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.

The year before Iron Man was released and the Marvel Universe truly began we had The Invincible Iron Man an origin story that went heavily off the comic rails.

It all starts so innnocently and follows the story perfectly, but then faster than you can say Robert Downey Jnr suddenly were faced with the Mandarn, elemental warriors and a dragon.

Needless to say I wasn't impressed, this Errol Flynn looking Tony Stark and the questionable animation surrounding him didn't make matters any better.

Call me old school but I hate when origins stories are changed and this is ludicrous.

In fact it's so out there it's verging on silly.

One for hardcore fans but nobody else.

The Good:

Has its moments

The Bad:

Story is a bit fantastical

Animation is a tad hit and miss

Not even remotely loyal to the original story

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

A clear 50ft drop won't even wind you

Fin Fang Foom really should have been in this

Iron Man, let's face it, was awesome. His classic suit from the 70's is beautiful, and he's one of the most well-known superheroes ever. Kids will know him, and he hasn't even had a movie yet. So yeah, people like Iron Man, I like Iron Man, and so on. The thing is, Iron Man's animated movie, is not that great. The movie is action-packed, but it still feels as if there isn't much action at all. Iron Man looked very accurate, and there were many parts of accuracy with the comic book. The animation was not in CGI, to many peoples' dismay. I actually liked the animation. It was just like that of a normal cartoon. But the thing is, there were too many boring parts. It's a superhero CARTOON! They may be trying to make it a serious "Animated Film", but deep down inside, this is a cartoon. I mean, what made you like the 90's Spider-Man show? It was cheesy and fun to watch. The Invincible Iron Man tries too hard to be a REAL film. Ultimate Avengers is better, and it will leave you satisfied. Iron Man? Borrow it, or rent it.

This actually did have potential to be good. The idea was a good one, and I'd watch any movie in regard to superheroes or Marvel. However, The Invincible Iron Man was a disappointment sadly. It does have redeeming qualities, the animation is great with fluid backgrounds and the suits particularly cool, the music is both rousing and haunting and with one exception the voice acting is very good. The fight sequences are also well-choreographed, though there should have been more. Conversely, there is one exception to the voice acting and that was Gwendoline Yeo as Li Mei, who has a very limited range and comes across as insufferably bland. She wasn't helped though by her character, who was very stereotypical and did little more than annoy me. Iron Man also seemed like a weak hero, not only should there have been more of him but when the Mandarin was defeated he does little in the scene other than getting beaten up, which takes away from the character's charisma. Tony Stark's character arc is very forced and takes far too long to be set up. Mandarin posed no threat whatsoever, which weakens any sense of conflict. The writing comes across as clichéd and it lacks fluidity. But the biggest let-down was the story. It was predictably told, especially in the Mandarin scene, and lacks any kind of momentum or excitement. Overall, a disappointment. 4/10 Bethany Cox

The only reason why I picked this up was because it's on cheap sale, and it doesn't hurt to see how Marvel would have envisioned their hero way before the live action feature film starring Robert Downey Jr hit the big screens, right?

The Invincible Iron Man is an origin story, but as far as origins are concerned, they are open to updates and reinterpretation. The original Stan Lee version had Tony Stark develop his suit of armor during the Vietnam War, since this character was developed in the 60s. With the movie version, it got updated to reflect some Middle East sentiments. For this animated version, since they wanted to fuse his origins to that of chief villain The Mandarin, we have it set in the Orient, where Stark Enterprises got itself a project to lift an aged old monument from the buried underground, only to unleash some prophecy which involves the second coming of The Mandarin.

There are a couple of changes to how Tony got his heart injured and had to rely on an over-sized pacemaker, but this time he got help from good friend Rhodes, since he's now an employee of Tony, and has nothing to do with the Air Force. I suppose purists would already foam at the mouth by now. Nonetheless you know the drill as plot elements are kept quite consistent - they build a crude suit of armour, and break away from imprisonment. But to speed things up to meet run time requirements, it turns out that Tony Stark already has a whole array of suits back in his penthouse, and can call upon the fancy variations to do battle with the Elementals who are in the quest to recover the Mandarin's power rings to resurrect him.

The action sequences do look a bit lacklustre, because the Elementals are basically one-trick ponies, and it doesn't take much effort for our hero to dispatch them one by one. Then again of course this is Tony Stark's first foray as a hero utilizing his suits for good, so he's not all that versed with battling enemies, and magical ones at that too. But in an effort to build up to the climatic finale, there are a couple of missteps. First, it's actually an antique armour that he uses - for one I would like him to have used his most powerful suit available, but no thanks to SHIELD. And if you think the finale battle would be something like the image on the back cover of the DVD sleeve, it's not! In fact while there's an interesting twist on The Mandarin which you could see coming from a mile away, alas the battle is nothing but a big letdown.

There are also a couple of recurring characters to complete the animated universe, such as Tony's dad Howard, where the plot follows that of Batman Begins involving some major boardroom struggle, as well as faithful secretary Pepper Potts, who had a lot more to do here than Gywneth Paltrow's version in the feature film. But they don't add much value to the film here. The pace moves quite hurriedly, and coupled with the disappointing lack of a proper finale, this is one animated flick that could have been much better if it provided some more exciting action sequences, since after all, an animated feature opens up the imagination to unlimited boundaries, just like how a page on a comic book does the same.