Just when you think they have turned every superhero comic into a movie along comes Iron Man. As a superhero legend Iron Man is often forgotten despite popularity as a comic strip character, it was often said that Stan Lee would not allow to be turned to a movie character until it could be done right. I'm happy to say from the offset that Iron Man does succeed in the realm of the superhero movie, working to the right audience by making Iron Man a movie for adults that kids would undoubtedly want to see, Iron Man is not light and free, its dark and sinister facing a foe that we all know is only too plausible.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a child prodigy of a legendary weapons designer, now as an adult and many years after the death of his father Tony continues his father's work. While Tony works hard, he also plays hard enjoying a life of womanising and alcohol abuse. When in the Far East providing weaponry for the Allied forced fighting against Muslim terrorists Tony is kidnapped by a terrorist faction and ordered to build a weapon in the fight against the allied forces. Not one to go by ordinary rules, Tony agrees to build a weapon for the terrorist, but secretly has plans to build something very different.
I have to say I'm incredibly pleased with the casting of Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, not only do the actor and the character he plays have similar background, I personally feel that what Downey has missed out on all his 25+ year acting career, is a big blockbuster movie. While movies like Chaplin, and Only You did incredibly well, these were not movies for the masses, unlike Iron Man which will without a doubt give the actor the massive audience not only that he needed, but deserves. Not only does the two characters fact/fiction have lifestyle similarities, if you look all the way back to Stan Lee's original comics the two actually look very much alike too.
The bad guy initially in Iron Man is the Muslim terrorists, and I guess it's only right that a man who makes his money from weapons should have some sort of interaction with terrorists; and this is what brings Iron Man home, it's kind of real, not only that Stark as Iron Man is not really a superhero as such, just a man with some great toys. For me it's this reality (although still farfetched) that I believe is what has made the movie such a success so far.
I found the casting of Gwyneth Paltrow as interesting to say the least, not necessarily an actress I ever considered would appear in such a movie, but it's a just casting; cast as Pepper, Stark's personal assistant the chemistry from the two works very well, they look like they are meant to act together. Not only that Paltrow is an actress that does display the necessarily convincing traits that the character of Pepper needs warm, attractive, clumsy, withdrawn, and occasionally cold; if you look at Paltrow in real life, when away from organised events etc. she seems like a very blank person, often like there is not an awful lot going on inside. Here Paltrow uses that ability to emphasise the fact that her character of Pepper is always kind of thinking outside of the normally conventional box. The two characters do have some great comedic interactions, one that particularly stands out shows Stark getting undressed from his Iron Man outfit, a gobsmacked Pepper looks on in disbelief "Come on!" Stark says "You've seen me in worse situations!"
I mentioned earlier the darkness of the movie, and I feel this is the success. If you look at Batman back in the 80's (late 80's) the idea worked, humour mixed with darkness, by the 90's however we were fed up with the humour aspect, and by the time George Clooney played Batman we had lost interest. Even Spiderman, one of the more successful of these movies had lost that unique appeal of trying to be funny as well as action packed. Superhero movies now work in our current climate by being dark and adult, Batman Begins as an example was really dark, humour very thin on the ground with a couple of scenes that were uncomfortably close to reality, Iron Man works on this basis and runs with it. The movie offers little to laugh at, and the interactions with the terrorist, in particular during an attack on a village, things get really dark almost to the extent that you really think something very bad is about to occur to a young boys father.
Iron Man is not all good, it's quite predictable, there is this all too familiar trying to keep the bad guy secret, but sadly making it obvious from the opening minutes exactly who the gad guy is, the moment the villain of the piece first appeared in screen I was saying inside "That's the movies villain" and sadly I was not wrong, maybe if you don't watch as many movies as I this might not be quite so obvious, but I personally believe common sense is common sense regardless of how many movies you see.
Younger kids might not like Iron Man, with a running time of just over 2 hours it takes a good portion of that time before Stark truly becomes our metal suited hero, spending most of the movie developing the outfit, experimenting with how things work. While coinciding with a relatively wafer thin plot. There are no big legendary battles, and at one point there is 48 minutes between moments of action, in my experience kids love movies that are a little more consistent. This being said, the adults will most likely enjoy this aspect, the development is well executed and enjoyable, adding an element of humanity to the piece. It's great to see Stark's testing often going painfully wrong, the word "OOPS!" having very good meaning in this movie.
Jeff Bridges looks great in the movie as Stark's father's long-time friend and main controller of the business; if a new Flash Gordon movie were made he might make a very good Ming the Merciless. In fact it you almost have to do a double take on the usually wavy haired actor, now sporting a long beard and bald head. Terrance Howard provides some fairly hollow back up as Stark's long-term friend, I'm really not convinced and should an Iron Man 2 appear, I'd like to see him spend (if included) a little more time on his performance. There are some nice cameo roles from Hugh Hefner, and Stan Lee to name just two, and Paul Bettany stars as the voice of Starks Computer nicknamed Jarvis.
So what of the future of Iron Man, in a piece of ingenious planning its less than a month before Iron Man returns to our cinema screens played by Robert Downey Jr. don't get too excited however, he is a supporting character in the new Incredible Hulk movie, as Doctor Bruce Banner's friend, an element echoing the comic strip stories of both characters. Beyond that, I'd be greatly surprised if 2010 does not bring a second Iron Man, having spent so much time developing the character it does not seem just that this would be a one off outing, and looking at the box office figures financially a sequel not appearing would be a mistake.
Iron Man is in UK cinemas now!
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How does it compare to similar films?
Good
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Good
Value for Money
Good
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