Iron Man

Title: Iron Man
Director: Jon Favreau
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow
Year: 2008
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content.
Date of Review: May 3, 2008

I’ve always been more of a DC guy. This probably stems from the time at which I was most into superheroes - the 1990s, when comic books were at an all time low with regards to quality writing. I wanted so badly to like “X-Men”, because Wolverine was so cool and I generally just loved the concept...but every time I picked up an issue of the book, it was a damn soap opera. I just couldn’t get into the storylines, and I (like every other young boy) wanted action. That’s probably why “Iron Man” was the one Marvel hero I could really get behind. He had his bouts of soap opera madness, but nothing like his mutant friends. His books were always more about the action, and the drama which could be derived from it. So it was with this young boy’s sense of anticipation that I went to the theatre to see Marvel’s most recent film, Iron Man, and I was given a hefty dose of nostalgia, and a genuinely great movie to boot.

Robert Downey Jr. is deserving of all the accolades he has been receiving for his turn as Tony Stark, and people will be talking about this performance for a long time - probably until the next movie comes out. He plays Stark as an arrogant, womanizing, heavy drinker, but does it with such charisma and charm that he’s possibly the most likable comic book hero we have seen on the silver screen thus far. His sense of humor and his teenage selfishness complement each other nicely, and while his toys are all A.I.-fueled high-tech gadgets, in the end he is just a boy who discovers he can make himself into a hero in his own garage. And once the suit is complete and Iron Man begins his work, the action is exhilarating and surprisingly tasteful in its execution.

The movie really shines in it’s dialogue, though. While light on narrative - a fairly standard origin story and “hero’s quest” type plot structure is at its core - the characters surrounding Stark are rich and full of life (due in no small part to the top notch cast). Director Jon Favreau has said that he encouraged the cast to ad lib as much as they wanted, and the improvisations are spot on for the characters being played. The interaction between Stark and his various maintenance robots is hilarious, and the forbidden romance between him and his secretary Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) rings true due to the snappy back-and-forth occurring between them in all of their scenes together.

Iron Man, like any truly great summer movie, isn’t just mindless entertainment. It has a heart, a soul, and a conscience. It is a film about responsibility - not in the way Spider-Man was, but in its own way. Learning to take responsibility for your past actions, and choosing to right your own wrongs rather than let someone else do it for you is a central theme in the film. And with its modern-day relevance - having it take place largely in Afghanistan, involving middle eastern war criminals whose lives were destroyed by the same American weapons which they now use in their crusade for vengeance - it’s quite a wake-up call to the USA to take responsibility, itself, for a conflict which is largely (if not entirely) their fault.

And while I would not be reluctant in any way to call this the best superhero movie since Batman Begins (and in turn one of the best ever), it is not without its flaws. Perhaps my own fandom has created a bias, but the strength of Iron Man’s character really warranted a more rousing musical score. Having the score rely largely on heavy guitar riffs is great in concept (I mean, heavy metal music for Iron Man seems appropriate, right?) but none of it really felt unique. The music seemed like it could have been used in just about any other modern action film. Something more iconic, like Danny Elfman’s Batman theme or John Williams’ Superman, could have added so much.

There are also a few lapses in logic which were not distracting, but certainly noticeable. The largest of these logical flaws takes place shortly after Stark has escaped from his Afghani prison, and has left all the pieces of his original creation behind (the crude “Mark 1" suit). Once back on American soil, everyone keeps asking him about his brilliant escape and how he pulled it off - would the government not have been quick to collect those giant machine parts that he simply left in the sand for the bad guys to come back and collect? Would they not have been more interested in collecting this brilliant walking death-machine than, well, rescuing Tony Stark himself?

Logical shortcomings aside, Iron Man is an absolute blast. The characters and dialogue are witty and smartly written, the action sequences (though few and far between) are incredible, and it finds a perfect balance between the brooding, dark tones of something like Batman Begins, and the too-silly-for-its-own-good nature of the Fantastic Four series.

This is the way a comic book movie should be handled, and let’s hope it does well enough at the box office to force Robert Downey Jr. To make good on his promise of a few sequels.

8.5 / 10