SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The first prototype of Iron Man

Iron Man stars Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as a billionaire industrialist whose core business is making weapons. While testing Stark Industries’ latest missile creation called "The Jericho" in Afghanistan, he is kidnapped by a ruthless Middle Eastern terrorist organization who called themselves "Ten Rings".

The film then goes back 36 hours earlier to show what happens before Stark’s journey in Afghanistan, which includes a one-night stand with a reporter named Christine Everhart (Leslie Bibb).

Back to the future, though critically injured and almost die, Stark is saved by Yinsen (Shaun Toub), a mysterious stranger who comes to his rescue. Miraculously, Yinsen is multilingual and knows many languages, from Arab to Urdu to Mongolian. Yinsen uses an electromagnet which keeps the shrapnel from piercing Stark’s heart.

As the terrorists of "Ten Rings" enters the cave Stark and Yinsen are hiding, they both surrender and Stark is forced to create "The Jericho" missile for them. As Yinsen persuades Stark to find a way out of there, Stark first creates a very technologically-advanced heart for himself before building the rest of Iron Man. When the leader of Ten Rings suspects Stark is not working on "The Jericho" missile, he almost kills Yinsen whose life is only spared as Stark undoubtedly tells the terrorist leader that he needs Yinsen as he is a good assistant. Stark manages to create the ultimate bulletproof suit of power armor, complete with pacemaker and flamethrowers and releases himself from his captor but Yinsen dies in the process while trying to help Stark to buy time.

However, since the Iron Man suit is the first creation, it fails after flying in midair and crashed onto a desert with the Iron Man suit fall apart into a thousand pieces only to have Lt. Colonel James Rhodes (Terrence Howard) to rescue Stark.

Now back at the States, his partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) and especially his personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is extremely happy to see him alive and kicking. When Potts insists to bring Stark to the hospital for checkup, all Stark wants is a Burger King’s Cheeseburger and to call for an immediate press conference. In the press conference, Stark requests all the reporters to sit down while he eats his cheeseburger. He immediately announces the shut down of Stark Industries weapon manufacturing to which his partner, Stane strongly disapproves.

Back at home, Stark builds a more advanced heart for himself and gets Potts to replace his "old" heart which he tells Potts to throw and burn it. Stark improves his armor and becomes the technologically advanced superhero Iron Man. After numerous testings, his advanced armor suit ends up in gold with red paint. Almost immediately, Stark puts in his latest Iron Man suit, flies to Gulmira, Afghanistan and kills the terrorists who at that point of time are kidnapping women and children and killing men.

The improved Iron Man in gold and red

Meanwhile, the Ten Rings terrorists manage to find pieces of armor left by Stark. The leader of Ten Rings, Raza (Faran Tahir) is seen meeting Stane in discussion of the remained of the armor suits found in the desert. Despite being the man who sells weapons to Ten Rings, Stane orders his men to finish off the remainders of the terrorists and left the place with the armor suit.

Back in United States, Stane gathers a group of scientists to build a more advanced Iron Man called Iron Monger. The only thing missing is the way too technological-advanced heart that Stark has built for himself. So, Stane uses a disapproved highly-advanced sound wave weapon to temporarily immobilize Stark in order to grab his heart.

Stark is lucky as his assistant, Potts has kept his "old" heart in a properly framed glass which simply says “Stark has a heart”. He struggles to reach the framed glass but his robotic assistant lends him a hand.

The fight between Iron Man and Iron Monger then pursues but not for long before the film ends with Tony Stark at a press conference revealing himself as the Iron Man.

Overall, the movie is awesome and is possibly the best-ever film adapted from a comic book. Funny, smart and properly plotted, this is probably the best movie so far for the 2008 movies.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

P/S: Do look out for Stan Lee’s cameo appearance in the movie.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon

Three Kingdoms occurred during 220 – 280 A.D. when the country is split into three kingdoms namely Wei (also known as Cao Wei), Shu (also known as Shu Han), and Wu (also known as Dong Wu or Eastern Wu) Kingdom. When Shu Han needs a hero, Zhao Zilong (Andy Lau) joins them and he meets a senior soldier named Luo Ping An (Sammo Hung) who gives him a map. Zilong acknowledges Ping An as his “brother” since Ping An has joined the armies for five years. In the initial battle in the battlefield, Zilong does not take any credit by helping Ping An to kill one of the enemies’ leaders. When Luo Ping An and his comrades are out of ideas as Wei armies prepare to invade, a man named Zhuge Liang (Quanxin Pu) join them as a war adviser. Zhuge Liang’s brilliance in the art of war helps Shu Kingdom to win many battles.

When Wei armies are invading, the Shu kingdom plans to close the main gate. Somehow, due to carelessness of Ping An, the royal families including the emperor’s son are left outside the gate which later on become the victims of Wei relentless armies. Somehow, Zilong manages to save the emperor Liu’s son from the armies of Wei. He manages to fend off, escape and even steal Cao Cao’s (Damian Lau) sword despite being trapped by hundred of Wei armies to become the hero of Shu Han.

After many years of battles, Zilong is finally promoted to the rank of General to join the other four as one of the infamous Five Generals. As the other Generals perish in battle, Zilong becomes the only one left standing, winning battle after battle. After more than 35 years in the armies, Zilong and Zhuge Liang have reached old-age. Zilong’s so-called brother, Ping An is always watching him and they fight in the battlefield together.

One fine day, the ceaseless armies of Wei Kingdom has a final plan to invade Shu, it is up to Zilong who takes a last stand against the invading forces from the Kingdom of Wei. Cao Ying (Maggie Q), the granddaughter of Wei warlord Cao Cao leads the battle for Wei Kingdom. Both Zilong and Cao Ying try to outsmart each other but in the end, it is revealed that Zilong’s so-called brother Ping An has betrayed him as Cao Ying promises to recruit Ping An as Wei’s General. All these years, Ping An is envied of Zilong’s success as a top general while he feels he gets nothing by going into the battlefield.

The movie ends as Zilong charges into the battlefield all by himself, as all his armies are already dead before fading into the credits.

Overall, the movie is intriguing and comparable to The Warlords despite the controversy caused by Andy Lau’s costume and the casting of Maggie Q because of her non-Chinese and Eurasian appearance.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the 1860s, during the late Qing Dynasty, as one of the darkest periods of Chinese history, the country is suffering under the rule of the corrupt Manchus who invaded China from the North and established the country’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing. Natural disasters are wreaking havoc in the countryside, and in the midst of this chaos, the Taiping Kingdom, one of the strongest rebel groups ever to rise up in China, is overrunning the country and staging battles with the Qing army threatening the throne.

Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro in The Warlords

In a war between the Qing army led by General Ma Xinyi (Jet Li) and the Taiping Kingdom, General Ma’s army is overpowered by the rebels as Ma’s allies back out in the last minute causing a slaughter of Ma’s army. Every army of Ma’s is dead except General Ma, himself as he has feigned death. Though he is able to escape from the masses of dead bodies, he faints in the middle of nowhere due to hunger. There, Lian (Xu Jinglei) has saved him and brought him to a deserted house. She cooks porridge for him in order to revive him. Ma gobbles the porridge before he breaks out and tells Lian about the slaughter of his army. Lian consoles him and before long, they both ends up in the bed.

Later on, while resting in a village after having his armors and weapons sold in order to buy food, the village is attacked by bandits led by Cao Erhu (Andy Lau) and his trusted Lieutenant Zhang Wenxiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). Zhang quickly tests the ability of Ma after he sees Ma still wears boots that only the ranks of General wears them. Ma easily fends off Zhang’s attack and Zhang straightaway recommends Ma to join the bandits.

When Ma saves Cao in a furious battle, the three swear blood brotherhood. When Lian returns home after running away from Cao, Ma realizes that Lian is Cao’s wife but what already happened has happened.

Besides Lian, Ma’s dream is to get rid of the rebels and the corrupted Qing officials and he manages to convince both Cao and Zhang and their troop of bandits to join Qing army instead of robbing to survive. Easily fooled by the cunningness of Ma, Cao and his men join Ma and many dangerous battles are engaged. Ma’s become more and more ambitious as he wins every battle despite having less men than the enemies. Ma soon became obsessed with power.

The complication between the blood brothers and Lian have worked out in favor of Qing’s ruthless Empress and her highly ranked officials. In the end, the assassination of Ma takes place during the day he is supposed to be sworn as The Governor.

Overall, The Warlords show a more ruthless side of Jet Li as he plays his role well to his USD $13 million paycheck while Andy Lau plays a tragic hero torn between different factions. Takeshi Kaneshiro, meanwhile, plays a second fiddle to both these actors with his innocence overshadows the elements of being a bandit but his years of acting his Hong Kong movies have somewhat improved. The talented Xu Jinglei plays the beautiful Lian well to every bit, as Cao’s wife and even better as Ma’s woman.

Note: In Malaysia’s version, General Ma is known as General Pang, Cao Erhu is known as Zhao Erhu, and Zhang is known as Jiang.

My ratings: 7 out of 10, could be 8 out of 10 if only Lian shows more flesh.