese temple in the process of being restored, and prominent is a statue of what fans will recognize as the Mandarin. Things go strangely, impeding progress in restoring the temple. Overseeing it is James Rhodes, Tony Stark's long time friend. Seems they plan to actually raise the temple up from the earth, despite opposition by a group who insist that raising the temple will bring about a terrible disaster. Rhodes is captured in a raid. Stark, shown in a hot tub with a lovely lady, is informed of the problems and sets out to personally oversee the project and rescue his friend while in the background his father deals with Board Executives who are pushing to have Tony removed. Tony arrives only to have his armored escort ambushed and blown to pieces. Tony later awakens mortally wounded in the heart and a prisoner of the rebels. He is saved only by quick action from Rhodes and a scientist. Eventually Stark must build the prototype gray iron armor and makes good an escape, but only after some loss of life. While with the rebels he meets a troubled girl named Li Mei, and the two fall in love. The Temple is raised and four elemental beings (all done in CG) appear and proceed to start collecting hidden rings of power. Stark and Rhody find trouble back home but manage to confront the elementals without success in really stopping them, First using the Aquatic Armor, then the more classic Red and Gold Armor and finally everything returns to the temple and Stark is back in the bulky gray armor for a final showdown and a run in with what may be Fin Fang Foom (also in CG.) Here the story takes a major twist as it turns out that the Mandarin needs a host body to manifest. This leads to a somewhat tragic final battle marred by the fact that the Mandarin is little more than a ghost and isn't seen till the last 5 minutes of the movie. ugh... If you are an Iron Man fan then you will likely not enjoy this outing. And even non-fans may well find the movie somewhat lacking or not.

The only reason why I picked this up was because it's on cheap sale, and it doesn't hurt to see how Marvel would have envisioned their hero way before the live action feature film starring Robert Downey Jr hit the big screens, right? The Invincible Iron Man is an origin story, but as far as origins are concerned, they are open to updates and reinterpretation. The original Stan Lee version had Tony Stark develop his suit of armor during the Vietnam War, since this character was developed in the 60s. With the movie version, it got updated to reflect some Middle East sentiments. For this animated version, since they wanted to fuse his origins to that of chief villain The Mandarin, we have it set in the Orient, where Stark Enterprises got itself a project to lift an aged old monument from the buried underground, only to unleash some prophecy which involves the second coming of The Mandarin. There are a couple of changes to how Tony got his heart injured and had to rely on an over-sized pacemaker, but this time he got help from good friend Rhodes, since he's now an employee of Tony, and has nothing to do with the Air Force. I suppose purists would already foam at the mouth by now. Nonetheless you know the drill as plot elements are kept quite consistent - they build a crude suit of armour, and break away from imprisonment. But to speed things up to meet run time requirements, it turns out that Tony Stark already has a whole array of suits back in his penthouse, and can call upon the fancy variations to do battle with the Elementals who are in the quest to recover the Mandarin's power rings to resurrect him. The action sequences do look a bit lacklustre, because the Elementals are basically one-trick ponies, and it doesn't take much effort for our hero to dispatch them one by one. Then again of course this is Tony Stark's first foray as a hero utilizing his suits for good, so he's not all that versed with battling enemies, and magical ones at that too. But in an effort to build up to the climatic finale, there are a couple of missteps. First, it's actually an antique armour that he uses - for one I would like him to have used his most powerful suit available, but no thanks to SHIELD. And if you think the finale battle would be something like the image on the back cover of the DVD sleeve, it's not! In fact while there's an interesting twist on The Mandarin which you could see coming from a mile away, alas the battle is nothing but a big letdown. There are also a couple of recurring characters to complete the animated universe, such as Tony's dad Howard, where the plot follows that of Batman Begins involving some major boardroom struggle, as well as faithful secretary Pepper Potts, who had a lot more to do here than Gywneth Paltrow's version in the feature film. But they don't add much value to the film here. The pace moves quite hurriedly, and coupled with the disappointing lack of a proper finale, this is one animated flick that could have been much better if it provided some more exciting action sequences, since after all, an animated feature opens up the imagination to unlimited boundaries, just like how a page on a comic book does the same.

I caught this a few scenes into it and was really happy I did. First off Iron Man is one of my favorite comic superhero's, first following him around the early 70's watching those horribly animated Marvel TV shows made in the mid 60's. I would get hooked and would start collecting the comics buying them used and all torn up but with those great stories and characters this would go on until the mid 80's when other interest's took more precedence. As far as the movie goes I was really surprised at all the flat out dislike the reviewers here have posted and then I realized why. I am 100% sure that the reviewers are under 30 years old, that they probably always had an internet and are basically spoiled with technology and awesome anime programming. I on the other hand do remember the days before the internet, I also remember growing up with some really terrible animation (including anime shows like Gigantor and Speed Racer), that included the 60's Iron Man show. I also remember watching stuff from the 70's and 80's and while a lot better animation then the 60's stuff was still pretty bad (weak stories also, which at least the 60's stuff was good at since it was a copy of the comic's stories). The 90's Iron Man TV show wasn't bad, it was pretty good, but this 2007 movie's animation is really really good. Keep in mind, I'm sure Marvel saw this having limited audience at the time (maybe a whole lot more now that Iron Man is better known with the live action movie), so they had to keep the costs under control and you can tell it a LITTLE bit. However if you make a comparison of this Iron Man movie to all the past Iron Man stuff, it's totally awesome. I really like that Tony had to use his old armor to battle the bad guys also because the series developed that he was Invincible like the comic cover said when he had his new battle suits, so he was at a real disadvantage in the old stuff and I like that tension being created. So there you go, from a 45 year old who missed the very early introduction but has followed Iron man for over 35 years, this movie is the best Iron man I've ever seen, it's great for Iron Man fans. See it and don't listen to those that sound like the Comic Book Guy from the Simpson's this is a cool flick! 9 of 10.

This actually did have potential to be good. The idea was a good one, and I'd watch any movie in regard to superheroes or Marvel. However, The Invincible Iron Man was a disappointment sadly. It does have redeeming qualities, the animation is great with fluid backgrounds and the suits particularly cool, the music is both rousing and haunting and with one exception the voice acting is very good. The fight sequences are also well-choreographed, though there should have been more. Conversely, there is one exception to the voice acting and that was Gwendoline Yeo as Li Mei, who has a very limited range and comes across as insufferably bland. She wasn't helped though by her character, who was very stereotypical and did little more than annoy me. Iron Man also seemed like a weak hero, not only should there have been more of him but when the Mandarin was defeated he does little in the scene other than getting beaten up, which takes away from the character's charisma. Tony Stark's character arc is very forced and takes far too long to be set up. Mandarin posed no threat whatsoever, which weakens any sense of conflict. The writing comes across as clichéd and it lacks fluidity. But the biggest let-down was the story. It was predictably told, especially in the Mandarin scene, and lacks any kind of momentum or excitement. Overall, a disappointment. 4/10 Bethany Cox

One thing I would commend about Marvel Animation is that they are willing to learn from their mistakes. After the mediocre Ultimate Avengers animated movies came this one, The Invincible Iron Man. This movie is everything Ultimate Avengers was not. Instead of a team, it focuses on one character. Instead of dumbing down an existing storyline(Ultimate Avengers was essentially "The Ultimates" story dumbed down to appeal to older children) Marvel chose to create a new storyline and place more emphasis on character drama than on wham bam action. 1) The story. Definitely a new take on the origin of Iron Man. After being exposed to so many "alternate dimensions" and alternate origins for Marvel universe characters, I was willing to accept this movie as another of such alternate stories. The story was very well written with a clear beginning, middle and end. The magic Vs technology sub plot was nicely fleshed out but thankfully did not overwhelm the character interplay. There were a few far fetched moments but they are forgivable due to the short length of the movie. 2) The characters Really, it is the characters that truly shine here. Being more of a character drama as opposed to an action movie, the interplay seen in the script is realistically played out. The dialogue is fluid and believable to the point being on par with many good live action dramas. Acting was excellent. Neither over the top nor underwhelming, but just right to convey the emotions of the characters The only problem was the acting of one of the main characters, Li Mei. Her accent seemed inconsistent and her emotional range was rather limited, even in most emotionally charged final battle of the movie. If Marc Worden had not done such a good job of acting on his part, the whole romance sub plot between Tony and Li Mei would have fallen flat. 3)The action Sharp, fast and to the point. There is no beating around the bush or too much talking in the fights. The action scenes are well choreographed but are few. Like i said, this movie is more a character drama than an action show. There are 3 main action scenes involving Iron Man in total. 4) The Animation Marvel has definitely improved in their animation from Ultimate Avengers. The characters still retain that level of movement fluidity but the level of art detail has been increased. The backgrounds are really a sight to behold and the character designs have a distinct Asian flavor to them. No animation short cuts were present, lending to a very impressive viewing experience. The cel shaded CGI animation used for the Elementals and the Iron Man suits are on par with many big budget animated movies and it allows more fluid interaction of the characters during fight scenes. There was only one scene where there was a jarring clash between the CGI and 2D animation but the rest were beautifully rendered. There could have been better closure to the story and i do hope for a sequel. Overall, Invincible Iron Man was a very refreshing new take on the origin of a well loved Marvel superhero. Favoring complex character drama over action was a good move, though not many would agree with me. It would be a little too much for kids to enjoy though, so don't bother wasting this movie on them. For fans of more action oriented animated movies with less character development and interplay, i direct you back to Ultimate Avengers. Get this movie if you're in the mood for something deeper than the usual "hero Vs villain" stories.

I was looking forward to this movie, until I started hearing things. I heard the Mandarin was going to be the villain, who used to be little more than a dime store Ming the Merciless. The whole technology v. magic aspect annoyed me. But watching the first few minutes raised my hope. The first, oh, fifteen minutes or so lay the groundwork for a very good story. Terrorists, international incidents, corporate backstabbing, father-son conflict and halfway decent characterization led me to believe that I was about to watch a pretty decent adaptation. The movie, though, then begins to trip. The trip turns into a stumble. The stumble turns into a fall. The fall turns into a fall down a spiral staircase. After raising an ancient city in China, against the wishes of a terrorist group calling themselves the Jade Dragons (not cliché' at all) Tony Stark's digging crew accidentally release the servants of the long dead Emperor the Mandarin. His elemental servants need to gather five rings to bring the Mandarin back to life. Well, when Tony Stark went to investigate, he was severely wounded and forced to rely on machines to survive. The Jade Dragons order Stark to undo what he's done. Of course, what he's done is a science-fictiony thing, so he needs his science fictiony stuff to undo it. Instead, he builds a suit of armor in secret and eventually makes his escape, but not before finding out about the Mandarin's elemental servants. Upon returning to the States, Tony is accused of dealing arms to the Jade Dragons, and makes a daring escape. He then sneaks into Stark Enterprises and we find he's been working on a secret project. What secret project? Why a giant room full of Iron Man suits! Sure! Of course. Why not? So Stark goes questing for the rings, get's his metal rear handed to him while he whittles down the elemental spirits. Eventually he winds up at the Mandarin's temple to face the final elemental, with his love interest in the movie so far "Mei Ling." Turns out she's not a Jade Dragon, she's a descendant of the Mandarin who's supposed to raise him from the dead. A pointless fight scene with a dragon, and one anime-style light show later, and the ghost of the Mandarin, via Mei Ling, is pounding Tony's metal butt down. Until he shouts "Remember who you are" which somehow snaps her out of it and she throws off the Mandarin's rings. Yay! Lei Ming dies (I think), Tony patches things up with his father, takes control of the company, patches things up with his best friend, and everything's happy! Um, wait a second... what? Iron Man ends with a sort of "What?" feeling. Do yourself a favor, just hope really hard that the live action is better than this.

Marvel's third installment in their line of animated movies is probably the weakest so far. I was a fan of the two Avengers movies released previously and the concept of a Marvel animated movie dedicated to a single character was something I'd been waiting for. I was a bit let down after watching this movie; I didn't feel it lived up to the decent quality of its predecessors. This movie retells the origins of Iron Man: Tony Stark (voiced again by Marc Worden) has been using his company, Stark Industies, to fund an archaeological dig in China that has been under constant assault from a rebel group known as the Jade Dragons. After one attack finds James 'Rhodey' Rhodes missing, Stark flies out to China where he is taken prisoner by the Jade Dragons. From here, we find the familiar story of Stark creating his first Iron Man armor to keep him alive/help him escape and he soon assumes the role of Iron Man when he finds himself pulled into a prophecy that the Mandarin will arise and use his powers for world domination. Now, I've never really followed the Iron Man comics but I know that there are some problems with this already. Mandarin was not an ancient Chinese tyrant and he didn't use magic; he was man from modern times who used alien technology to create his rings of power. So, already, the movie has lost points for straying from the storyline that Iron Man fans know and love. I understand that the creators were probably going for an East vs West theme, magic vs technology, but I got bored with the idea pretty fast into the movie. The story itself felt as if it moved annoying slow at some points and the final confrontation at the end didn't really satisfy. The animation was pretty good but continued to suffer from the same flaws as the Avengers movies. Action scenes look great but smaller things, such as mouth/voice syncing and facial expressions, were weak. The creators used a bit more computer-generated animation for some of this movie, primarily in the Iron Man armors and in the Mandarin's demon elementals, and I'd say it worked pretty successfully. The majority of the fight scenes look great; I just wish we'd gotten some more time with the iconic Mark III armor. Overall, the movie is definitely a step backwards for the Marvel animated series. I enjoyed it to an extent, but I still don't consider the movie anything more than average. The film has it's strong points (the demon elementals and Iron Man's armor look fantastic) but continues to suffer from the same flaws as its predecessors. Add to that a mediocre story and you get 83 minutes that didn't quite leave me content.

I LOVED this film, I totally disagree with the other comment. The story was very interesting I was unsure on what the movie was like at first until I watched it then I was hooked. I'm an avid Iron man comic reader and was amazed at this films plot. As for the voice actors it was Awesome. And the animation style was so Amazing, sure were in 2008 but what do you expect a complete CGI film??? Not for me. I truly hope they start work on a sequel it deserves one. or at least start the same style for the planned TV series. A great film, watch it you'll love it lots!!!