7th's Summer Movie Round Up 2008 Part 1: Iron Man
Posted by 7th on May 07, 2008

Title: Iron Man
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr
7th Score: 4.0/5.0

(First things first. There be spoilers ahead, so tread lightly, ye who haven't seen it yet. Carry on.)

Well it's that time of year again, and this year, it came earlier than usual. Iron Man made over a hundred million last week, and kept that lead over Speed Racer this week with a 49% drop in ticket sales, making another 50.5 million. Having already made back most, if not all, of its production budget, the film is poised to be the big break out success of summer, assuming it can survive the likes of Indiana Jones and The Dark Knight. The real question, of course, is if it is deserving of all its success. Yes and no. Iron Man is by no means a bad movie. Far from it, it's a very good movie. But it falls short of greatness in a couple of nagging areas, making it less of a Spider-Man 2 and more of a Batman Begins Lite.

And that's a pretty good comparison when you get right down to it. I never was a huge fan of the Iron Man comic. Tony Stark always struck me as Bruce Wayne with a fancier suit, haunted by booze and his own contribution to world terrorism rather than a tragic loss. I got heavily into comics right around the debut of War Machine, perhaps just a bit before that, so that was my first real exposure to the character. Perhaps I just wasn't introduced during a particularly good era of the character's long history, I don't know.

This changed somewhat when I saw last year's Iron Man animated film. It was very well made for a Direct-To-DVD feature, and filled in all the gaps I'd missed insofar as why Stark was the man he became. I began to warm up to the idea of this billionaire genius on a mission to rid the world of his own legacy. And of course by then, I'd been closely following the progress of the Iron Man movie, which had been started and stopped numerous times over the past several years. I recall the first inkling of the film I saw was a promotional poster at a film expo, side by side with a poster of Elektra, which was supposed to be released the same year. Of course, the film didn't even make it into production the year Elektra was released. In fact, nothing much more than a script came about until Jon Favreau got a hold of the property. And here we are in 2008, and the movie has finally hit the big screen, to the adoration of millions of comic and movie geeks. I really enjoyed the film myself, but I do not agree that it is the Holy Grail of comic book movie films. It is far more intelligent than most, especially in comparison to other B/C list heroes like Daredevil or Ghost Rider, but it won't be the first comic book film to win Best Picture. Best Actor is a different story.

I'm just going to come out and say it. Robert Downey Jr. IS Tony Stark. There is no one in the history of cinema who was more born to play a role than Downey was for Stark. He has the look, the attitude, and has recovered from the alcoholism that eventually comes to haunt Tony, though that's more hinted to in the film than actually referenced. There are numerous scenes in the movie where Stark is shown with a drink in his hands, but he's never shown drunk, hung over, etc. Downey gives Stark a layer of realism and humanity that just never came across for me in the comic book. He made the character real for me, for the first time. I can't say enough good things about his performance. It's the one thing about this film that is absolutely perfect. With other comic book movies, you really need to have relative unknowns playing the part, at least when it's a man in a suit. This is why a no-name was picked to play Superman in the 70's, and in 2006's re-imagining. It's why Christian Bale is playing Batman instead of Russell Crow, and part of why Batman Forever and Batman and Robin were such disappointments. When it's a face you've seen once too often, you just can't take them seriously. It's that point where George Clooney isn't Batman, but George Clooney in a Batman costume. This never happens in this movie. You look at Downey, and yes, he looks more or less just like he did in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (another recent film of his that I highly recommend if you haven't seen it yet), but he IS Tony Stark. He's not a reformed junkie actor walking around in an Iron Man costume to cash a paycheck. He owns this role like no other actor has owned a Superhero role since Christopher Reeve.

The other actors put forth fine performances as well. Gwyneth Paltrow was a big surprise. I honestly thought she was just going to come across as window dressing, but she takes the small role she's been given and portrays the character with as much depth and respect as any "serious" role she's ever played. She's a real sweetheart in this movie, and the chemistry between she and Downey comes across as natural and sincere.

Normally, I'm a tremendous fan of Jeff Bridges, but I didn't get into him as much here, probably because I'm not used to seeing him in the role of a villain. Oh, he does a fine job as far as the role goes, but once he steps into the Warmonger suit, he drifts a bit too far into the campy side of what a super villain can be. And even if you haven't read the comics, you know the very first time that Bridges opens his mouth that he's the real bad guy. The whole tall, bald look gives it away, as short of his attachment to Stark he's really just Lex Luthor with a goatee. Obediah Stane was not a friend of Stark's father in the books, nor did he work for Stark's company. He was an unscrupulous opportunist and owner of a rival company who stole Stark's designs... changing him to a sort of surrogate father of Stark's works here and gives the character more dramatic "oomph," and really was a necessary change, otherwise the character wouldn't have been interesting enough to carry the role of main villain. He would have been Max Schreck from Batman Returns, but with a less hammy performance (Walken fans are going to roast me for saying that.)

As for Terrence Howard as Rhodey, he did well with what he was given. It's not hard to believe that these two really are best friends. You see it in the phone call during the F-22 chase, you REALLY see it when the two of them are drunk on Stark's private jet (complete with protractable stripper/stewardess pole!) and you see it again when Rhodey comes to his rescue after a particularly heartless (pun intended) visit from Stane. I also liked Rhodey's brief foreshadowing of his eventual transformation into War Machine, but I have to wonder if that's a little "too much too soon" fan service. War Machine was introduced three decades after Stark first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 in 1963, so I'd almost prefer if they kept War Machine out of the series entirely. Terrence himself has stated in interviews that he hopes they hold War Machine off until the third film. I can't agree more.

The special effects are absolutely phenomenal. The suit is realistic and rather convincing. In fact, I can think of only one scene where I could even tell a big difference between the real suit and the CGI suit (which consisted of 90% of the suit's time on screen) and that was the scene where Stark is clinging to the bottom of an F-22, and the angle changes to a "Between the Legs" shot showing Stark bouncing against the fuselage. It APPEARS (don't quote me, as I'm guessing here) that this scene was filmed using practical (i.e. non-computer) effects, as the "metal" of the suit seems a bit rubbery when bouncing against the bottom of the jet. Otherwise, I have no complaints about the FX work.

Favreau's direction is effective, if not a bit utilitarian. It gets the job done, but he doesn't really display anything stylewise where you would sit down and say "this is a Jon Favreau film all right!" He's a relatively new director where his volume of work is concerned, so he hasn't been around quite long enough to break out and make his mark. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the choices he makes here, but neither is there anything that's really groundbreaking on display.

When it comes to movie reviews, I tend to be the type where, if I don't have anything bad to say, I don't say much at all. In regards to Iron Man, I really only have two major complaints, and neither of them are necessarily deal breakers, but are noticeable enough to keep it from a perfect score. The first complaint is the action, or the lack thereof. For a two hour comic book film, this movie has surprisingly few tentpole action moments. From start to finish, there are four action scenes. Four.

1) Stark's kidnapping/escape from the terrorists

2) The first night Stark tests his full suit's flight capabilities

3) Iron Man's attack on the terrorists and subsequent chase scene with the aforementioned F-22's

4) His rather pedestrian and overall abbreviated fight with Warmonger.

I realize this is an origin film, but just to compare, look how much action there was in Batman Begins. As far as characters and plot, Batman Begins had a lot more back story to set up than Tony Stark's transformation into Iron Man, and yet Batman Begins still manages to have a fistfight in the run down prison overseas, Wayne's escape from Ras Al Ghul's compound, his first night testing his Batman Equipment, the attack on the mob at the docks, his first encounter with Scarecrow, the Batmobile chase through downtown Gotham, his descent into the Barrows, and his final confrontation with Ras Al Ghul on the train, and those are just the main ones I can remember. All told, Batman Begins managed to be an origin story that still had twice as much bang for the buck than Iron Man did. I do feel Tony Stark's story is far more approachable than Bruce Wayne's, so the focus on character development is welcome, but I still can't shake the feeling that there wasn't much action to this action film. This may be due to the fact that it's Favreu's first real foray into action scenes, so perhaps he was testing the waters here. I tie into this my lack of enthusiasm for the incredibly abrupt ending. You don't even get your typical last shot of the hero in costume as he states his name and leaps/flies/swings into the sunset. Instead you get a press conference (which is admittedly appropriate for who Stark is, but we've already seen one press conference already by this point) where Stark just says "I'm Iron Man" and then the credits roll. Boo. Hiss.

And while I'm on the subject of plot, there's one more thing I'd like to cover. There's been a lot of scuttlebutt on the net regarding supposed racism in this movie, stemming from the first action scene where Iron Man 1.0 sets several terrorists of obvious Middle Eastern descent on fire, blows them up, and so on. The terrorist group is named The Ten Rings as an homage to the original comic, but we all know they're Al Qaeda in everything short of their name. It's here that Stark sees piles of his company's own weapons being used for evil, and his change of heart from a billionaire playboy to a man of conscience begins. First off, this was a necessary update. The original scene as depicted took place in Vietnam. Keeping things that faithful would have either required Stark's story to take place in the 60's/70's, or for him to be almost 60 or older. Secondly, and let's face facts here, most terrorists on this planet are of Middle Eastern descent/ Islamic origin, so casting Stark's captors as such isn't so much racism as it is realism. And let's be honest. I imagine that there are more than a few Americans who will watch this film and feel a real twinge of ecstatic wish fulfillment when Stark escapes from his cell and lays waste to an entire terrorist encampment. The only way they could have made it any more of an anti-terrorism wet dream would be if Stark had yanked Osama Bin Laden himself from a foxhole and blasted his ass into his composite atoms with a well-placed wrist missle.

My second major complaint was the score. Comic Book films have always (until the past few years) been known for the orchestral score, especially with films like Superman and Tim Burton's original Batman film. This has become more muted in recent years. When I hear Spider-Man's theme, I can recognize it, but it doesn't have that "music you'll never forget" quality to it. It's recognizable, but not memorable. The same can be said for every other Superhero film made in the last ten years, with the obvious exception of Superman Returns. Iron Man does not move forward in this regard. If anything, it takes a big step backwards by having the majority of the score comprised of rather bland 80's inspired guitar licks that were apparently used to accentuate the use of Black Sabbath's Iron Man very briefly in the teaser trailers and closing credits. It sounds just as cheap and rushed as I am describing. I would expect such a sound track from a film like Ghost Rider, but not Iron Man. It simply doesn't fit, and feels tacked on at best, downright rushed at worst. They might as well have had Survivor do a couple of tracks while they were at it.

Did I hate the movie? Not by a long shot. Can I easily recommend it to non-fans? Absolutely. All told, it is ONE OF the best Comic book films ever made. But it is not THE best. I don't really think THE BEST exists yet, as all of them have had their flaws. To date, there still is no such thing as a perfect comic book film. Iron Man makes good strides in that direction, and there is more than enough potential here to really get me excited for the inevitable sequel. As it stands, Iron Man is really good, but it could have been better.

-=7th=-