Review 42: Iron Man

Iron Man is a awesome Superhero movie - possibly the coolest Superhero film out there.

Based on the Marvel Comics superhero Iron Man by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck and Jack Kirby, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is the billionaire of head of Stark Industries, a major military contracting company he inherited from his father and lives life as playboy. Until one day when demonstrating a missile to the military in war-torn Afghanistan, he's kidnapped by a terrorist group known as the Ten Rings who order him to build him to build them a missile.
Instead, he builds an armoured suit powered by an arc reactor that keeps the shrapnel caught in Stark's chest during the Ten Rings assault which he uses to escape his captors.
Returning to America, Stark refines the suit and uses it to combat crime and terrorism.

The plot is smart, it's not just a superhero movie and an action movie,
Iron Man is at its core a superhero movie but its more important elements are comedy, drama and corporate espionage and it balances all of them really well and as a result makes it more realistic than some superhero movies. It also takes one of the lesser superheros: fans had heard of it but it didn't have the fanbase of other superheros and made it... well like really work, it uses concepts that work and changes concepts that don't really work.
I mean taking a darker more twisted approach to that character, on similar grounds to Batman Begins, but at the same time boosts enough humor so it doesn't take itself to seriously.

Director Jon Favreau's direction is fun and exciting, the special effects are splendid, the action is exciting, the cinematography is sleek, the score by Ramin Djawadi is cool, the production design is excellent, there's plenty of humor, the costumes are fantastic, the Iron Man suits in particular looks so cool and are layerd with ,  and the ending is superb.

The acting was superb, particularly from Robert Downey Jr. who just owns the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man, every time he's on screen, every bit of dialogue that comes out of his mouth just oozes the word cool.
When we first meet Tony Stark he's a playboy, a genius billionaire who invents billion-dollar weapons, gambles, drinks martinis, drives fast cars and beds loads of hot girls. However after being kidnapped by terrorists, nearly escaping with his life along with a cluster of shrapnel in his chest and witnessing the harm his weapons can do in the wrong hands, his whole outlook on life changes and he turns his life around. He starts to question the ethics of his business and wether it's just war profiteering instead of 
Initially, Tony is a weapons developer for the government, he sells them the most state of the art weapons and the world is safer because they can't compete. Nobody likes war and a lot of people don't like the government. But while he may arrogant and self-absorbed, it's evident that his heart is in the right place, he doesn't make weapons with any sadistic intentions, he believes that they're a neccesary evil to make an imperfect wold a better place. When he sees that weapons are falling into the wrong hands, he starts to question the ethics of his business
What makes the character of Tony Stark unique is where he comes from and the fact that he's a self made man. His one great power is mind and that's what creates the Iron Man suit. That suit is what brings him from everyday Tony Stark to a superhero.

Gwyneth Paltrow is fantastic as Pepper Potts, she's a cool, sexy, modern woman, who

Terrence Howard is an excellent ally playing Lt, Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes.

Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger is excellent, just a sublime villain. He is very much a deliciously evil guy. He is just as lovable as he is vindictive, ruthless, unscrupulous, manipulative and cunning. Once the loyal friend and business partner of Tony Stark, Stane has grown accustomed to being the one in charge along with the authority and respect being CEO of Stark Industries brings. That, coupled with his envy and jealousy of the younger Tony Stark leads on his path of villainy and retribution. In addition, his Iron Monger suit is awesome and proves to be quite a challenge for the Armoured Superhero. Unlike Tony whose in the weapons manufacturing business to make the world a better place, Obadiah's motivations are the furthest thing from altruistic as he only interested in the profits.

The film also contains a noteworthy performance from Shaun Toub as Ho Yinsen, a fellow captive scientist who opens Tony's eyes to life he's been living and the harm his weapons cause and proves a valuable ally in his ultimate escape from The Ten Rings and is pivotal in making Tony turning his life around.

Another cast member that I feel audiences fail to recognise is Paul Bettany as the voice of Tony Stark's personal A.I. J.A.R.V.I.S every single bit of calm, polite technobabble that he spits out is music to my ears, he can make the most formal dialogue sound cool.

 

This one of those films where even the bit parts are given a chance to shine. Which presumably is due to fact that the majority of this film was improvised thereby enabling

The admittedly beautiful Leslie Bibb as Christine Everhart, a reporter from Vanity Fair. She initially starts out as one of Tony's one night stands. They develop this sort of love/hate relationship over the course of the film and she inadvertently becomes his unofficial moral conscience and she drives him to look at his life and see that what he's doing is war profiteering. She's intelligent, outspoken, very opinionated and very good at her job. She has a strong moral compass but at the same time gets completely enamoured in Tony.

 

Clark Gregg is also rather noteworthy playing S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson A running gag throughout the film is that Agent Coulson, outwardly a bureaucrat, is constantly trying to get an interview with Tony to "debrief" him about his time in Afghanistan yet there's this alure of mystery despite him being a tiny bit part that makes us wonder what he's really up too: What's his endgame really?...

 

Jon Favreau himself shows up playing Happy Hogan, Tony Stark's chauffeur & bodyguard,

Finally, Faran Tahir is appropriately menacing and ruthless as Raza, the leader of the terrorist group The Ten Rings who initially kidnaps Stark. He believes himself to the absolute, believing that he can rule the world with Stark's weaponry.

Iron Man is one of the greatest superhero films out there and I look forward to The Avengers, 5/5

The Anonymous Critic