Much like the superheroes whose stories they chronicle, the last few years have seen cinematic adaptations of comic books get both celebrated and pummeled. In a world where the box office reigns supreme, the most celebrated turn into franchises (X-Men, Spider-Man), while the pummeled simply rise anew (The Incredible Hulk) hoping to be forgiven. Iron Man feels distinctly like one of the former, even boldly hinting at the possibility of a sequel (I'm betting they'll announce it within the first week of receiving the box office returns for this one). And with the snappy way that the film wraps up, director Jon Favreau leaves his audience wanting more. Iron Man is the not-so-subtle cross between blockbuster and character study that audiences have been waiting for.
Through innovative exposition, we learn that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a billionaire playboy extraordinaire, heir to his father's tech savvyness as well as his extremely lucrative arms corporation. Living the easy life, Stark bounces from club to club and woman to woman, never giving a thought to anything deeper than the next Scotch he'll be drinking. This changes when he's kidnapped by terrorists while making a business demonstration in Afghanistan. Witnessing an entire U.S. envoy demolished by his very own brand of weaponry and then commanded to construct a missile for his captives, Stark begins to see the dark underbelly of war. Using his intellect and whatever scrap metal he has lying around, Stark quickly makes his escape constructing a (relatively) primitive suit of armor featuring a flame-thrower, rocket launcher, and, oh yeah, rocket boosters. Upon returning to his plush Malibu digs, Stark denounces his former life, cancels all future arms production, and sets to making a new, more advanced suit.
This is where most superhero movies would hit fast-forward, showing brief clips of our hero at work, perhaps hitting the high notes with some powerful scoring a la Rocky and then letting him jump straight into the action. Instead, Favreau chooses to focus on the construction process, building the relationships with the supporting characters along the way. And they're all here: the endearing sidekick (Terrence Howard), the slightly ambiguous villain (Jeff Bridges), and the charming love interest (Gwyneth Paltrow). And despite rather commonplace storylines and interactions, these actors manage to make their characters distinctly their own, leaving their own indelible imprint on otherwise cookie cutter stock characters.
And Robert Downey Jr.'s charismatic performance is at the forefront. Where Christian Bale grimaces and Tobey Maguire stammers, Downey simply smirks. Strutting through scenery like the snarkiest superhero this side of the 21st century, Downey's Tony Stark is something like a Thomas Edison/Johnny Depp hybrid who manages to maintain his cooler-than-thou presence even when faced with death by the aforementioned pummeling. This makes for crackling dialogue and memorable exchanges all around, making it easy to overlook the fact that this action movie is relatively lacking in, well… action scenes.
Unfortunately, working with a script penned by four screenwriters, Favreau has a little trouble keeping the tone on an even keel, hopping back and forth between deadpanned realism and off-the-wall (literally) physical comedy. Perhaps it's just the PG-13 rating, but there's a level of childish humor that occasionally detracts from the otherwise straightforward momentum. When Stark falls out of the sky and crash-lands without a scratch are we to see it as a humorous Wile E. Coyote stunt or a sign that the filmmakers aren't really thinking each plot point through? Is Favreau winking at the audience with deliberately goofy cartoon antics or is this bad choreography that's accidentally funny? The way Downey mugs his way through scene after scene, it feels more like the former, but the dumbed-down science and weak villains point to the latter.
Watching Stark do battle with terrorists, jet planes, and a villain I won't mention, the question is never will he triumph, but how. And the special effects department has come up with some impressive hows. There are many close-calls, near-misses, and last second heroics, but we never get the chance to feel truly nervous for our hero. In the escapist world of Iron Man, where computer hacking involves simply attaching a flash drive to a USB and homing devices pick out terrorists from innocent bystanders, there's hardly ever even a hint of a real threat to the invincible Iron Man. But even this becomes part of the quirky charm. So maybe towards the end it turns into a battle between mini-Transformers with Oscar nominated voice-overs, but even this is forgivable when Downey is spouting out lines like, "Oh yeah. I can fly."
Iron Man is a mixed bag. It's too enjoyable to dislike, but too simplified to really rave about. It's Batman Begins Lite or Elf with explosions. There are a million ways to pick this movie apart, but the truth is simple: Iron Man is a two hour rocket-propelled joy ride that feels like more fun than it should.
yes, it's true: Robert Downey Jr. makes a cameo as Iron Man's Tony Stark in the upcoming Edward Norton vehicle, The Incredible Hulk.
