Ironman Review
The Continuing Dominations of the Comic Book Film
Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) is the perfect superhero archetype. He is cool, collected, conducts himself with style, and is, as these things must go, a scientific genius. Yet he is also human and therefore flawed.
He drinks a little too much, womanizes a little too much, and is so wrapped up in his own self promotion that he doesn’t even rustle one strand of perfectly slicked back hair in order to contemplate the moral dilemma of him using his brains in order to create the most effective weapons known to the U.S. military.
The Best Kind of Comic Book Movie
Ironman is therefore the best kind of comic book movie. It has romance, action, comedy, excitement and, most importantly, personality. So well characterized is Tony Stark that the film could have very well been named after him and not his alter ego without losing much of its heart. I
Therefore, Ironman is likely destined to become the next great summer movie franchise. Now that the characters are established and the precedent set, with the same cast and crew, Ironman 2 could be every bit the film that Spider-Man 2 was but a mere four years ago. Now that’s saying something.
The Marvel Comic World
That’s a lofty comparison, but when broken down, Tony Stark posses those same mortal qualities that make Peter Parker and the Spider-Man films so great.
Both allow us access to the hearts and minds of the characters; the audience knows the men behind the masks before they go into action, both use their troubled human existences in order to present simplistic, but effecting social morals and philosophies, and both view their powers, not as a gift, but as a responsibility; not only to themselves, but to the society that helped create them.
Look at the Fantastic Four (arguably the worst Marvel comic book film franchise) and all you see are super powers and special effects; the X-Men films provide intelligent social commentary, but are too crowded to have an effect on an emotional level; and Ghost Rider still hasn’t come to logical terms with a true understanding of his powers.
The Man Behind the Mask
But Tony Stark has all the right ingredients working for him. He is the cocky head of Stark Industries, a weapon’s manufacturer that he inherited from his father and runs with Obadiah Stane.
After being taken hostage in Iraq after a presentation of his newest creation, Stark is forced to recreate one of his weapons for the terrorists.
Instead he, along with the help of fellow captive Yinsen, builds a miniature ark generator that will keep him alive by preventing the shrapnel imbedded in his body away from his heart, and works at building an impenetrable metal suit (an early version of what will become the classic Ironman gear) to aid him in his escape.
How the Iraqis fail to decipher between the building of a bomb and a metal suit is beyond thinkable, but hey, a man in a flying metal suit is maybe once or twice removed from everyday household logic itself.
The Rebirth of Robert Downey Jr.
Now let’s face it, not to take any credit away from the creative forces behind the film, but the success here is more or less largely due to the invaluable presence of Robert Downey Jr. behind the iron suit.
And maybe that’s because Downey can relate to the character better than any star could have. There was a moment in time when Downey, just like Stark’s, public exploits overshadowed his true gifts for the craft. And just like Stark, Downey got his act together, and now, one performance after another, is raising the ranks to becoming one of Hollywood’s most valuable screen presences.
Here, the way he talks, the way he conducts himself, his impeccable eye for subtle comic nuance, all work at making Ironman a better film that it may have had any right to be.
Watch how Downey masterfully balances comedy and precious characterization as he lies buried in the sand from the waist down amidst the rubble of his original suit that he has crashed. He looks around dazed, “Not bad” he assesses.
The way Downey delivers the line straight is comic, which in turn distracts from the absurdity of the situation (not only has the man defied gravity, but he should be dead), and allows viewers to learn everything they need to know about Stark: the suit is pretty impressive by our standards. He’s just getting started.
The John Favreau Effect
Of course Downey shouldn’t get all the credit. Jon Favreau (who appears here as Stark’s chauffeur and has been Vince Vaugh’s on-screen better half in five past films) is essentially a classical minded filmmaker working within a technologically advanced cinema.
A showoff like Michael Bay, whose films sometimes feel like they have more explosions than frames-per-second, would have run this material into the ground. But Favreau likes to approach his subjects with a zeal that borders on childhood nostalgia.
In Elf he paid tribute to the classic claymation Christmas cartoons like Frosty the Snowman, and in Zathura he provided audiences with an evil robot that looked like it was lifted from an old episode of Lost in Space.
Here Favreau seems more concerned with personality than action. The best scenes involve things like the delicate sweetness that runs between Stark and his carrot-topped assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), hinting at a romance, but not allowing it to blossom into a distraction, or when Ironman fires a missile at a tank and then turns to walk away, the shot framing both him and the tank as it blows up behind him, making for one of those great comic book moments that seem to only be missing the white borders.
Or finally, the way that Downey effortlessly and humorously interacts with the robot assistants in his basement lab. Any film these days can blow stuff up real good. It takes a special-minded one to give voiceless robot props distinguishable personalities of their own.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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