Iron Man may not be the best-known and -loved boy fantasy of a super hero, but it may well turn out to be the best loved comic book movie for all those not seduced by this bizarre and most profitable of cinematic genres. Yes, Iron Man has super hero origins in the mould of the opening outings of any aspiring monster franchise. The odd and brilliant thing is that it is also a wonderfully entertaining and insightful film in its own right. It is possible to lie well outside the target demographic of 14-year-old boys with daydreams of poetic retribution and still have a darn good time in the cinema as you watch your prejudices against the allegedly infantile popcorn fun being resoundingly brushed aside.
The film opens in Afghanistan where billionaire arms maker Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is ambushed, injured and taken captive. When he wakes up he has a piece of shrapnel threatening to pierce his heart and a guerilla leader coercing him to make a terrible weapon. Instead, he uses the materials at hand to fashion an armoured suit that allows him to flee and rethink his contributions to the global war machine. Back home, Tony Stark announces that he has disbanded his corporation’s weapons division, which puts him at odds with partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). He then devotes his time to perfecting his Afghan invention, which soon allows him to appoint himself international enforcer of justice.
This might not be particularly original, but the potential is utilised to the fullest. There are parallels with the story backbone and tone of Batman Begins, which made it the thinking man’s superhero movie: a man with no superhuman abilities, but with a lot of money and spare time, uses a quest for justice as a source of balance in his life. Iron Man’s improvement on the latter’s achievements is that it manages to be even more firmly rooted in real life, rather than in the stylised scapes of the comic book pages. Credit must go to director Jon Favreau for keeping the myriad of special effects shots largely unobtrusive and serving the story rather than the other way round.
The two screenwriting teams of Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum and Matt Holloway serve up one of the precious few cases when a list of writers is not an equivalent of trouble. Their efforts blend effectively and keep the story moving in a logical and healthy rhythm. Their key contribution, however, is the elegant humour and constant feed of inspired dialogue, which allow Downey to really take his performance to the stratosphere. He has always been able to invigorate any film he is in, but is hardly the actor you turn to when you’re looking for someone to anchor a superhero franchise. Yet, if ever there was an inspired casting choice, this was it. Iron Man has a lot going for it anyway, but Downey’s performance is the key ingredient that allows the entire project to reach critical mass and make it better than it has a right to be. Downey dominates the screen with wit and panache and the character he comes up with (a blend of Howard Hughes and Bill Gates with a few shards of Hugh Hefner added for good measure) is an instant contender for best and most interesting comic book character ever.
There are a few minor quibbles, which keep Iron Man a bit short of becoming an instant classic, but which generally come with the superhero-movie territory. Apart from the dominating presence of a shaven-headed Bridges as Odadiah and sparingly-used Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark’s faithful assistant and love interest, the rest of the cast are given one-dimensional characters to play with; the requisite final confrontation is a bit of an anticlimax considering the high standard established before that. Yet, even with these in mind, Iron Man is one fine movie, which the other aspiring summer blockbusters will have a hard time matching. It may also be the best suited super-hero movie to cross over to an audience ever-mistrustful of comic book films. In a way this is the first blockbuster, which serves as its own counter-programming.
