Iron Man Review

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 05.02.2008

The rebirth of the Marvel Comics movie-verse finally begins.

IRON MAN


Directed By: Jon Favreau
Written By: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway; Based on the Marvel Comics books and characters created by Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Leiber, and Jack Kirby
Runtime: 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content.
Official Site: Iron Man Official Movie Website

Tony Stark/Iron Man - Robert Downey Jr.
Jim Rhodes - Terrence Howard
Pepper Potts - Gwyneth Paltrow
Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger - Jeff Bridges
Christine Everhart - Leslie Bibb
Yinsen - Shaun Toub
Raza - Faran Tahir
Agent Phil Coulson - Clark Gregg
Hogan - Jon Favreau

One of the greatest revelations of all about the new big budget comic book/super hero event movie of the summer, Iron Man, that officially kicks off the summer blockbuster movie season it's in one of the opening logos right before the start of the film. The Marvel logo adds the significant word STUDIOS under the legendary brand name that revolutionized comics and super heroes as we know it 45 years ago. What does this mean? It means in no uncertain terms that now Marvel is going into the movie business for itself. Iron Man marks the first feature to be produced solely by Marvel itself without the influence or interference of any other company. You might have heard of them: 20th Century Fox (X-men; Fantastic Four; Daredevil; and Elektra), Sony (Spider-man; Ghost Rider), and Lionsgate (The Punisher).

What have these movies, many of them multiple film franchises, had in common? Besides their respective studios licensing the famous characters out from Marvel Comics, they've lacked any kind of cohesion or connection to the other (with possibly the odd exception here and there in a couple of the Fox movies). Now that Marvel is calling the shots, starting with Iron Man, and once again later this summer with The Incredible Hulk, they can finally forego the downright ridiculous notion that these characters cannot exist in the same time, universe, or planet. Now we are finally going to see an actual Marvel Universe itself at the movies.

This is clear throughout the fantastic Iron Man movie, the idea that something greater is at work. Marvel Studios is not just building an Iron Man movie franchise, they are literally re-building the Marvel Movie-verse from the ground up. The lines are being drawn, and the groundwork lain. Once you see it, you will understand. The seeds are being planted and in the very near future they will hopefully bear some MIGHTY fruit. This is encouraging to see, that Marvel is going out of their way in taking these steps, despite many of their most popular, mainstream characters already taking up shop under other studio banners, making any future crossovers to the Marvel Studios films along with the X-men, Spider-man, and Fantastic Four movie characters very unlikely. This is unlike DC Comics and Warner Bros., where a movie studio in fact already owns the movie rights to the entire DC Comics universe. And yet Warner Brothers was still planning to go ahead and make Justice League (sans Christian Bale) while a Batman movie franchise with the perfect Batman is just coming around with its second movie that looks utterly amazing. And somehow this Justice League movie was supposed to jumpstart solo-character movie franchises for the likes of Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and The Flash despite such films using different characters muddling the connections with Justice League. Sorry, but sucks to that idea.

Iron Man takes it upon itself to adapt the origin of the armor-suited, billionaire, brilliant industrialist/inventor Tony Stark (Downey Jr.), a character who first appeared in the pages of Marvel Comics' Tales of Suspense #39 in 1963. The movie transplants Stark's crippling warzone accident from Vietnam to Afghanistan. After a demonstration of a new line of powerful military missiles, Stark is wounded and taken captive by a terrorist organization called the Ten Rings (yeah, anyone who knows anything about Iron Man . . . figure it out) led by Raza (Tahir). Another captive scientist by the name of Yinsen (now Middle Eastern as well and played by Shaun Toub) fashions a crude device to keep shrapnel from going into Tony's heart and killing him. Charged with re-producing the new Stark Industries' Jericho missiles for the Ten Rings, Stark and Yinsen instead scheme of a way to break out by building an improved life-support unit for Tony and a powerful, suit of armor.

After escaping his prison in a blaze of glory, Tony reunites with his best friend and airforce buddy, Jim Rhodes (Howard) and his personal assistant, Pepper Potts (Paltrow). The normally care-free and indulgent Stark is shocked to the core with the realization that the weapons his company, that he produces are being used by both sides of the same conflict. Stark wants to pull his company out of the weapons business, not exactly to the delight of his confidante and business partner, Obadiah Stane (Bridges). You pretty much know Stane is Rotten with a capital R as soon as you see his evil, sinister beard. No good guy wears a beard like that. Plus, he's as bald as Lex Luthor. Stark also comes to the realization that something more than underhanded is going on at the company his father built, and after being shut out from the business end Tony secretly streamlines and rebuilds the armor into a new, hi-tech suit as a way to destroy the Stark weapons now being used by terrorists.

The direct to video, animated Iron Man feature released last year was also an origin story for Tony Stark and how he became the titular hero. The animated movie turned out to be a little disappointing and somewhat problematic in its execution. The live-action version fortunately, despite going for an origin story like so many other comic book super hero movies before it does a very satisfying job of it. Director Jon Favreau (who also cameos as Tony Stark's driver, Hogan, in the movie aka as Happy Hogan from the comics) does an excellent job of keeping it balanced without feeling obligatory and pedestrian. The movie has a strong, energetic pace to the running time but the story never feels rushed or insignificant like the unfortunate X-men 3: The Last Stand.

Robert Downey Jr. owns the dual role of Tony Stark and Iron Man. His wit and sense of humor aren't overplayed, and Downey makes it real and gives his performance weight and gravitas when needed. Something that Nicholas Cage wasn't able to do a very good job of in Ghost Rider. Tony Stark is not a young man maturing into his early adulthood like Peter Parker. He's a middle-aged man, but sprightly. Stark's entire playboy swagger and persona is not a fabrication like Bruce Wayne. Downey captures all these elements of Tony Stark including his smarts and likable shrewdness and does an exceptional job of representing the character on screen.

The rest of the central cast gives strong performances that don't come off as expository or cookie cutter. Though the villains, well the villains could've used a little polish and layering. Jeff Bridges is marvelously slimey as Stane despite how clearly slimey he is from the beginning.

One rather minor, slightly underwhelming element to the feature is the score by music composer, Ramin Djawadi. Djawadi's score using elements of guitar and rock music does a decent enough job of servicing the movie, but lacks the really big epic theme many have been wanting to hear in these movies for years but always just comes up short. Though the rendition of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" during the closing credit sequence is applause worthy.

The armor suits designed by Stan Winston and Adi Granov (comic book artist for Iron Man) look great. The visual and CG FX by ILM are rendered extraordinarily well, helped a lot by good lighting. The digital effects shots don't come off as overbearingly apparent as they did at times in the Super Bowl spot, and mix very well with the practical suits and FX work.

Ultimately, Iron Man is the story of a good, yet flawed man, who seeks to redeem himself. This is why the Iron Man character has kept his appeal through so many decades. And Tony still remains flawed to this day, still making mistakes. But readers and fans still root for Tony, and even at his lowest points fans still want Tony to redeem himself. In the movie, Tony goes about redeeming himself by creating armored weaponry to destroy his own weapons. Even though in his heart of hearts, Tony Stark believes this is right, is he only escalating the conflict further? In the comics Tony is never able to fully stop the stealing and proliferation of his weapons. The armor and his designs constantly fall into the wrong hands, and Tony Stark as Iron Man takes even more extreme and questionable means to try and stop it. These elements and the saga of Iron Man will hopefully be seen in the not too distant future.

The 411: This really feels like the starting point of a new era of comic book movies much like the original X-men movie turned out to be eight years ago. Now with the reboot movie in the form of The Incredible Hulk this really looks like a summer to Make Mine Marvel. In the words of Stan Lee, "Excelsior, true believers! 'Nuff said."

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]