Welcome to the first installment of Marvel Cinematic Universe! Half the success's found when Robert Downey Jr.'s officially anointed as our beloved Iron Man! Just like Henry Cavill for Man of Steel, this man was born for the titular role!
Let's get the negatives out of the way, by first saying that it doesn't make sense for the 24/7-camera-hawking terrorists to never interrogate full-Armor MK I-constructing-Tony Stark more than once. Secondly, from the first look itself, Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane illumed as the villain. Speaking of the devil, his characterizations & motivations are not developed properly too. Thirdly, many of the dialogues could have been just trimmed because… boring. Last but definitely not the least, reactor arc explosion killed Iron Monger but not Iron Man who's closer to the detonation?
Virginia 'Pepper' Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) unplugging & chugging the arc reactor on Stark's chest and hacking into the mainframe to copy all recent shipping manifests are two glomming segments to watch out for! The chemistry & word exchanges between these two are fantastic.
Creation of project MK V from concept, to draft, to prototype, to reality is screamworthy! The biggest pluses are the marvelous animatronics & practical effects that long-shelve the film's life for many, many years to come. With J.A.R.V.I.S., this film opens up wide possibilities for future computing ideas!
But, the highlight of all is indubitably Tony Stark. Good character developing incidents tag our attention on him from Scene 1. What a charismatic persona, played by an equally magnetic actor! The writers completed & encapsulated his characterization in the following final dialogue:
"The truth is... I am Iron Man."