Movie Notes: Iron Man

June 9th, 2008

= 5 stars

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges
Directed by Jon Favreau

Synopsis

Billionaire weapons manufacturer Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) undergoes a change of heart after capture by terrorists in Afghanistan.

The Good

• I found Tony Stark a compelling character, much to Robert Downey Jr’s credit, as a total asshole who nearly dies in the middle of nowhere by his own life’s work, making him realize he has accomplished nothing positive in his entire life. Downey has the acting chops to convey this realization, possibly based on his own personal struggles. Stark’s age also helps — other superheroes seem like naive children when they discover their superpowers that happen upon them by chance, while Tony Stark chooses to be a superhero and creates the iron suit himself.
• Paltrow is quite good as Pepper Potts — her scenes with Downey have a peculiar lusty crackle.
• Stark’s enemy, his business partner Obidiah (Jeff Bridges), comes about not through some fantastical radiation, but a difference of business ethics. Stark wants to stop manufacturing weapons, and Obidiah disagrees. The film suggests that earning money as a goal unto itself and any way possible is ultimately unsatisfying and quite probably, amoral.
• Jeff Bridges, nearly unrecognizeable with bald head and beard, plays a bad guy with gusto. His heartless, business-like menace is revealed in small but effective doses — bellowing at an incompetent engineer, or the quick, callous way he rips out Stark’s arc reactor and walks off with a suitcase.
• Scarily efficient direction — many moments go in surprisingly efficient directions: Stark refuses to build a missile for his captors, boom, he’s being tortured. Someone phones Stark as he runs from two jet planes, unaware he’s Iron Man. Tony wants a cheeseburger and he hurriedly devours it at a press conference — no time is wasted showing the limo pulling in a drive-through.

The Bad

• Several corny elements — the device implanted in Stark’s chest to keep him alive, flying from Malibu to Afghanistan without detection, and the robots that help design and put the suit on Stark. But due to efficient direction, none seems that corny onscreen.
• Fairly predictable — several odd things predictably return later as important.

Conclusion

Based on plot alone, Iron Man is yet another superhero flick covering the the same hero origin story we’ve has seen before. But because strong acting and direction, everything comes off amazingly fresh and effortless. I feel the creators are aware of other superhero flicks and wisely avoided portraying events in a similar manner.

The obvious music doesn’t kick in until that last key moment when the film ends too soon. Afterward, I wanted to see Iron Man kick more ass, which is the best compliment one can make in regards to these superhero flicks. Before the credits began, I was already looking forward to the sequel.

IMDB: Iron Man
Wikipedia: Iron Man
Rotten Tomatoes: Iron Man 93%