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I have now seen Iron Man twice. I have taken a few days, and I have digested what was presented to me. I will review, with spoilers, so if you want my thumbnail review here it is;

Iron Man is a very good flick. The acting is good all around, Downey Jr dominates as Stark, but is more than ably supported by the faces around him. Favreau’s direction seems thought out and appropriate. The story line progresses well and is engaging throughout. I give it four stars.

Now, here’s the nuts and bolts review. You’ve been warned, if you don’t want to know certain things then don’t bloody well read ahead.

Iron Man is a fucking awesome flick. First, and foremost, you have to see this realising it is a Marvel movie about a comic book; taking this in consideration will help you get through it. If you came to see Downey Jr play a weapon’s manufacturer who, after being held hostage by foreign forces armed with his weapons, decides to stop making global weapons and focus his determined genius on making the world a better place, and play it like an internal struggle that will leave Day-Lewis’ Plainview sitting back and finally recognising what internal conflict and struggle for the connection of genius and true grit can amount to, then you might be in the wrong cinema. And you obviously have no idea who Stan Lee is.

This is a comic book flick, and a very good one. But at its heart it is about a guy who builds a super suit and goes and fucks up terrorists, one uppercut at a time. And I say this with the greatest reverence, not only to the screenplay but to the entire genre which is one that I am dedicating myself to. I only preface this review in this manner because I am sick of people reviewing the film and picking apart faults that are not faults with the movie, they are faults with the comic genre. Even then, they are not really ‘faults’ with the comic medium, more just an misunderstanding of the comic medium that is the reason that comic books are still the property of fandom and not street level press. Comics are for nerds, but apparently films are for entertainment enthusiasts and intellects. As are the stage, television, music, novels and magazines. Comics, really, are like any other medium, you need to suspend disbelief for certain stories. Rant over.

The opening of Iron Man is killer. AC/DC bust out Back In Black as a humvee shoots along a desert road. Stark’s interaction with the soldiers seems real and is a perfect introduction to just who Tony Stark is. With drink in hand, he jokes with the soldiers and wins them over. He is suave, smooth and obviously confident. Then the shit hits the fan. Bullets, bombs and a lack of blood (a sensible choice for a comic film) put Stark into the hand of the enemy, after he is ironically blown away by one of his own missiles. He lies there and a pool of blood slowly swamps his shirt, it’s a quality ‘oh shit’ moment. Stark is captured, then the hood comes off Stark’s head and we pan back to reveal a shot all too familiar to people who have followed ‘our’ war on that rascally rabbit, terror. Stark is being held hostage by terrorists and his beaten body filmed, no doubt for one of their top rating terrorist tv channels.

Boom! IRON MAN, a simple credit lets you know where you are. It is an opening completely different from any other superhero movie. I love it!

We then travel back 36 hours and see Stark in his element; gambling, ladies and being debonair. Downey pimps along with ease and creates a character that is almost an ass, but one that you know you would call every weekend to go out with because you know it will always be a great time. His friend, Jim Rhodes, is a great choice because we know he will become War Machine. It doesn’t give Terrence Howard a great lot to do, but I like that they seed him in here so that when we use him to full effect, next movie I assume, as he is already in our heads as a character and no introduction will be necessary.

We meet Obadiah Stane, a role completely filled by Jeff Bridges with a wicked beard-bald combo. Gwyneth Paltrow holds up the cast as pseudo-love interest Pepper Potts, Stark’s assistant. We get many scenes of Stark as playboy, and they are well thought out and set up the character that we will now get to see change. But it must be said that Downey Jr is the one chewing up this stage, he IS Stark, there is no doubt about it. I would hate to have to fill his shoes in a decades time.

We cut back to Stark as hostage. The direction of the cave scenes is different to the rest of them film. The camera is more jittery, it all seems more guerrilla, almost with a rushed documentary feel, but not over the top. When Stark steps outside and they remove his hood and the camera flares with the light, we are put in this situation completely with Stark. Then comes the suit.

Keeping true to the Tales of Suspense debut, Stark’s Mach 1 suit is bulky, dense and kick ass. He knocks minions flying and you feel the gravity of each hit. It’s nice to see touches of realism, he gets his iron arm caught in a rock wall after hitting it so hard, his front is much more protective than his back, and a shot to his leg makes the mechanics drop him to the ground. It’s a brutal fight until he unleashes the flamethrower and flies away, kind of.

Stark back in the real world seems shell shocked. He has been away three months and is clearly a changing man, I won’t say different, but definitely in metamorphosis. He calls a press conference and shuts down his munitions section of the company. This opens us up to the other plot line, Obadiah Stane trying to take over the company, which we don’t see coming even as it starts. Jeff Bridges starts as a father figure and ends up a brutal opponent in a stolen, and bigger, suit.

It is fun to watch Stark test his new suit, as he reclusively plugs away in his work shops. He smashes into walls and wrecks the place, and even though isolated they give him dialogue with his machines, which is really effective and genuinely funny comic relief.

The highlight comes when Iron Man finally debuts in all his Adi Granov designed glory. He goes back to the middle east and fucks some terrorists up. When he lands, in a very iconic pose, and then uppercuts one minion brutally over a roof and into a wall you realise that this suit has some serious power. It is a fantastically thought out and directed action sequence. Iron Man really impresses here and shows you why the character is cool, he can really cause some damage. Some hard core, turn your sternum into mash damage.

The later fight between Iron Man and Stane’s Iron Monger is well staged, and for my money, completely put Transformers in its little place. And why do I think that? Because I felt every hit between these two iron fighters, while in the ‘other one’ I wasn’t really invested in the brutality and grittiness of the fight. I guess Favreau probably got that fighting style from his time training to join the UFC, oh wait, that was just his character in Friends, ha.

By films end I was completely won over. I will admit there are faults; Pepper really doesn’t work well in any of the action scenes, but she is great in her scenes with Downey Jr; Stane should not have been so adept at using the suit the first time, but really who cares; and people say the bad guy was introduced too late in the film, and that the terrorists should have been the bad guys, to them I say Obadiah Stane was in the very beginning of the film, and it is testament to Bridges how he paints himself as so nice that we don’t see his deception coming (of course you do if you are a comic fan…), and I also like that Stane is so bad ass that he completely fucks up the terrorists. “Technology always was your Achilles heel in this part of the world” is a great line he gives one of them and it really showcases how this movie did not just go for the standard middle eastern bad guy, but had a nice white, rich industrialist fucking them over and attacking America, for the greater good…sound familiar?

I have to pay respect to the ending as well, and Downey Jr sells it perfectly. “I am Iron Man.” Cue an awesome smirk at us and then rock the jams! I did not expect it at all, but it left me smiling and knowing it was the only way Stark ever would have wanted it to end.

I knew it was a good film when the second viewing seemed to go even quicker. The action is good, the quiet moments are well done, the effects rock the shit with a perfect blend of Stan Winston and ILM (really, can you get any better in their respective fields? Answer: Fuck no!) and the comic nerd factor is through the roof. You’ve got the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. always mugging their way into the story (though I had hoped the agent was named Carson, who is the agent from Irredeemable Ant-Man, to which the actor kinda shared a resemblance, but upon a credit check it was Coulson), the terrorist organisation was called the Ten Rings (a nod to future villain The Mandarin), Jarvis is still the butler, in a way, Favreau cameos as driver Happy Hogan, and then we see Nick Fury pay a visit to discuss the Avenger Initiative (fucking awesome line, though I would prefer to have kept it pure and have another play Fury, my vote goes to Clooney!).

This movie is going to make over a $100 million first weekend, you heard it here first. And I cannot wait for the next one to come along, I am completely won over. Hail Stark!

Posted on May 2nd, 2008 by ryan
Filed under: movies