Ironman: "Just Enough."

So many people were thrilled to see Ironman. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that the last noteworthy film to be released was "Cloverfield," which wasn't even that impressive anyway. It also had to do with the fact that 'comic book movies' are the craze of the film industry.

Ironman was a success. It was an achievement for the comic book genre. Why? Because it was successfully adapted. It stayed true to the key elements of the story without embracing the comic book (for lack of a better word) 'cheesiness.'

A comic book is a comic book and a movie is a movie. A comic book movie's success depends on whether or not they can make the comic book into a movie, and not make a movie out of a comic book.

Anyways, this is entirely unrelated to why Ironman was a success.

#1: The goal of this film was to establish. The characters and their motives were established. The main character and his 'transformation' into a hero has already been established. (For those who enjoy good action, this is perfect, because when Ironman 2 comes out, there will be no need to establish any of that other junk, and there will be a lot more time for explosions and such.)

#2: The timing was impeccable. After an especially difficult drought of near-biblical proportions, Ironman came at the perfect time to save us all and to get us excited for the next several weeks of great film releases. Being the first of the great releases was a very intelligent move, making people very anxious to finally get back into the theater.

#3: There was enough action. That doesn't mean there was a lot of action. That means there was just enough to make it entertaining action-wise.

#4: The humor was compensating. By that I mean the humor compensated for the lack of action. When there wasn't action, or even an anticipation of action, there was a lot of humor. Robert Downey Jr. mastered the character of Tony Stark, making him devilishly likable.

#5: You want more. Did I want more? You bet. Did the people with me want to see more? Definitely. The makers of the film did not stray from their main goal: to establish. Everything that needed to be established was established, and we even got a little taste of what's coming up next (if you didn't stay until after the credits, you'd better go see it again).

What can we expect from the sequel?

First of all, we can expect a sudden jump into the main plot of the story. We already know where Tony Stark has been and what he went through to get where he was. We can expect some early laughs and a quick dilemma and a deepening plot right off the bat.

Secondly, we can see a good continuation of the romance that began in the original. It was obvious throughout the story that this would develop, but it didn't get far in this one. We can probably expect more perilous situations for Pepper Potts.

And finally, we can expect to see a full-blown blockbuster. Many will criticize this first film because they feel like there wasn't enough done, but I feel that that is what saved it. Just enough happened to set up a magnificent sequel. The trailers will be packed with as much action and humor as they can manage to stick in there so people will rush to the theaters to see if it does better than the first. Ironman is a hero that everyone wanted to see win. In the sequel, they will get to see it without any barriers. Also, to help out, I only have to say one thing: Samuel L. Jackson.