Oh, it's a horrible movie!
I'm an Marvel enthusiast (some might say fanatic).
Iron Man is one of my top Marvel favorites, and I'm especially informed about it more then the others.
All these movies are catering to the generic audiences and forgetting their core fanbase.
The movie was distorted so much from the comic.
The worst thing was Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger.
In the comic, Stane was a business rival of Tony's. He arranged for Tony to have a nervous breakdown so he could take over the company.
But, when Stane started killing off Tony's friends, Tony got really mad!
He'd been experimenting with the Silver Centurion, the most powerful Iron Man armor in existence. So he put it on and went to fight Stane in the War Monger armor. Since Iron Monger was constructed from the earliest version of the Iron Man armor, it was no match for Silver Centurion. So Stane had prepared numerous backup strategies to assist him. They all failed. In the end, Stane committed suicide because he truly believed he would not lose.
The movie version is nothing like this. I knew how the final battle would go before I even saw it. Iron Monger would be a superpowered version of Iron Man. And Iron Monger was not that big either. They just amped it up for thrill value.
And the lead actor is not suitable to play Tony Stark. He looks nothing like him! He doesn't even sound like the cartoon version. For me, that is the most important issue. You have to look and sound the part.
The same goes for Rhodey (James Rhodes). He comes off as ineffectual. The comic/cartoon version is a scary big guy.
And Tony Stark was never interested in Pepper Potts. He even arranged for her to marry another of his employees. Plus, even though they were close friends, she wasn't really involved in Iron Man.
And the most important woman in Tony's life is missing. Bethany Cabe is his head of security (and sometimes bodyguard). They did have an intimate relationship at one point (although it's now over) and she is involved in Iron Man. It looks like all her character traits were transferred to Pepper. Mind you, she's a deadly fighter, so, although quite attractive, she's not really the soft office worker type.
Bambi Arboghast is also missing. She's his number one Adminstrator. It would not be inaccurate to say she's holding the company together.
Now, for some positive things to say.
I like they threw in veiled references to other things in Iron Man.
The greatest of these is the Mandarin. He is Iron Man's greatest enemy. He recovered power gems from an alien spacecraft and set them in rings to use as weapons (although not all of them can be used as weapons). There are ten rings in total. And they mention Ten Rings as the militant group. It was also done in the comic that the Mandarin's highest agents were loaned one of his rings for important missions. If they were captured, they would try to commit suicide or become unconscious. When this happened, the ring would teleport back to the Mandarin. We see the guy wandering around and playing with a ring a lot.
My guess is Mandarin and Fin Fang Foom (the alien who piloted the spaceship where the Mandarin found the rings) are next.
I wonder if War Machine will be in the next movie? In the comic, Rhodey was given the Mark 10b armor, known as War Machine. It's an Iron Man armor designed to wage war, not superheroing. Although it's good for that too. When he was given it, Rhodey became the superhero War Machine. He frequently worked with Iron Man.
And Pepper's future husband is in this movie, although he doesn't have a big part. Happy Hogan, Tony's chauffeur (physical trainer/therapist too) is mentioned and seen briefly.
