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Iron Man

“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”

What to do when I come onto my favorite site to gush about a movie and find it hasn’t been reviewed yet? Well, write one, of course. This review assumes you have seen the movie.

Way back in September, Mark gave us a list of the Avengers movies in the order he recommended we see them. At that point, Iron Man had already been sitting in a Netflix envelope in my house for far too long. Yesterday, I finally threw the DVD into my computer, deciding I would give it half an hour. Two hours later, instead of ejecting the disc, I hit re-play and watched it again.

I went into this movie stone cold. I had never read an Avengers comic and I knew nothing about the characters that populate this universe. I fully expected to be lost as allusions were made to situations and people of which I knew nothing. Instead, the director, Jon Favreau, was able to provide a full backstory that enabled me as a novice to not only follow the story, but to invest almost immediately in the character.

Favreau’s other great success was hiring the right actors for the roles. The chemistry among the four leads was so good that I believed that these people had known each other and worked together for years.

Terrence Howard plays the straight man to perfection, managing to inject an element of humor into the role without trying to one-up his lead. Gwyneth Paltrow takes the usually thankless role of the love interest and makes Pepper Potts so intelligent, so caring that I started shipping Tony and her from the first time she was on screen. When she doesn’t fall into her boss’s arms at the end, I loved her even more.

Jeff Bridges was a revelation as the villain. He didn’t appear at the beginning metaphorically winking at us the audience to let us know where this is all going. Instead, I believed he was a good guy. Until, that is, Tony comes home. As Obadiah steps forward to embrace his business partner, my spidey sense started to tingle. On the re-watch, I tried to see what Bridges had done that made me suspicious. I still couldn’t tell you. Now, that’s acting.

While the supporting players were wonderful, any superhero film will succeed or fail on its lead actor. Robert Downey, Jr.’s performance took me completely by surprise. He so embodied the part, I can’t imagine any other actor playing it. What I especially loved was the humor with which Downey imbued the character. He doesn’t speak like I imagine a superhero would, even when he becomes a superhero. Instead, he is witty and irreverent, while at the same time clearly hiding deep insecurities and hurts.

Intelligence is sexy. Some of my favorite scenes were Downey on his own, interacting with the robots that help him build his suit. It is through these scenes, both the successes and the failures, that Downey shows us that although Tony is a true genius, he is not perfect. He failed and failed big, which makes this superhero more human than some.

The best part of these scenes is that, because the robots with which he interacts are not people, they are not in awe and Tony treats them as friends. Jarvis reminded me of Alfred in cyber form, sarcasm and all. “Dummy” reminded me of R2-D2. A robot, yet infused with humanity and caring. The second time that the robot douses Tony in fire retardant, I roared with laughter and I was moved when he brought the “old” heart to Tony’s level.

The laughter is what makes this movie work so well. So many other movies of this genre that I have seen are very dark and take themselves very seriously. This one was just the opposite. It has at its core a serious theme, the redemption of an incredibly flawed man. Yet, the redemption doesn’t come at the cost of Tony losing who he is at his core, nor does it come at the cost of light or wit.

This is not to imply that the redemption is not taken seriously. Downey manages to play Tony’s disillusionment and fury at Stane’s betrayal at just the right level. He is clearly affected, but instead of sulking, he puts on his suit and goes to work.

The special effects are fantastic, culminating in two of the best action sequences I have seen in a while. Iron Man being chased by the fighter jets was exciting and tense, while still managing to incorporate the film’s signature humor. The final showdown was beautifully done. I believed that the two characters we had come to know were inside those suits.

Was this movie perfect? No. Several of the sequences went on too long and the Afghan villains were a tad too stock. But, these are small quibbles about a movie that managed to surprise me by how good it was. And, make sure you sit through the credits. Iron Man 2 will not sit in its envelope for long.

Three and a half out of four press conferences that change the game.

ChrisB is a freelance writer who spends more time than she ought in front of a television screen or with a book in her hand.

5 comments:

  1. I can't believe we hadn't already reviewed Iron Man! Great review Chris, I feel pretty much exactly the same way. For me to like a superhero/action movie, there needs to be a lot of humor and some real emotional stakes and this fits the bill perfectly.

    Like you, I'm not a comic book person (something about the visual format just does not appeal to me) but I was able to follow the story with ease.

    I love RDJ's Tony Stark. I love how he's basically a super genius version of RDJ. You can't help loving him immediately.

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  2. I love Iron Man!

    Here's a fun fact (or, at least it is for a geek like me): when Stane brings Tony pizza and gives him the news that the board of directors have voted no confidence in Tony, Stane is playing Salieri on the piano.

    For those of you who have never seen "Amadeus," Antonio Salieri was a supposed rival of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Salieri kept coming in second--not as gifted, not as talented, not as great as Mozart. And, supposedly, Salieri was involved in Mozart's death.

    (Maybe Salieri wasn't as gifted, talented, etc. as Mozart, but at most, they were professional rivals, not personal. And Salieri wasn't involved in Mozart's death. But, this theory does predate "Amadeus." In fact, the idea that Salieri had something to do with Mozart's death due to the two composers being bitter rivals goes back within 5 years of Salieri's death.)

    But, it is foreshadowing when used in Iron Man, if you know the theory.

    Kat

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  3. Iron Man is actually one of my least favorite superheroes for a plethora of reasons. But I enjoyed this movie a lot and think it was spot on. Robert Downey Jr. was fantastic in the role and continues to be. Even though I liked the sequels less, Avengers included. I'll always enjoy this movie.

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  4. Freeman - I want to hear the plethora! I totally agree about the sequels - vastly inferior. But I love The Avengers.

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  5. My reasons may seem nitpicky but if you take into account how expensive comic books tend to be I think I'm allowed this. Yeah, this is gonna make me sound like a big geek.

    First of all, I don't really like how Iron Man is basically a glorified computer cyborg nowadays, cutting out the human element yet somehow keeping it intact is a very odd thing to me. I prefer it one way or the other. He's a self-righteous jerk and more or less was the cause of the Civil War that got Captain America killed (yeah yeah he came back) and caused all of this nonsense that's been going on with Spider-Man. His suit is ludicrously powerful and depending on however he chooses to alter it he can go toe-to-toe with literally any character in the Marvel Universe. He made a suit that can fight Magneto. His suit "remembers" every attack ever thrown at him so it basically makes him untouchable. I like a superhero with limits and weaknesses, and alcoholism doesn't count.

    I also don't like how since his movie was the one that more-or-less kickstarted the slew of Marvel movies, he's basically become the de-facto leader of The Avengers in various media. I still think he hogged way too much screen time in The Avengers movie.

    On the other side of the coin, these things I've listed are things I'm sure that fans of Iron Man love about him.

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