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Friday, May 2, 2008
‘Iron Man’ not quite ironclad, but still a blast
I can’t wait to see Iron Man II. I bet it will be even better than the original.
I know, I’m getting ahead of myself, but I’m more anxious to see the movie that will come out in two or three years than I am to revisit the movie that just opened.
That’s not to say the first Iron Man isn’t a lot of fun. It has some spectacular moments, powered by an Oscar quality performance by Robert Downey Jr.
Right off the bat, it’s easy to see that the brilliant engineer Tony Stark will be a different kind of hero. He’s filled with cocky bravado, which is at once arrogant and justified. When someone compares Tony to Leonardo Da Vinci, he retorts, “That’s ridiculous. I don’t paint.” No one can deny the man is a genius, even when they can’t stand him.
But not even Stark’s inflated pride can stop him from being shaken to the core when, on a mission in Afghanistan, his convoy is ambushed by terrorists who want Stark to build them a super weapon. Stark complies all right, by creating a massive mechanical suit with a heck of a weapons cache.
Still, once that ordeal passes, Stark is no longer interested in being a man of war. Haunted by how his weapons have been used against him, Stark vows to put his inventions to work for more altruistic purposes. This does not sit at all well with his longtime partner, Obadiah Stane (a bald and bearded Jeff Bridges), who wants to maintain the company’s lucrative standing.
Like many superhero origin movies, Iron Man tends to slow down sometimes because it has to set up the world of its hero. The same was true of the 1978 Superman movie, the first Spider-Man movie and the 2003 Hulk. However, Iron Man’s biggest problem isn’t pacing. It’s the lame villain.
I’m not going to explain who or what that is, because I think the movie means for it to be a “surprise,” even though any experienced viewer should be able to spot it from the first reel. The bigger problem, though, is that the bad guy is never as threatening as he should be. I rarely got the sense Tony, or the world was in any mortal danger. That makes the big climactic battle a bit of a letdown.
Such a weak villain might have ruined a lesser movie, but Downey’s triumphant performance makes that impossible. I knew Downey would pull it off, but I was still amazed at how superbly he carried this movie. Many of Downey’s roles have been marked by a playful sarcasm, but it’s never been put to better use than it has here.
Typically, the hero’s greatest character flaw subsides after he or she survives the ordeal that made him a costumed crusader, but that’s not what happens to Tony Stark. He undergoes a change of heart, to be sure, but he was full of himself before Afghanistan, and he was just as full of himself after it. That quality is at once Tony Stark’s great strength and weakness, and it makes him unique among heroes. Watch how it plays out when Tony is testing his suit to great comic effect.
Just as refreshing is Tony’s relationship with his gal Friday, Pepper Potts, played with boundless charm by Gwyneth Paltrow. Theirs isn’t the “I love him but can’t have him” relationship like Peter Parker and Mary Jane or the “If only she knew” tap dance that Clark Kent plays with Lois Lane. Instead, the two engage in a delectable he/she loves me/loves me not banter that makes their flirtation sparkle.
(Funnily enough, the first Iron Man suit looks very much like the robots that tromp through Manhattan in the severely underappreciated Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which also starred one Gwyneth Paltrow.)
Behind the scenes, the greatest credit for Iron Man’s success must go to director Jon Favreau, who has been quietly building his strengths. He pulled off the miraculous feat of making Will Ferrell funny in Elf, and he showed how the movie Jumanji should have been made when he directed the too little seen Zathura.
In both movies, Favreau cannily used low-tech effects, and carries that approach to its pinnacle in Iron Man. There are plenty of digital effects, to be sure, but they’re augmented by the mechanical creations of Stan Winston’s studio. The mixed approach makes most of the action scenes play beautifully
Am I disappointed that Iron Man wasn’t a home run? Not really. The first Spider-Man, in retrospect, plays like a very entertaining set up for an even greater movie to follow. I have every confidence that from here on out, Iron Man will only fly higher.
GRADE: B+
Seen it already? Feel free to comment and tell me what you think.
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