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Iron Man

"I got caught doing a piece for Vanity Fair."
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow
Rating: 6.5
Directed By: John Favreau
Runtime: 120+ minutes

The summer blockbuster season got off to an early start on Monday, April 28th. Thanks to the fine folks at the Alamo Drafthouse - hosts of the incomparable Fantastic Fest - we got to screen Iron Man for free. The Alamo does nothing half-measure either. Emceed by an Iron-clad Tim League, Jetpack International performed an Iron Man-themed exhibition before the event and the theater ran the 60s Iron Man cartoon interspersed with the Black Sabbath "Iron Man" video to stoke the crowd up. The movie began with a special filmed introduction by John Favreau and Robert Downey Jr., praising the Austin film community in general and the Alamo in particular. The guys even poked fun at AICN's Harry Knowles, displaying a picture of a large Iron Man purported to be Harry. They also unveiled the Australian "Gwyneth Paltrow Exploding Vagina" poster which they're sure will go over huge in the Foreign markets. So how is the film? I feel like I'd seen the Forbidden Kingdom all over again so kinda mixed.

First of all it's the trailer. Seriously. It's all there. No real big secret kept under wraps. That's what the movie is like. Despite the rumors of Samuel Jackson appearing as Nick Fury or Hillary Swank doing an Avengers-related cameo, the movie plays out as a standard origin story alá the "boy knows no kung-fu" I harp on relentlessly in these reviews but you have to understand Marvel. Marvel knows a good thing when it sees it. This is the same company who told artists from the 1960s to the 1980s to "draw like Jack Kirby" until John Byrne was the thing and then it was "draw like Byrne." One X-Men title sells? Howsabout 50? Wolverine in a comic sells more? Wolverine's in every comic. So Spider-Man, Sam Rami's masterpiece, redefines mainstream superhero film, let's use that template. Which Iron Man does. The first 1/3 of the film is the "introduce Tony Stark" segment where we establish comicdom's greatest playboy alcoholic as, well, a playboy alcoholic who is injured and captured after a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan and thrown in a terrorist prison where he is forced to build Iron Man armor and bust out. The second third is Tony deciding that weapons are bad but Iron Man is cool so we'll refine the armor and test it out; all the while, the evil is exposed for the evil it is (man, not spoiling stuff means glossing a lot of shit over) and forces a confrontation. The third 1/3 is the eventual overcoming of War Machine, sorry, the threat and becoming a better person.

All kinds of people trashed Ang Lee's Hulk because of it's character-driven story and obviously set-up fight with Nick Nolte yet Iron Man succumbs to an obvious end battle and attempts to define Stark clearly and early in a similar manner. Robert Downey Jr. excels despite what he's given to work with, going from snide prick to tender thinking-playboy at the end - and believe me, this is due to having to shoehorn the largely useless Pepper Potts role (Gwyneth Paltrow) into the film because Hollywood feels we need a love interest not a lust interest (Leslie Bibb); like the American kid in Forbidden Kingdom she could be written out with no harm - and Downey portrays the strung-out, almost dead, gimme a drink role like he was born to it. He's casually charming and gets some good lines ("They call you the da Vinci of our time. How do you respond to that?" "That's ridiculous. I don't paint." - "Sorry, this is the fun vehicle. The Hum-Drum-Vee is over there.") and does as good a job in the role as everyone had hoped but his aforementioned character arc, shoehorned love subplot and all, is strangely pointless. Terrence Howard is practically wasted as Rhody as well, looking at the armor and promising "next time." He serves to admonish Tony, deny him like Peter (ooh, getting' all Holy) and come back to the fold. Pepper Potts is the eternal secretary in love with her boss knowing it could never be and Paltrow attempts to redefine "unrequited" to the best of her abilities. She also pushes a button and reaches into Tony's chest. That's her arc.

The movie feels like an excuse to show off CGI technology and it does that. The tank in the trailer blows up just as cool on the big screen. Iron Man flies around, races some jets (and in a very subtle geek reference Tony, on his first test flight spots the X-Men's SR-71 Blackbird) and tears up terrorists and Iron Dudes alike. Some have asserted the jet chase is "CGI done right" and "doesn't look fake at all" which is why they don't review movies. The jet chase looks "less fake" because it's ALL fake. No superimposing anything - all CGI, which is kinda cool but kinda unsatisfying as well. I understand logistically having Stan Winston build a real suit that could fly is retarded but don't tell me a thin plot and cardboard supporting characters wrapped up in a few CGI fight scenes is a great film. That's like reading a comic where the story is great but the art sucks or McFarlane syndrome where the art is terrific and the story is non-existent. Hmmmm. (This is a comic book movie so maybe one could argue that it's the most faithful adaptation to date - naaah). The only effective CGI won't be mentioned because of the explosions but Stark's mansion is cool as hell and state-of-the-art. I bought it and I wanted it.

Anything good? Why, yes. It does establish Stark for some interesting future films and Downey's performance will irk some critics but expect his reviews to be favorable. The outstanding piece of Iron Man is Obadiah Stane played to the hilt by Jeff Bridges. His look with the bald head and goatee is menacing but Bridges plays him with such charm while hiding a ruthless and underhanded scheming nature. His character is the only one fully-realized in the movie. His evil is deep and takes many paths to the final confrontation - screw the Puppet Master, Obadiah Stane pulls waaay more strings and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty if necessary. It is a joy watching his narrative thread and he may be the most realized villain in the Marvel film canon. Otherwise, Suicidal Tendencies is on the soundtrack and Ghostface Killah has a cameo.

Nitpicky asides. Why is Jarvis a robot voice? Why does Tony escape into the desert? Why does the first suit stomp like the Hulk? Why does Tony lose a glove, make a big deal of it and then not have it hinder him in the least?

Iron Man is worth a view because it is a decent intro film with more style than substance. A popcorn movie, as it were. Downey and Bridges are what you want to see, everyone else is an extra. There's flying and fighting and falling and freezing and it's about as good as Fantastic Four or Hellboy, better than Daredevil but it will leave you wanting Iron Man 2 more which shows this one is certainly no Spider-Man.

Thanks again to Tim League, the Alamo Drafthouse and Paramount for the film and the poster.