Iron Man

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

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.

It is slightly better than Ultimate avengers movies. It is longer and slightly more intense. It was not that bad, the 3-D battles are cool, the kind that will make you stare in awe, together with the 2-D animation, it is cool. The first forty minutes is the introduction and the other forty minutes, you get the cool action. The director cleverly made the first forty minutes interesting so as not to bore you with the talking, and goes forward with cool 3-D battles. Clever indeed but it somehow feels a bit slow-pacing, the fights: Great effects but you will only see Iron man fighting for a few minutes and rush off to retreat. This is the beginning of Iron man so don't expect to see him in cool outfits (you will see him in the latest suit for a while), his original suit was grey in colour, dull and big.

Those who are new to Iron man may want to catch it, Iron man's fans also can watch it. It has great fights, and explode everywhere they fight with a touch of brief nudity ( Wow! A marvel animated movie to show brief nudity). Those who watched this might want to catch the upcoming animated movie, Dr strange and for the rest of the fans might want to wait for the upcoming live-action Iron man movie. It may not be one of the best animated movie but it is still cool.

On VCD in Singapore, just bought it. It came out quite recently.

The year before Iron Man was released and the Marvel Universe truly began we had The Invincible Iron Man an origin story that went heavily off the comic rails.

It all starts so innnocently and follows the story perfectly, but then faster than you can say Robert Downey Jnr suddenly were faced with the Mandarn, elemental warriors and a dragon.

Needless to say I wasn't impressed, this Errol Flynn looking Tony Stark and the questionable animation surrounding him didn't make matters any better.

Call me old school but I hate when origins stories are changed and this is ludicrous.

In fact it's so out there it's verging on silly.

One for hardcore fans but nobody else.

The Good:

Has its moments

The Bad:

Story is a bit fantastical

Animation is a tad hit and miss

Not even remotely loyal to the original story

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

A clear 50ft drop won't even wind you

Fin Fang Foom really should have been in this

Gosh! I have to say that this is one of the worse animated movie I've spent more than 60 minutes watching. Who had this movie made? It was a major waste of time and money.

1. Story: It was so basic I slept through most of the show. Yes it is that bad.

2. Momentum: There is no sense of urgency or momentum in the movie. I thought the finale would finally bring some excitement..... Let's just say I was cursing and swearing.

3. Animation: The animated characters' actions were so wooden, a puppet would look more lively. I had hope the SFX was going to be better.... no such luck at all.

5. Production: This one felt as cheap as they come, and especially so since this is one of Marvel's most interesting superhero. Sad, just sad.