Iron Man movie: After the Storm

So I saw the Iron Man movie on Monday night, and what can I say? I was blown away.

I went in knowing it was going to be spectacular, I mean we had all seen the trailers so I was ready to be impressed. But still: I can't believe how often during the film I either caught myself laughing out loud at something (intentionally) funny on the screen or thought to myself 'yeah1 That rocks!' Despite my preparation I was still surprisingly impressed.

So where do we go from here?

Everybody has heard by now tha the film is a real big success sofar, raking in over $100 million in the US during its opening weekend, and possible over $200 million worldwide.

Ka-Ching.

On Monday Marvel came out with the bold announcement that there would in fact be a sequel to the Iron Man movie. This is not as surprising an announcement as many might think: even if the film had not been such a huge opening weekend success the intention to make a sequel was there. I already read aweek ago that Robert Downey Jr. had signed on for a three picture deal with Iron Man. Of course even the first Hulk movie had a decent opening weekend but subsequently dropped off due to negative word of mouth. Marvel still felt confident to green light a Hulk sequel, though.

The most interesting tidbit for me, however, was the pay-off received for sitting through the Iron Man closing credits.

** SPOILER ALERT **

Okay, if you haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to leave now just so that I don't ruin anything for you. At the close of the credits,us fanboys were treated to an extra scene featuring Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD! This was anice set up for the sequel, as well as an introduction to the concept of the Avengers in the future.

The next stop on my Summer movie roster will probably be the Incredible Hulk movie, in large part because of the heavily rumored cameo by Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark. If only William Hurt had not given this one away already in an interview, it would have made for one Hell of a surprise, eh?


All in all, and at the end of the day, I would have to say that Iron Man was that most rare of super hero movies: a very pleasant surprise. Nest stop: Hulk!