The comic book movie genre can be hit and miss at times. For every Spider-Man you get an Elektra. For every Batman Begins you get a Mystery Men. So which side of the superhero fence does Iron Man find itself on? After a stellar opening weekend ($100 million +), I really have to agree with the masses: Iron Man isn't just a good comic book movie - it's just a good movie overall.
In it, billionaire playboy, technological genius and weapons developer Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) gets kidnapped by terrorist militants who have hoarded stolen weaponry that his company has developed. Under the guise of building a weapon for the bad guys, he instead creates a super suit of armor that he uses to escape and get back to his company and the people he cares about, including his personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Lt. Colonel James "Rodey" Rhodes (Terrance Howard) and business partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges).
Instead of going back to business as usual, though, Tony has seen what his creations can do and vows to stop developing weapons, turning his attention to helping the people his inventions have hurt. Creating an updated version of his super suit, he continues to fight the world's villains until the biggest threat he's ever faced rises up within his own company which leads to the much anticipated robot suit-on-robot suit action (and I just now realize how bad that sounds...).
The casting for this film is dead on. The chemistry between all the characters, especially Downey Jr. and Paltrow, is evident and this alone makes the movie not only fun, but makes you empathize for our main players. Robert Downey Jr. is perfect as Tony Stark, a smart ass billionaire who, despite being torn about his former path in life, still keeps the sarcasm flowing. Paltrow plays Tony's foil to a T, a prospective love interest and the only person on the face of the planet that he'll actually listen to. Howard's character of James Rhodes isn't fleshed out as well as these two - he never gets a real chance to get his hands dirty, but what he does do he does very well. There's also a bit of foreshadowing on Rhodes' role in Iron Man 2 (more on that below). Even director Jon Favreau gets his licks in, portraying Stark's faithful chauffer "Happy" Hogan.
The biggest surprise for me, though I'm not sure why, came with Jeff Bridges' turn as a villain. You can tell Bridges is having a blast with the role which in turn just turns him into more and more of an S.O.B. in this film. I have the habit of typecasting Jeff Bridges in his Big Lebowski role sometimes and the role as Obadiah Stane goes to show the wide range of skill Bridges actually possesses. He was a good actor to begin with and hopefully this role opens a door to more mainstream flicks like Iron Man.
Even with the great character acting, a lot of attention was spent on the little things, too. The special effects are very good, though in one scene you can tell Iron Man himself is just a special effect. But then again he's shooting fire from his arms in that scene and it may have been uncomfortable for the poor stunt double in the suit to truly deal with that. The suit and story is very faithful to the comic and, much to my delight, the Iron Man armor actually hissed, beeped, crunched, gurgled and grinded everytime the character moved - a nice attention to detail that many directors may have missed.
Overall, Iron Man is an entertaining summer film that's a little more than your typical "blow-em-up" fare that you see this time of year. It comes recommended and yeah, it'll make lots of money. In fact, Marvel Studios was so pleased with it's opening that it announced 5 future projects today - Iron Man 2 & Thor in 2010, Captain America & The Avengers in 2011 and Ant Man (which as of yet has no set release date).
So how do you set all these films up? Here's a hint: stick around after the credits of Iron Man. You'll be pleasantly surprised...
- Jason
For all you girls out there...if you liked Spider-Man, you will also like Iron Man. This is a perfect date movie, plenty of action for the men and just enough romance to satisfy the girls. Plus, with so many special effects and some extremely funny moments this film is a great film for all! Enjoy! A billion thumbs up. :)
Posted by: Liz | Monday, May 05, 2008 at 08:19 PM