xamtaro One thing I would commend about Marvel Animation is that they are willing to learn from their mistakes. After the mediocre Ultimate Avengers animated movies came this one, The Invincible Iron Man. This movie is everything Ultimate Avengers was not. Instead of a team, it focuses on one character. Instead of dumbing down an existing storyline(Ultimate Avengers was essentially "The Ultimates" story dumbed down to appeal to older children) Marvel chose to create a new storyline and place more emphasis on character drama than on wham bam action. 1) The story. Definitely a new take on the origin of Iron Man. After being exposed to so many "alternate dimensions" and alternate origins for Marvel universe characters, I was willing to accept this movie as another of such alternate stories. The story was very well written with a clear beginning, middle and end. The magic Vs technology sub plot was nicely fleshed out but thankfully did not overwhelm the character interplay. There were a few far fetched moments but they are forgivable due to the short length of the movie. 2) The characters Really, it is the characters that truly shine here. Being more of a character drama as opposed to an action movie, the interplay seen in the script is realistically played out. The dialogue is fluid and believable to the point being on par with many good live action dramas. Acting was excellent. Neither over the top nor underwhelming, but just right to convey the emotions of the charactersThe only problem was the acting of one of the main characters, Li Mei. Her accent seemed inconsistent and her emotional range was rather limited, even in most emotionally charged final battle of the movie. If Marc Worden had not done such a good job of acting on his part, the whole romance sub plot between Tony and Li Mei would have fallen flat.3)The action Sharp, fast and to the point. There is no beating around the bush or too much talking in the fights. The action scenes are well choreographed but are few. Like i said, this movie is more a character drama than an action show. There are 3 main action scenes involving Iron Man in total.4) The Animation Marvel has definitely improved in their animation from Ultimate Avengers. The characters still retain that level of movement fluidity but the level of art detail has been increased. The backgrounds are really a sight to behold and the character designs have a distinct Asian flavor to them. No animation short cuts were present, lending to a very impressive viewing experience. The cel shaded CGI animation used for the Elementals and the Iron Man suits are on par with many big budget animated movies and it allows more fluid interaction of the characters during fight scenes. There was only one scene where there was a jarring clash between the CGI and 2D animation but the rest were beautifully rendered. There could have been better closure to the story and i do hope for a sequel. Overall, Invincible Iron Man was a very refreshing new take on the origin of a well loved Marvel superhero. Favoring complex character drama over action was a good move, though not many would agree with me. It would be a little too much for kids to enjoy though, so don't bother wasting this movie on them. For fans of more action oriented animated movies with less character development and interplay, i direct you back to Ultimate Avengers.Get this movie if you're in the mood for something deeper than the usual "hero Vs villain" stories.

brando647 Marvel's third installment in their line of animated movies is probably the weakest so far. I was a fan of the two Avengers movies released previously and the concept of a Marvel animated movie dedicated to a single character was something I'd been waiting for. I was a bit let down after watching this movie; I didn't feel it lived up to the decent quality of its predecessors.This movie retells the origins of Iron Man: Tony Stark (voiced again by Marc Worden) has been using his company, Stark Industies, to fund an archaeological dig in China that has been under constant assault from a rebel group known as the Jade Dragons. After one attack finds James 'Rhodey' Rhodes missing, Stark flies out to China where he is taken prisoner by the Jade Dragons. From here, we find the familiar story of Stark creating his first Iron Man armor to keep him alive/help him escape and he soon assumes the role of Iron Man when he finds himself pulled into a prophecy that the Mandarin will arise and use his powers for world domination.Now, I've never really followed the Iron Man comics but I know that there are some problems with this already. Mandarin was not an ancient Chinese tyrant and he didn't use magic; he was man from modern times who used alien technology to create his rings of power. So, already, the movie has lost points for straying from the storyline that Iron Man fans know and love. I understand that the creators were probably going for an East vs West theme, magic vs technology, but I got bored with the idea pretty fast into the movie. The story itself felt as if it moved annoying slow at some points and the final confrontation at the end didn't really satisfy.The animation was pretty good but continued to suffer from the same flaws as the Avengers movies. Action scenes look great but smaller things, such as mouth/voice syncing and facial expressions, were weak. The creators used a bit more computer-generated animation for some of this movie, primarily in the Iron Man armors and in the Mandarin's demon elementals, and I'd say it worked pretty successfully. The majority of the fight scenes look great; I just wish we'd gotten some more time with the iconic Mark III armor.Overall, the movie is definitely a step backwards for the Marvel animated series. I enjoyed it to an extent, but I still don't consider the movie anything more than average. The film has it's strong points (the demon elementals and Iron Man's armor look fantastic) but continues to suffer from the same flaws as its predecessors. Add to that a mediocre story and you get 83 minutes that didn't quite leave me content.

ZekeRage911 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.

willeagle23 I saw this movie on the Cartoon Network and came across it by chance. I was checking for Justice League Unlimited and noticed this movie which I thought was just on DVD. I am really glad I was able to watch it. I think this was a very well made animated feature with a good story line and well done characters. Le Mai (probably spelled wrong) was a very interesting character in the movie. It does jump around from place to place quite a bit but didn't take away my enjoyment of it. The animators did a great job on this also. Like I mentioned before I watched this on TV so there were way to many commercials. Watch in on DVD to enjoy it even more. I hope they make another one. Then come out with the live action film.