Overall Rating
  Awesome: 55.11%
Worth A Look: 32.39%
Average: 9.09%
Pretty Bad: 0%
Total Crap: 3.41%
7 reviews, 134 user ratings
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| Iron Man |
by Lybarger
"Why can’t all movies made from Stan Lee comics be this good?"
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‘Iron Man’ has several advantages over a lot of recent efforts in the superhero genre. It features a solid cast, snappy dialogue, some pleasant surprises, expectedly impressive special effects and even a hint of subtle social commentary. But most importantly, it’s fun.Director Jon Favreau (“Elf,” “Zathura”) makes some quirky but intriguing choices that keep the film from being stale or rote. The most notable of these is casting Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role.
As Tony Stark, the weapons tycoon who puts on a high-tech suit of armor to take on bad guys, Downey manages to find dozens of intriguing nuances that manage to make the altar ego just as if not more entertaining than the superhero himself.
Stark’s prodigious engineering skills have enabled him to expand on the wealth he has inherited for his father. His company is a top supplier to the Pentagon, which gives Tony the resources to spend obscenely high amounts on wine, women and Jackson Pollack paintings.
His careless lifestyle concerns his friend Colonel Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) and his assistant Virginia “Pepper” Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), who worry that he might just party himself to death.
Stark is forced to radically examine his life when after demonstrating his newest missile, he’s captured by Afghan terrorists and forced to make them an exact copy of the new weapon. Teaming up with a local doctor (Shaun Toub, “The Kite Runner”) who’s also being held captive, he instead builds a suit that enables him to take on multiple opponents.
Stark returns home appalled that his weapons had been sold to terrorists as freely as they were sold to the U.S. military. But his stockholders and his second-in-command Obadiah Stone (Jeff Bridges) may take the company from him before he can put a stop to the atrocities.
Downey’s acerbic delivery makes Tony as entertaining as he is self-absorbed. When Pepper discovered Tony removing the Iron Man armor she knows nothing about, Downey blithely tells her, “Let’s be honest. This isn’t the worst thing you’ve caught me doing.”
Downey is also able to play the reformed Tony without slipping into caricature. Because Tony Stark is so convincingly human, it’s much easier to cheer for him and to want him to beat bad guys senseless.
What’s most remarkable about “Iron Man” is that viewers actually have to wait a bit before Stark dons his metallic armor. The fact that the wait isn’t a burden can be directly attributed to Downey. He can effortlessly elicit laughter or empathy, almost at will.
The able supporting players certainly don’t hurt. Howard makes an able sidekick, who gets to do more than simply admire Stark’s lethal toys, and Bridges is wonderfully cold and conscienceless as Stone.
Oscar-winner Paltrow would seem to be overqualified to play Stark’s girl-Friday, but screenwriters Mark Fergus, Hawk Osby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway thankfully give her substantial tasks instead of simply serving as a damsel-in-distress.
The screenwriters also make room for trail and error. Much of the joy of the film comes from Stark trying to fix the deficiencies in his new suit while he’s on missions. Apparently, evil isn’t taking any breaks.
When the action does come, Favreau, who demonstrated a genuine flair for special effects in “Zathura,” deftly keeps it from looking silly or cartoonish. With Downey providing the wisecracks and the attitude, Favreau’s straightforward approach proves a perfect counterpoint. Favreau also has the good sense to know that impressive hardware can get boring quickly if the people using it aren’t interesting.As with a lot of the heroes Marvel Comics giant Stan Lee has created or co-created (yes, he makes yet another funny cameo here), Tony Stark’s is intriguing because his impressive abilities are matched with real-world neuroses. Like Lee, Favreau knows that great visuals are to be treasured, but good characters and stories can make those images more compelling than they would be alone.
link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=15549&reviewer=382
originally posted: 05/03/08 13:51:05
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USA
02-May-2008 (PG-13)
DVD: 30-Sep-2008
UK
N/A
Australia
01-May-2008
DVD: 30-Sep-2008
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