Iron Man Soars on the Big Screen
If director Jon Favreau’s take on Iron Man doesn’t turn the character into one of Marvel’s A-listers, I don’t know what will. Robert Downey Jr. captures all the nuances of a complex character, not surprising since he’s lived at least some of Tony Stark’s life.
Stark was a boy genius and as an adult is still sometimes more boy than genius. He’s a corporate rock star and he lives the life access to excess often allows. He chases skirts, parties too hard and occasionally stops to design weapons that keep him rich enough to continue his foolishness.
Downey’s Stark is a walking one-liner that takes nothing seriously until an accident in the Middle East leaves him severely injured and captured by his enemies. They are conveniently equipped with the weapons Stark designed and he learns first hand of the devastation they can cause. It’s a life-changing moment for Stark and, of course, if he didn’t evolve into a hero we wouldn’t have a movie here.
Downey plays every aspect of Stark perfectly, both as the cavalier playboy he begins as and the hero he learns to become. The special effects are excellent, particularly when Iron Man has dogfights with Air Force fighters.
This film has rightly evoked comparisons to the Spider-Man trilogy. There are some great slapstick moments as this hero learns to fly and even has problems getting into and out of his armor. It’s easy to love this Iron Man because he is so human.
This movie truly captures the awesomeness of a superhero, both with his actions and the incredibly cool toys he gets to do the job with. Terrence Howard as Stark’s friend James Rhodes describes it best when he first sees the Iron Man armor, “the coolest thing he has ever seen.” There’s a bit of foreshadowing of Rhodes’ eventual evolution into War Machine, a fellow armored crime fighter. We’ll see that in the inevitable two sequels.
Howard has a good contrast with Downey as the mostly straight arrow military guy. Like all Stark’s relationships it’s a complex friendship. Sometimes Rhodey’s the good influence on Stark, sometimes it’s the other way around.
The relationship between Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts has plenty of speed bumps also. Favreau resists the temptation to have these two hook up here. Both know Pepper would be good for Tony, but neither of them is sure the reverse is true. There’s an obvious attraction but both know the stakes. Something else for the sequels.
The villains don’t get as much character development. Jeff Bridges’ Obadiah Stane is so slimy one wonders how Stark could have ever trusted him. From there he quickly spirals from wanting to take over the company into wanting the world apparently. The terrorists are terrorists, killing indiscriminately in pursuit of their goals.
But one of Ol’ Shellhead’s weaknesses has always been his villains. The final fight between Iron Man and the upgraded Ironmonger is a classic sci-fi slugfest with Stark’s armor outgunned and underpowered.
Iron Man is truly a thinking man’s action movie. It looks at the reasons we fight wars and the consequences we don’t often think about without coming across as preachy or heavy-handed. Even when it deals with thorny issues, Iron Man never fails to keep the action, humor and popcorn fun factor coming. If even half of the summer blockbusters can live up to this standard, we’re in for a fun ride.
Images Paramount Pictures 2008
Tags: Gwyneth Paltrow, Iron Man, Iron Man Movie, Jeff Bridges, Robert Downey Jr., Terrence HowardRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Books & Comics, Movies
0 opinions for Iron Man Soars on the Big Screen
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: