movie forecast: iron man

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the first two things that came to mind when i first heard that there was going to be an iron man movie starring robert downey jr were [1] who exactly is iron man's main enemy [answer: no one knows, not even wikipedia] and [2] what percentage of people going to see this movie will think this is an ozzy osborne biopic [answer: 3% in the united states overall, 35% in east tennessee]. but by far the most fascinating aspect of this movie is how much robert downey jr looks like a young al pacino in this movie, but based only on what al pacino looks like today. the thing is that young al pacino looks nothing like robert downey jr, but if people who didn't know what al pacino looked like in his younger days had to guess what al pacino looked like when he was young, they would most likely say that he looked more like robert downey jr in iron man than al pacino in serpico. this is so uncanny that while watching the trailers i'm basically waiting for robert downey jr to belt out a hearty 'hoo-rah!' after putting on the iron man suit.

another thing about iron man that is in its favor is its talented cast. for example, it includes robert downey jr, who was nominated for an oscar for chaplin, terrence howard, who was nominated for an oscar for hustle and flow, gwyneth paltrow [barely mentioned in the ads by the way], who won an oscar for shakespeare in love and director [and recurring friends guest superstar] jon favreau, who has seen the movie oscar multiple times. but even with a quality ensemble, none of its promotions rely on the big names but instead actual substance [unlike batman and robin, which almost singlehandedly killed comic book movies]. anyway, iron man surprisingly looks like it has amazing special effects and quite possibly be enjoyable, which almost guarantees a sequel [in which case i hope al pacino plays iron man's father].

prognosis : 8/10