[THEATRICAL REVIEW] IRON MAN
The first film out the gate at the start of the ‘Summer Blockbuster Season’ invariably evokes the term “taking one for the team” more often then it does set the standard for other movies to follow. There’s some exceptions to this idea, X-Men 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl for example, but for the most part the film that opens the “silly” season is usually one that fills you with dread about what is to follow. You can go back as far as Speed 2: Cruise Control and Van Helsing or as recent as last year’s Spider-Man 3 to validate this. Well, with one of the most anticipated blockbuster seasons upon us that I’ve ever seen in my lifetime (The Dark Knight, Hellboy II, Indiana Jones 4, The Incredible Hulk, Wal-E, Hancock, Kung Fu Panda, Get Smart, X-Files 2 [for some – not me!], You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, The Mummy 3 and, one that I’m secretly excited to hell about, Eagle Eye) Iron Man has come out and set the proverbial standard alright…
… And if the standard of Iron Man is anything to go by then this is going to be one long, fantastic, glorious summer of cinema.
As you’re all aware by now, I was lucky enough to be one of fifteen or so people to attend a “super secret advanced screening” of Jon Favreau’s comic-book blockbuster. We were indulged with a twenty odd minute ‘talk’ from some marketing bods before hand whose questions to us, the audience, were the type that only needed “show-of-hand” answers. The results of which revealed that, out of us fifteen in attendance, fifteen of us were aware of the ‘property’ that was Iron Man, twelve of us were excited to see the film, nine of us were drawn to it because Robert Downey Jnr was in the lead and one of us (yours truly!) was drawn to it because of the director – hey, what can I say, I friggin’ love Made and Elf.
The hosts didn’t really take to me because when it was time for us to be “allowed” to speak prior to the screening, I talked about how I thought the release of footage on the internet and material used for the trailer were “excessive”. Many disagreed with me so I decided to pontificate about what I thought the film had in store for me, plot wise, as a result of the footage freely available - and studio-sanctioned - out there on the “inter-web”. Here’s a paraphrasing of what I said:
“… Downey Jnr’s Tony Stark, an immoral weapons manufacturer, is captured by ‘bad folk’ and forced to build a bomb for them but instead creates a metallic ‘super-suit’ that frees him from their captivity and gets him back on to US soil. There he realises the error of his ways and decides to use his weapon building talents for good, creating a refined version of his ‘super-suit’ and deciding to be a protector of the people. This infuriates his mentor, portrayed by Jeff Bridges, who counters Tony Stark’s design with his own and becomes ‘Iron-Monger’. Master and pupil then face off against each other. The end. Cue the sequels. I’ll eat my own shoes if I’m wrong…”
Alas, I left the screening hungry for a late snack as my shoes remained very much uneaten. Knowing too much of the story – or knowing pretty much ALL of the story in fact – before going in to this is really the only grumble you can make about Iron Man. The rest is just nitpicking. And I’ll throw some “nitpicking” your way soon. What actually should be commended is that, in over-exposing the entire plot, Favreau and company have staved off on giving away pretty much every single blockbuster action moment (the real reason you’ll be hunting this flick out for viewing!). You will not walk out of this having had every action sequence pre-covered by the trailer a la Die Hard 4.0. You’ve seen shots of Iron Man racing fighter jets or blowing up a tank but these are just mere beats. Just wait till you see the set pieces in their entirety. There’s nothing in Favreau’s filmography (low-key indie, cult Christmas comedy and kid’s sci-fi flick) that would suggest he’s capable of making a movie as cracking as this and he’s seized the opportunity and blasted it out the ball-park. When Iron Man and Iron-Monger face off against each other, it’s phenomenally well executed, car-throwing, property-destroying fun of the absolute highest order.
It’s not just in the staging of the action sequences either. His choice of cast is, pretty much, stellar. Robert Downey Jnr is every bit as fantastic as you’ve heard he is. This is as sublime a turn as you could rightfully expect from a ‘respected character actor’ going mainstream. Watching him as Tony Stark is as magnificent as the first time you saw Harrison Ford with the hat and trilby in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Seriously.
The idea of ‘Han Solo’ as a 1930s Archaeological-driven explorer of “rare antiquities” was sort of like “What The Fuck?” and then when you saw it you couldn’t believe you ever doubted it and now he’s one of the most iconic cinematic properties of all time. The same applies to Downey Jnr as Tony Stark here. The first time the prospect of ‘Chaplin’ playing Stark was mentioned, you couldn’t help but think “Downey’s a good fucking actor but how the hell have they went from wanting Tom Cruise, considering Stallone, pushing for Matthew McConaghey and debating about Vince Vaughn to going with the ex-junkie who got one upped by Anthoney Michael Hall in Weird Science?” Now, having seen him, you cannot help but thank the lord he’s been cast and start praying for sequels.
Downey Jnr is backed up by great work from Terence Howard and, especially, Jeff “Somebody Give This Man A Fucking Oscar” Bridges. The only really weak link is Gwyneth Paltrow. She’s not bad enough to invoke vitriolic rants or anything, she’s just bland. Downey Jnr, Howard, Bridges and, hell, even Favreau himself in a small role as Stark’s chauffeur all seem to be having a blast whereas Paltrow seems to be just looking off slightly to the left of the screen at her agent at all times and waiting for the signal that the cheque has cleared.
I’m not a HUGE comic book reader so all the rumours of ‘subtle’ links between various comic book movies will have to remain unanswered by yours truly as, if there were any, they were so subtle that I didn’t catch them. I did think I heard a mention of S.H.I.E.L.D (as in Nick Fury: Agent of…) but when I was talking to some others afterwards they told me there was no such thing to their ears. Although, for the purposes of full disclosure, when we asked about where the rumoured scene was that linked Iron Man to Incredible Hulk we were told that what we’d seen was not “exact” to what would be released in a week’s time. Questions were asked as to whether this scene would be included in the main release, whether it existed beyond fan-boy rumour-mills, whether it was actually the scene spoken of on the internet that morning [i.e. Tony Stark seeing and speaking to General Ross at a bar] which would be appearing in Incredible Hulk and whether it was one scene appearing in both movies. All were met with “no comment”.
So… now the nitpicking! Iron Man isn’t entirely perfect – Paltrow’s performance is a little ropey as I said, the establishing act was ever so slightly flabby and, take this coming from someone who has complained a lot of late regarding over-long movies, once the action set-pieces start kicking in pretty much one after the other I just didn’t want this flick to stop and felt it wouldn’t have knocked itself out of shape with an extra twenty to thirty minutes. As an “origin movie” within the comic book flick subgenre put this up against the much-lauded Spider-Man and you’ll see where the true quality lies. In fact, second to Batman Begins this is the best “origin movie” I’ve seen. I shit ye not.
This is a great blockbuster encounter. Spielberg? Del Toro? Nolan? The bar has been risen and set in stone for the summer of 2008. And it’s been done so by the dude from Swingers. I cannot wait to see your individual responses.
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6 Responses to “[THEATRICAL REVIEW] IRON MAN”
I saw this tonight and it ROCKED.
It’s a fun movie, Downey Jr. was great, it really was what a comic book movie should be. The third act was so-so, could’ve been better but it works, unlike Batman Begins’ finale it didn’t shit all over what preceded before it.
Hopefully Nolan was able to fix that problem with The Dark Knight.
Oh, and Gazz Fury showed up in a post credits sequence.
You didn’t like the ending to Batman Begins? Man, I thought that movie was flawless! I just caught the “Fury” ending on YouTube. Thanks for pointing that out Grundy. So glad that I didn’t pay to go back just to resee that. At the advanced screening I went to they brought the lights up and talked us out the door so we didn’t get this or at least to see it.
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