Do you like your anti-Chinese clichés about obseqious businessmen who don't speak English properly? Or about ruthless heartless thugs who are so cruel they'll kill the most innocent person ever, because they're souless and see no value to human life? Do you prefer your anti-Chinese cliche's to be about how backwards and superstitious Chinese people supposedly are? Or do you go in for the idea the Chinese are craven and cowardly? Or maybe you think all Chinese people hate female offspring? Don't worry, this racist sewer of a movie cover's all those bases and more.Clearly, this 2007 offering, because you can see the plot elements it shared with the 2008 live action, was a discarded script for what was an excellent movie. This one was discarded for good reason. Skip it.

Don't get me wrong, the guy's a success dynamo, but he got to the top by selling overpriced plastic toys to impulsive brats. So I get a little peeved when he looks at comic book fans as an extension of that same market.See, "The Invincible Iron Man" wouldn't be bad if it were slotted on a Saturday morning and geared exclusively toward undiscerning children. But it's not directed exclusively at children. Periphery characters are killed every five minutes and there's enough bloodshed and semi-nude bodies to make network censors squirm, so it isn't quite cut out for children's television.So what audience is this video aiming for then? It's the audience that enjoys nigh intelligible story lines about reviving a tyrannical Chinese emperor with 5 arcane rings, that's who. And I think that audience is restrictively small.A lot of great writers have passed through Marvel's leathery yoni over the decades. So it's a shame that Marvel would risk their pricey animation investments on so many questionable storytellers and scribes who, like Mr. Arad, are better accustomed to peddling action figures during Saturday morning cartoons. How many lukewarm receptions do Marvel have to endure before they come up with a better strategy? ***Animation: just passable cels, some segments are better than others, a low budget look all throughout -- this ain't no Bakshi (Ralph) and it ain't no Bluth (Don)! CG animation's okay, but far from impressive.Story: a litany of clichés, all over the place, convoluted, contrived, and uninspired.Characters: so why is Rhodes even here if all he does is add to Stark's sexual ambiguity? Hmmm... her Dad's in a wheelchair... Tony misses his mom... Asian chicks are hot and, apparently, little else; the female lead is thoroughly objectified by the feature's end.Performances: can't blame competent voice actors for a bad script.Art: very Western musculature, very clean lines, faces are very derivative of Eastern art, very boring mattes, very bland CG.Conclusion: Not great, but worth a watch for the fans and those who enjoy superhero myths. A 'must-buy' for collectors. A valuable "what not to do" course for junior animators.

I am obviously disappointed so I'll be brief and won't waste your time. First off, the plot was uninspired... at least. The animation was even worse, we're in 2008 for god's sake and it looked like a shinier version of G.I.Joe. I won't even bother characterizing the actors' performance and the dialogs. Or maybe I will 'cause I just saw that in order to post a comment over here you need 10 lines (?!??!?!). Where were we? Oh yeah the performance, well it was totally flat, lacking passion and talent if I am excused. Now as for the dialogs, just like the acting, no memorable quotes, nothing that someone wouldn't expect. Let's just hope the movie will be decent ...at least.

I was looking forward to this movie, until I started hearing things. I heard the Mandarin was going to be the villain, who used to be little more than a dime store Ming the Merciless. The whole technology v. magic aspect annoyed me. But watching the first few minutes raised my hope. The first, oh, fifteen minutes or so lay the groundwork for a very good story. Terrorists, international incidents, corporate backstabbing, father-son conflict and halfway decent characterization led me to believe that I was about to watch a pretty decent adaptation. The movie, though, then begins to trip. The trip turns into a stumble. The stumble turns into a fall. The fall turns into a fall down a spiral staircase.After raising an ancient city in China, against the wishes of a terrorist group calling themselves the Jade Dragons (not cliché' at all) Tony Stark's digging crew accidentally release the servants of the long dead Emperor the Mandarin. His elemental servants need to gather five rings to bring the Mandarin back to life. Well, when Tony Stark went to investigate, he was severely wounded and forced to rely on machines to survive. The Jade Dragons order Stark to undo what he's done. Of course, what he's done is a science-fictiony thing, so he needs his science fictiony stuff to undo it. Instead, he builds a suit of armor in secret and eventually makes his escape, but not before finding out about the Mandarin's elemental servants. Upon returning to the States, Tony is accused of dealing arms to the Jade Dragons, and makes a daring escape. He then sneaks into Stark Enterprises and we find he's been working on a secret project. What secret project? Why a giant room full of Iron Man suits! Sure! Of course. Why not? So Stark goes questing for the rings, get's his metal rear handed to him while he whittles down the elemental spirits. Eventually he winds up at the Mandarin's temple to face the final elemental, with his love interest in the movie so far "Mei Ling." Turns out she's not a Jade Dragon, she's a descendant of the Mandarin who's supposed to raise him from the dead. A pointless fight scene with a dragon, and one anime-style light show later, and the ghost of the Mandarin, via Mei Ling, is pounding Tony's metal butt down. Until he shouts "Remember who you are" which somehow snaps her out of it and she throws off the Mandarin's rings. Yay! Lei Ming dies (I think), Tony patches things up with his father, takes control of the company, patches things up with his best friend, and everything's happy! Um, wait a second... what? Iron Man ends with a sort of "What?" feeling. Do yourself a favor, just hope really hard that the live action is better than this.