The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 226 Days to go: 227
Movie #151: Iron Man
I have at least one friend who’s going to be upset I don’t own any of the Iron Man movies, but those are the breaks. I actually like Iron Man 3 quite a bit, I just don’t have it. But Iron Man 2 is a messy, convoluted piece of garbage. At least from what I can remember of it.
I went into Iron Man completely cold. I’d never heard of Tony Stark or Pepper Potts or any of the mythology or lore surrounding Iron Man at all. So the movie had to do the heavy lifting of introducing me to this character I’d never encountered before without making it tedious and without feeling dumbed-down to the millions of Marvel comics fans who were coming to the film with dozens of pre-conceived notions and expectations about who and what Iron Man should be. In my completely unscientifically based opinion, I think it did an excellent job.
Everything you need to know about Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is shown, not exposited (well, just a little exposited), in the first fifteen or twenty minutes of the movie. He’s cocky, he’s slick, he’s a genius and an incorrigible lothario. He’s also a mega-multi-zillionaire who sells weapons for a living.
So the movie sets up the capture of Tony Stark via attack by unspecified Middle Easterners using his own weapons against Americans, provides a little bit of backstory, then goes right into Tony’s captivity and how he secretly builds himself an armored super-suit to bust out of there. When he gets home, he modifies and perfects the super-suit, becomes Iron Man, and maybe gets drawn into additional unspecified Middle Eastern conflicts because of his emotional baggage on the subject. There’s also some sexual tension with his uber-assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) — who doesn’t get a whole lot to do, but which I excuse because she’s basically the most competent, level-headed, boss chick ever and it never once feels like she’s just an errand-girl for Tony, but more like his keeper, his handler, his employer and she holds a lot of sway over him — and a nasty bit of betrayal from inside Tony’s inner circle.
I have to admit, I never really thought of Jon Favreau of any kind of Hollywood player before Iron Man, despite his breakout turn as the writer of Swingers. I certainly didn’t think of him as a director, and given the only big thing he’d done before this was Elf — which I almost categorically hate, truth be told — it’s understandable how blown away I was by his success with Iron Man. The story is tight and focused, the effects are amazing, and scenes are not wasted but rather used to their full potential (or thereabouts). Plus I think it’s pretty fun that he also plays the role of Happy Hogan. (You know, Raj on The Big Bang Theory really has a point about Stan Lee’s obsession with alliterative names.)
Since Iron Man is basically an origin story film, it works well that there’s not some external Big Bad nemesis to defeat, rather an intimate friend-turned-traitor who provides the impetus for said origin. It’s more contained that way, and allows the audience — particularly ones not familiar with the characters — to get acquainted, while still being entertaining. One of the reasons I think the current Marvel/Avengers franchise is so successful, in fact, is because Iron Man set it off to a great start. It’s definitely one of my favorite of the current films and one of my favorite of the current characters as well (but not the top spot, which goes to a single character in a single movie, yet to come). It’s a solid film that provides an excellent foundation for all the great, fun, imaginative Avengers movies yet to come.
And you’ve got to love a superhero who doesn’t mope around in his secret identity for once, right? Right.
Viable Option 