The Invincible Iron Man Film Review

While many people remember DC Comic's line of direct to DVD animated films not alot of people no off or even remember the fact that Marvel also had a line a direct to DVD animated films. With the line not being that long and being very short lived with it starting not with the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today but odd enough with a pair of Avengers movies with the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today being the third film that they released this is despite the fact that it features a characters that was in both of the Avengers movies and is played by the same actor and so then join me as I review the film that basically tells the exactly same as the 2008 Iron Man with the film in question being called simply just "The Invincible Iron Man" enjoy.

The plot of this film is after he is kidnapped and nearly killed by his own weapon Tony Stark goes on a mission to stop the evil villain The Mandarin from coming back to life. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with this films plot for the most part being a really well done plot that does try to tell a good a story but then you take into account that they squeeze in the origin story for Tony Stark as well as Tony having a subplot with his father all of which does make this film feel a bit over stuffed with the films main plot being left to fight for screen time and feeling like that it wasn't strong enough to support the film on it's own when the idea of Tony having to travel around the world to find these magical rings before these monsters representing the four elements find them is something that could have made for a more interesting plot line and yet due to he fact that the film does have two other subplots in it which OK fair enough you do kind of have to do the origin story and to the films credit they do tie the origin story into the main plot of the film but we didn't the plot with Tony and Howard having a more fractured relationship as all that does is take away focus from the films main plot which does leave the main of plot of the film feel really undercooked ad not all that well thought out with the plot of this film not really being really rather entertaining and as well as not really being really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Starring in this film is Marc Worden as Tony Stark / Iron Man , Rodney Saulsberry as James Rhodes and  Hulk And The Agents Of S.M.A.S.H. and Avengers Assemble star Fred Tatasciore as The Mandarin. Also starring in this film is Gwendoline Yeo as Li Mei , Elisa Gabrielli as Virginia "Pepper" Potts , John McCook as Howard Stark , James Sie as Wong-Chu , Stephen Mendillo as Boyer and John DeMita as Agent Drake.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With this films acting being nothing more then OK at best which is kind of understandable as out of all of this films actors only one of them is reprising their role with that being Marc Worden who played the role of Tony Stark in the two Ultimate Avengers movies and therefor it does make sense that he would turn in a good performance in this film as he would have gotten the chance to know what his version of the character would say or do and could adjust his performance accordingly and while people do expect a good performance from Fred Tatasciore with him being just that good of an actor he and Marc are the only good performances in this film as the rest pf this films just feel oddly miscast with Elisa even giving Pepper what could be a British accent for some weird and unknown reason with the best actor in the whole film being Fred Tatasciore as even tho he doesn't say much in the film and doesn't have alot of screen time he really does make it count even single time that he has a line of dialog with him giving this The Mandarin this big and booming voice which is something is something that does suit this version of the character with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work interms of what it is that there characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that it's in this very film.

Doing the animation for this film is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Starburst Animation. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty average at best with the films characters having some really nice designs to them and the films backgrounds looking very nice to look but the thing that lets down the animation in really all of these direct to DVD Marvel films is the fact that they give the characters all of these shadows all over there body which just looks so off putting  with it feeling like the makers of this film cared more about the shadows on the characters then they did about anything else just due to how much shadow that there is n all of these characters and while yes the films action scenes do look pretty good with the film using a mixture of handdrawn 2D animation and early 3D CGI animation the shadows on the characters is something that does stick out like a sore thumb as it comes across as the makers of this film wanting to make this film look cinematic without having the budget to do and therefor alot of the animation especially when it comes to the characters movements does come across as looking stilted and yet when you look at what DC was doing around the same time with there line of direct to DVD films the difference is night as day as DC was putting in alot of thought and effort into there animated outputs where as here with Marvel it feels like that there doing the bare minimum with this films cheap looking animation being a good example of that. 

This film basically copies the exact same story that we would get in the 2008 Iron Man film even down to having The Mandarin play apart in both films. With his group the ten rings being who kidnaps Tony in the live action film where as here in this film he's the main villain and yet its the 2008 film that did this story alot more better as that film knew to set up the characters first and show them how they all were before the events of the film changed them either for the better or for the worse and therefor when Tony says " I am Iron Man" at the end of the film it means alot more in that film due to the fact that we've seen his character start t grow and change for the better where as here in this film we don't get to see anything like that as he just decides to be Iron Man for no reason and heck he apparently spent months if not years creating a bunch of suits for every possible situation thus hinting that he's already changed as a character and has become this perfect character who can do no wrong this is despite the fact that we see him lie to Rhodey at the start of the film and yet in the 2008 film we see how Tony's actions effect not only himself when he's kidnaped by The Ten Rings but also those around him as well and yet when the same thing happens in this film we don't get to see how Tony's actions effect those around him outside of the fact that it's due to Tony wanting to rise this ancient Chinese city that kick starts the events of the whole film with this going to show that if the makers of this film wanted to truly make a good Iron Man film then they shouldn't have done the bare minimum rather they should have gone the extra mile to understand why these characters work so well in the first place.

To be kind of fair to this film this film does feel like one of the many direct to DVD Lego Batman movies that DC used to put out. In that all of the characters are going to be very clear cut good guys and bad guys with them all basically being how you expect them to be in the comics with nothing new added to them and that's great as this is a film that it could be argued was there just to sell the toys given the amount of suits that we see Tony already has in the film but at the same time tho if that was the case then you have to wonder why there wasn't more effort put into the film in the first place as even cartoons from the eighties alot of which were quite literally made to sell the toys still had alot of thought and effort put into them and yet here in this film everything just felt very cookie cutter as the film has this awkward dialog where the characters have to explain their relationship to each other which is something that does make some form of sense due to the fact that Iron Man wasn't that big of a character at the time of this films release and while that kind of dialog does make sense in a way that this film is clearly meant for little kids badly done dialog will always be badly done dialog no matter who the target audience is and even then due to the fact that this film earned itself a PG-13 rating it's debatable on if this film was even made for kids as there is a scene where a female characters appears nude with the film censoring it with some steam with that being something that does make the film feel more adult and yet all that does is clash with the films overall more kid friendly nature as the rest of the film is like those Lego DC films only here it doesn't have the charm or the wit to pull it of with it coming across as being half baked as a result of that.

As was stated earlier on in this review this films main villain is The Mandarin with him actually being better in this film then he was in Iron Man 3. Due to the fact that in this film he is a former Chinese emperor who has these mystical powers which are tied to his rings and while he doesn't really appear until the very end of the film and therefor can't leave much on impact on the film itself this is something that does work in the films favor as it now means that the film can spend more time in building him up as this truly terrifying figure and one that we all should fear and while the film doesn't really do that as this after all a cheaply made direct to DVD movie the fact that he has this cult like group that are dedicated to stopping him from coming back is something that does help to sell you on just how feared that he was when he was alive with the only thing that lets the character down is the fact that he doesn't really have an end goal in mind with him just being evil and brought back to live purely for the sake of it which doesn't make him an interesting character especially when there is quite alot of that you could do with this character given his backstory for this film like maybe he wants to reclaim his place as the leader of China or maybe just wants to take over the world which yes is a generic villain plot but give that this film is one that's made with kids in mind it still works with another thing that works for the character is the fact that he has the four western earth elements all working to try and bring him back with it being only Iron Man who can stop them which is a really cool idea and to the films credit it does do the best that it could have done with that idea as we do get to see Iron Man take on all four of those elements in really creative looking environments.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty three minuets and three seconds. With that being a pretty solid running time for this film to have even taking into account that it does gave to tell the whole Iron Man origin story and still a decent plot at the same time with this film having the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time with the thing that does let this film down from a running time point of view being the fact that the film does feel like that it's trying to tell to many stories as we have the main plot , the Iron Man origin story and the plot with Tony and his dad and the film can't do all three of those stories with the running time that it has as it would mean that that all three stories are left fighting with screen time with this meaning that the film can't use it's running time all that wisely as it can't develop any of its plots due to the fact that the film now has to rush along to the next plot point and while yes of course you do need to have the origin story in there you don't need the plot with Tony and his dad as all that does is eat up screen time that would have been better used giving plot development to the films main plot as the origin story doesn't eat up that much screen time in the place and therefor doesn't really need that much development where as the main plot is left feeling wafer thin with it feeling like that there are no stakes to the films plot as the film doesn't tell us what the stakes are with the film not even bothering to give the characters any kind of character development as they all come across as being very one dimensional due to the fact that the film doesn't take the time that it could have had to give us more well thought out and developed characters but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With this films action being as good as it was every going to be taking into account this film was quite clearly made both cheaply and quickly with the film taking full advantage of the fact that Iron Man has to essentially go up against the four elements by having hm take them on in some really creative backgrounds that force him to think outside of the box something which does make sense given that these are meant to be his first foes as a hero and therefor it would make sense that he would struggle to beat them with the best action scene in the whole entire film being the third act fight as we see Tony back in his original Iron Man suit now being forced to take on not only The Mandarin but also a horde of creatures outside of The Mandarins temple all of whom want Tony dead with this action scene working because of the fact that we get to see Tony be forced to used his brains and not just rely on his more modern Iron Man suits to do all of the work for him and while it's sadly not Iron Man that delivers the final blow to The Mandarin as that honor goes to Li Mei for some odd reason the whole with The Mandarin the fight leading up to that moment is one that does work really well as we get to see just how strong that The Mandarin is as a villain with him quite easily beating up Tony in the original Iron Man suit with the rest of this films action scenes being just as good in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall the best way to describe this film is that it's an average film and if you go into this film with those kind of expectations then you might come out of it liking the film a whole lot but at the same time given the fact that the film copied the main story beats of the 2008 Iron Man film but did them worse you might as well as just stick to that film as you'd be getting a much more better expirence with the exact same story beats in it in my freaking opinions anyways / anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad thigs that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very film that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very film with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.