July 21, 2008
The appeal of comic books is, of course, in the escape they offer their readers. You might be some nerd who spends the first period of every high school day shouting for your freedom from the locker that bullies stuffed you in, but hey, Peter Parker was a dweeb too before a spider bit him and the resulting mutant powers from that incident gave him the ability to climb walls and swing pretty girls from building to building. You may be some brooding, miserable slob who’s lived in your mother’s basement for longer than society would deem seemly, but Bruce Wayne spends a lot of time in his basement and could also stand some cheering up, and look at all the cool stuff he does as Batman. Many comics offer their reader heroes that are troubled in some way that a teen can relate to — the socially useless who become unbelievably heroic via their alter egos.
“Iron Man” is a different kind of comic book hero, and is played by Robert Downey Jr. a different kind of actor from the type we’d expect to see fronting a blockbuster. We know from the moment the film opens with Downey, as Tony Stark, motoring down an Afghan highway in a Humvee, with a highball in his hand and the AC/DC blasting that we’re in for a movie that is miles apart from a tale of a nerd getting revenge on that muscle freak who kicked his sand in his face on the beach. We’re in for a rock and roll good time, and that is certainly what the film delivers.
For those unfamiliar with the “Iron Man” story, the central character is Tony Stark, a weapons manufacturer and one hell of a fun guy. He is labeled a “Merchant of Death”, but he seems to be far more of a charmer than Viktor Bout, ending up, as he does, in bed with the female reporter who gives him the moniker shortly after she does so.
He’s more or less casual about his war profiteering, is a genius and seems to enjoy the tech side of blowing stuff up, and, perhaps most importantly, being rich enough to have his own private plane complete with stewardesses who know where the sake is kept and double as pole-dancers once it’s been served.
Stark takes that plane to Afghanistan where he shows American generals Stark Industries’ latest piece of scorched-earth war machinery the “Jericho” missile. Shortly after firing one off into the – hopefully unoccupied – mountains, Stark is on his way back to the army base when his convoy is ambushed and he is shot. He survives, but the tribe that captured him wants him to construct a “Jericho” for their nefarious purposes.
Stark has different plans, and he and his cellmate Yinsen put together the first crude Iron Man suit. Sleeker and benefiting from better paint jobs though the latter suits might be, the spectacle of the first is hard to top: Iron Man makes his screen debut all clanking metal amid heavy guitars and proceeds to flambé every bad guy in the camp.
Once out of Afghanistan, Stark has a change of heart about the evil weapons business. He wants to make love err… Well he does not want to make war. This launches Jeff Bridges, who plays Tony’s right-hand man at Stark Industries the wonderfully named Obadiah Stane, in from the background.
Given the press surrounding this film, it will probably not be revealing too much to say that Bridges plays the heavy in this one, and he plays it well, a swaggering, cigar-chomping industrialist who’d strap his own grandma to a warhead if it meant some more filthy lucre for the pile.
The villains in this type of movie, most of the time, end up being far more interesting than the heroes they torment; who would you rather hang around with for an evening’s drinks (provided your death was not on the menu) – lunatic billionaire Lex Luthor or Clark Kent? What makes “Iron Man” so much fun is that both hero and villain are equally entertaining and played by great actors who are willing to jump into their scenes with enthusiasm, as if they want to do more than just offset the scenes where things get smashed. Likewise, Gwyneth Paltrow, playing a character whose name is the only clear sign of the comic book’s 60s origins, “Pepper Potts”, brings a human touch to a role that could have been pure camp.
We’re in for a long summer of superheroes, and for some inexplicable reason it’s been decided that another “Incredible Hulk” movie is necessary (One more time that we’ll get to here those immortal words, “HULK!?! HULK, HIM SMASH! Editor’s Note: For an excellent review of The Incredible Hulk, click here) and there’s the better film prospect of another in Christopher Nolan’s Batman series. But I doubt we’re in for another like this one. There are genre standards in this one – the trial and error scenes, for example, in which new powers get tested, causing significant structural damage to buildings, and, it would appear in this case, killing without remark passersby via traffic incidents – but what we’re left with is unique among the genre: a film for the guys in high school who missed first period not because of bullies, but because they were too hungover from partying the night before.
Noel. Bangkok
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July 22nd, 2008 at 9:28 am
I’ve always been a big fan of superhero movies and seeing if the film captures the true feeling of the comic book.
Too bad other critics don’t review films as honestly as you do ;)
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:54 am
Thanks Zoey. I was more of a DC comic fanatic growing up, so I can’t say how well this held up, but from what I’ve read about the original Iron Man comic, they did a pretty good job. They certainly made a damn fun movie.
It looks like it’ll be three in a row for us in terms of superhero movies. I’ll be checking out the Dark Knight soon. Christopher Nolan has done a great job with that series… then again Joel Schumacher… I can’t off hand think of worse film than Batman and Robin. It came through by mistake unscrambled on pay-per-view television, and I still wanted my money back.