Iron Man, one of the most important movies of its kind. When it first came out in 2008, I don't think anybody expected it to be as big a hit as it was. A B-list superhero played by a washed-up actor being produced by a barebones studio? Are you nuts? And then we were all surprised to see how great it was.
It's thanks in large part to Robert Downey Jr. He really is Iron Man. He manages to give that real sense of a "genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist." It's hard to imagine anybody else playing Tony Stark this far along in the franchise's lifespan.
This movie was most people's entry point into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Having only recently re-watched it, I still can't believe how small it was at this point. Nowadays we see aliens, talking raccoons, and sentient trees, but Iron Man has a realism to it that keeps it grounded while still being comic-booky.
Ten years after its release, the special effects still manage to hold up. The Iron Man suit's CGI still looks as real as possible, and it would still be in the same elite company as movies like Thor: Ragnarok or Ant-Man.
Again, this is a movie that really shouldn't have worked so well, but I'll be damned if Jon Favreau and Kevin Feige didn't pull it off. It's a movie that I'll return to for years to come, if for no reason other than to marvel (heh) at how much Tony Stark has grown up since. Can't wait for new fans to experience this movie as well as the rest of the MCU.
Movie url:
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1726-iron-man?language=en-US
Critic: AAA