Like almost all of the new superhero movies, Iron Man is an old character retooled for the digital age. Created by Marvel Comics, he made his paper debut in 1963, shortly before Marvel’s X-Men. His powers derive from a special suit of his own making, so technically he is no superhero at all. A boy genius turned billionaire industrialist, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr. ) is served by a bevy of secondary characters—his right-hand man (a shockingly bearded/bald Jeff Bridges), an Air Force colonel (Terrence Howard), and a personal concierge (Gwyneth Paltrow). “Pepper” Potts is a fleshed-out version of Moneypenny, James Bond’s loyal secretary. Winsomely played by Paltrow, she’s a shy girl used to being taken for granted by her boss, not expecting him to reform.
But reform he does, kind of. Heretofore, he’s used his intellectual skills to build weapons, never making the connection between his company’s products and the devastation they inflict. In the opening, he becomes a casualty of his own weapon and so has a change of heart—in fact, his heart’s replaced by a machine. If this were the latest Spider-Man or Batman movie, this turnabout might be accompanied by much self-doubt and angst. But this is a lighter sort of movie, and Tony quickly redeploys his skills to saving himself and, possibly, the world, with a minimum of soul-searching. As played by Downey, he’s the same cocky guy, but not one who’s larger than life.
Directed by Jon Favreau (Elf), the movie is surprisingly cohesive for a movie with a multitude of screenwriters, and has a balance of action scenes and story. Some may wish for more action, since that mostly comes at the end when Tony’s transformation is finally complete. But I’m a sucker for the origin story, and that’s what this is. It isn’t without flaws. It’s ludicrous that Tony can put together his metallic costume in a cave, and Tony’s new politics are as simplistic as his old ones. The solution to weapons proliferation is…a bigger and better weapon? But it’s a superhero movie, and allowances must be made for the implausible. As for the politics, Tony/Iron Man is not Superman, but a regular wealthy genius human, and perhaps it’s intentional that he hasn’t, by the time the movie ends, fully decided how to use his self-created powers. For that, Iron Man 2 awaits.
IMDB link
viewed 5/3/08; reviewed 5/15/08
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