dir: Jon Favreau
2008
The only real criteria I had initially for whether the flick would be
great or disastrous shite was the demand that the guitar riff from
Black Sabbath=92s Iron Man had to be used at least once during the whole
experience. So I watched it all, forgetting my initial charge, until
the film ended on a deliriously funny high note, with the riff then
booming out of the theatre=92s speakers. I was pretty damn happy about
that.
Still, it shows at the very least how profoundly low my expectations
were.
The most surprising element of this whole Iron Man extravaganza is not
that Robert Downey Jr is great in the title role (he=92s a great actor,
fully comfortable with a role that is a gift to him), or that the
flick itself is very entertaining. The surprise is that Jon Favreau
has now finally made a flick worth watching.
As an actor, he makes a mediocre director, and as a director, he makes
a mediocre actor. If you=92ve ever seen him, then you know what I mean.
He=92s a perennial friend to main characters, raising the status of the
side-kick to new lows. Generally, except when he=92s directing the film,
you might see him dangling from the side of taller actors like Vince
Vaughn and Vince Vaughn and, um, Ben Affleck. He even has a little
role here for himself as the main character=92s limo driver. Start
swooning now, ladies.
I=92m getting far from the point, which is completely and utterly unlike
me. The point is, whatever stars converged, whatever forces aligned
appropriately and rendered this tidy super hero flick very enjoyable.
Downey Jr seems so comfortable in the role that you wonder if it=92s
what he=92s been waiting for all his career. The role is predominately
comedic, but there needs to be substance beneath the characterisation
to give it anything more than transitory worth. It=92s not a character
that lends itself to the painful (and for me, boring) gothic
introspection of the Batman character, or the ubermensch isolation of
the Man of Steel. But there=92s enough to sink one=92s mental teeth into
the character for his transition from regular joe to super hero to be
a meaningful one.
Not that he=92s really a regular joe. Tony Stark (Downey Jr) is the
engineering genius who sits atop the world=92s most advanced weapons
manufacturer, Stark Industries. His father worked on the Manhattan
Project, and his vast wealth and identity are tied in to how he sees
the world (USA #1 and must be militarily strong, the rest can go fuck
themselves with his weapons). His mentor and surrogate father figure
Obadiah (Jeff Bridges, with shaved head and wispy beard), indulges him
as long as company=92s stock price remain high.
Stark is a slightly manic, indulgent but brilliant arrested adolescent
in a dapper gent=92s body. He loves the ladies, but only so long as it
takes for one of his assistants, especially the very Miss Moneypenny-
ish Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), to dispose of the corpse. I mean,
to send the young ladies on their way with a rose and a gentle pat on
the derri=E8re.
The company has the latest weapon in freedom=92s arsenal to unveil in
Afghanistan, being the Jericho, a mountain-destroying missile. Stark
is captured by some vaguely Taliban-ish looking jihadi warriors and
things look very grim. He is seriously wounded by, you guessed it, on
of the very weapons his company created. In fact, the jihadis seem to
be very well equipped with the latest weapons in the Stark Industries
catalogue. Their very evil leader (Faran Tahir), who we know is evil
because of the angry expression on his face and the creepy music that
plays whenever he=92s on-screen, commands Stark to build a Jericho
missile out of the various components they have just lying around.
Instead, with the help of a nice man in similar dire straits working
as his doctor/interpreter/assistant, Yinsen (Shaun Toub), he
constructs a crude sort of Ned Kelly outfit in order to effect their
escape.
Since this is what is known as an origin story, we get to see both the
transformation of the person into the super hero, and the development
of their philosophy as to why they=92re planning on doing what they=92re
doing. Since Stark operates on the global scale, his task or beat
isn=92t, I guess, strapping on the armour in order to go after purse
snatchers and bank robbers locally. He doesn=92t take it upon himself to
protect Gotham City, or to fight crime on the local level by swinging
through the streets of New York. His job, at least initially, is to
stop the harm caused by his own company.
If this film is a towering financial success, and it looks like it=92s
going to be, you=92ve got to wonder what ideologues and warmongers are
going to make of it. It=92s a pretty potent condemnation of a particular
=93might makes right=94 mentality at the heart of many of the world=92s
conflicts starring the United States in either leading or supporting
roles. And it is critical of companies doing what they do without
caring about the consequences whilst paying lip service to corporate
governance and accountability.
Wow, this sounds about as exciting as the set up in The Phantom
Menace, which The Simpsons parodied as being about a war started over
elements of trade tax codes and tariff violations. How could audiences
fail to masturbate openly in cinemas with such a plot?
But of course no-one should mistake such a setup for being anything
like an excoriating, devastating critique of US policy or the military-
industrial complex. It=92s superficial (it is, after all, a super hero
movie) at best, but it does give us something to hold on to
intellectually.
The main thing the flick gets right is tone. It avoids camp without
going for high seriousness. It=92s really quite funny, but not in a way
that ridicules the base concept so much that it seems like a satire
(like pointing out just how unlikely any of this kind of stuff is),
but nor does it wallow in bathetic seriousness so much that it forgets
its purpose is to entertain (Batman Begins, Hulk, guilty as charged).
Downey Jr=92s interactions with every member of the crew, be it good
friend Jim Rhodes (the always dependable Terrence Howard), Pepper,
Obadiah, the computer he uses to help him design the Iron Man suit or
even a robotic fire extinguisher, all work in ways that rarely work in
these kinds of films. We expect and allow for a certain amount of
emptiness in these kinds of summer blockbusters, but it=92s nice to see
it=92s not obligatory.
Of course a flick like this is supposed to be about the action, and I
have to say that it=92s generally pretty strong. The early stuff and
subsequent battle in Afghanistan, and Iron Man=92s return visit to help
out the poor people in some non-descript village, with the US Air
Force taking umbrage, is all handled in a careful and sparing manner.
The final conflict at the climax of the film, seeing as it plays out a
father/son Oedipal battle in literal form in something that could have
been out of a Japanese mecha cartoon perhaps wasn=92t as interesting to
me, but the flick had already won me over by then, and managed to cap
everything off with a surprisingly strong ending line.
The CGI is excellent but doesn=92t dominate the story. Of course they=92re
going to spend as much time with Downey out of the suit as possible,
since it=92s hard to identify with a suit of armour, but they really do
nail the suit and the character. The early and Mark II suit
construction scenes are all pretty strong, and that great comic book
moment where a character experiments with their powers for the first
time is really well handled.
There are a few geek moments (as when Rhode=92s mobile rings, and the
ringtone is the intro from the Iron Man cartoon of the 60s), and,
since it=92s based on a Marvel comic, the obligatory Stan Lee cameo
(very funny in this instance), but mostly the movie is made to appeal
to an audience beyond the ranks of basement-dwelling dateless wonders,
which is to the flick=92s advantage. Basement-dwelling dateless wonders
are people too, allegedly, so they=92re catered to in a way that isn=92t
insulting.
It is a function of every American summer that movies based on comic
books are going to come out around this time every year. Most of them
are crap. Even the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises have petered out
with lacklustre third instalments. Soon there=92s the Dark Knight and a
Hulk sequel that no-one asked for to look forward to. These flicks are
generally forgettable, and for every Iron Man you=92re going to get
twenty Fantastic Fours, which is a mathematics I can=92t understand or
calculate.
Iron Man stands above the morass. It=92s a strong flick both because of
and despite its origins.
And it manages to be bloody entertaining, most of all. That=92s all I
ever ask of you, Hollywood, you cockteasing bitch.
Sandro - 8 times Robert Downey Junior is an iron god of acting who
walks among us out of 10
--
=93They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I prefer the
weapon you only need to fire once. That's how dad did it, that's how
America does it, and it's worked out pretty well so far.=94 =96 Iron Man.
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