Iron Man is the Best Reviewed Movie of 2008

Posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 by Peter Sciretta

Iron Man is not only a great comic book movie, but it’s a great film. Jon Favreau’s Marvel comic book adaptation is the best reviewed movie of the year (so far). The film currently has a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 117 reviews. The only two 2008 releases which have garnered more critical acclaim have been smaller independent releases (Taxi to the Dark Side and Blindsight). The closest wide Hollywood release is the Judd Apatow-produced Forgetting Sarah Marshall with 85% (138 reviews counted). And who says that movie critics are stuck up folk who don’t appreciate popcorn flicks?

Not only that, but Iron Man is also currently the best reviewed Superhero movie of all time. Let’s take a look at the eight best-reviewed superhero movies of all time (according to Rotten Tomatoes).

Iron Man - 96% (117 reviews)
Spider-Man 2 - 93% (228 reviews)
Superman: The Movie - 93% (46 reviews)
Spider-Man 90% (206 reviews)
X2: X-Men United - 87% (214 reviews)
Batman Begins - 84% (246 reviews)
X-Men - 80% (141 reviews)
Hellboy - 79% (182 reviews)

Comments

orange cinema

a much deserved victory for fav, downey jr & co!! awesome to see the hard work acknowledged in such a favorable way. now bring on the dark knight!

b e n - a

I can see why it's got so many good reviews - it doesn't make any big mistakes and Downey is not just a revelation - he's a force beyond anything else you've seen... but Spider-man 2, X2, Superman: The Movie and Batman Begins are all superior in every department (bar from the acting).

Though credit to the team, it's the kind of film which has set up the franchise nicely and Part 2 could be absolutely amazing. Roll on Iron Man 2!

orange cinema

also, i'm thrilled that this was the debut for marvel studios, this makes them a force as well, and i hope to see many more of our heroes taken as seriously.

Captain Awesome

While I do hope for it to be a good movie. Aren't these summed up RT reviews always like this right off the bat?

They usually start off amazingly high for films within this bracket and then after it's first week or two the scores then deflate quite a bit. Then again, I still don't know why people continue to rely on RT much less most reviews in the first place.

Chadwick

will the critics be this generous with the dark knight? iron man was a great movie but dont you think its about time the critics swayed towards the superhero comic movies ? obviously there exists wonderful storylines with psychological backgrounds to these characters.... however, this is just a thought.

evan

I tend to prefer Metacritic over RT - fewer reviews, more weight. That said, MC has a score of 80 right now for Iron Man with 30 reviews. That's a great score for a comic book movie. Spider-Man 2 had a 83. Superman I had a 88. X1 and X2 had 64 and 68, respectively. So, yeah, these are good reviews for Iron Man. Are they the best ever? Probably not.

ck

Iron man was ok, it wasnt exactly spectacular. Maybe its because we had already seen almost the whole movie in the trailer/tv spots. But yeah id definitely rate other comic book movies better than ironman. Robert Downey Jr. was great but the other actors were pretty bad.

Alberto

I think they are overating this movie. I liked it, and i've seen it twice (it's so much fun) but i don't think you can say it's better than BATMAN BEGINS or X2 (WTF?). It's surely much better than many many superhero movies, and indeed a GOOD movie, but not THAT good.

Sauce

What's with Batman Begins getting such low scores?

Gustavo

I wonder if criticswill be kind to INDIANA JONES.

Steelo

Iron Man was pretty solid. It hit a lot of points.

Scott Perry

There's a lot going against Indiana Jones.
A) fourth film
B) sequel
C) The first film, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was the ultimate adventure flick and one of the most beloved films in American cinema.
D) George Lucas input (his reputation is not good after making the prequels)
E) Harrison Ford is not young.

So expect harsh reviews.

Aaron

Wow, this is of course great buzz for the film. I have even higher expectations now!

Who

Justin Landeen

Captain Awesome

Sauce,

Batman Begins on RT started off the same exact way in it's first week. RT much like the internet starts to resemble a highschool clique.

Give it a few weeks. That score will begin to drop.

kenton sam

Think the movie is getting good reviews becuase of Robert Downey's portrayal of Tony Stark.
Not since the Incredible Hulk TV show has a comic book based project got an accurate portrayal on the first try, other superheroes, Marvel or DC, were adapted before and some were horrible the first time around, then as the movies or shows came and went the portrayals got better, although with superman, christopher reeves is still the best, Brandon routh, eh, tom Welling pulls a convincing young conflicted portrayal of Clark Kent, not Superman. Batman, Christian Bale is the best so far, along with toby miguire for Spider man, and ron perlman for Hellboy.

Andy

the problem with rotten tomatoes is that everyone who sees it could say "it was decent" and it'd get a 100% rating, and be supposedly the BEST-RATED MOVIE EVER. just because the movie wasn't offensive enough to warrant many critics being outright repelled by it doesn't make it a 'great film'.

orange cinema

i think we all - myself included - want tdk to absolutely destroy iron man this year. does that make us bais in our opinions towards downey jr & co? maybe maybe not. either way, all i can say is that i'm happy for them, but its opening weekend and i have no plans to go see iron man any time soon...however, when tdk lands, i'll be taking off from work so i can watch it at midnight and 2 more itmes the following day.

Jerry to the Biggy Butler

you sound like a nut. Do yourself a favor, go see Iron Man. You will not be disappointed. Great flick..popcorn or otherwise

Iron Man Movie

I I love This movie,. One of the MArvel Flicks that I love - I's sure this is just the first one!
anyone , knows if there's XMEN movie coming?

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