stevechristian

Expert Rating:

8

(2008) PG-13, some intense sequences

Robert Downey Jr.
Terrence Howard
Jeff Bridges
Leslie Bibb
Directed by Jon Favreau

The first blockbuster of summer 2008 is fluff. But it is hugely entertaining fluff. Iron Man is an adults take on the superhero craze. Not adult in the "serious, old and boring sense. But adult in the "lets not be filled with angst and self doubt" sense. Instead we have a confidant, intelligent, witty, and most of all- fun hero! Whereas the Dark Knight (AKA: Batman) is dark for a reason.. family murdered, life with no meaning. And while Spiderman is the everyman who always doubts himself, and even has a dark side he has to overcome- always a bit of a downer. This superhero is none of those things.

Instead here we have Robert Downey Jr. the spoiled billionaire son Tony Stark, who has grown up in a family of arms dealers. As the film begins he is making his latest delivery, and as he does so remarks, "I never liked a weapon that is not used. I prefer those that are used, but only once. We Americans do that really well". Downey's snide, witty, confident, even possibly decadent boy genius is well worth watching. In some ways more interesting than the boy scouts who have inhabited those other suits of crime-fighting armor.

A life-changing experience befalls him, as he is kidnapped by the very terrorists he has been trying to help kill. His fame as a gun-running genius has preceded him, and they want him to make a super weapon for them. In the pressure of the captive moment Stark (Downey) fools his captors into thinking he is making their terrorists dream machine, and instead makes an escape vehicle for himself, in the form of an Iron Man flying suit of armor. Think Robocop meets the Rocketeer.

He escapes, but just barely, as he crashes the suit, but still gets away. This near death experience changes him, and he makes a pack with himself to do good unto others. Mostly because he's a cool guy with all the money and brains- and so he can.

The making of this film from the Marvel comic books has fascinated many of Hollywood's big names for years. Both Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise were interested in playing Iron Man. Cruise in particular planned to both act in and produce the film. Then in October 1999 Quentin Tarantino was approached to write and direct the film. Later, Joss Whedon, a big fan of the comic book, was in negotiations to direct the film for a June 2001 release. By December 2004 Nick Cassavetes was hired as a director, with the plan for the film to be released in the summer of 2006, but all of that- everything- fell through.

Finally, Jon Favreau was hired as director. And here we are.

If you are not a fan of the comic book you may not know, the character Tony Stark was originally based on that of billionaire recluse Howard Hughes. So it was particularly ironic that the movie was filmed at Playa Vista studios, whose sound stages were once the hangers where Howard Hughes built the aircraft the Spruce Goose, still regarded as the largest plane to ever fly at that time.

If you're not familiar with the character, he's yet another of the heroes created during that flurry of creativity at Marvel in the 1960s. Writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby's creative partnership can realistically be compared to the creative genius of Lennon and McCartney. One duo in music, the other in the comics business. Between them and their collaborators (Steve Ditko, Bill Everett, etc.), they created the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Daredevil, Spider-Man and, of course the latest, Iron Man. In the case of the latter, Lee was editor and story plotter, Kirby provided designs and covers, and the other duties fell to scripter Larry Lieber and story-artist Don Heck.

Jon Favreau himself describes the film as "a kind of independent film-espionage- thriller-crossbreed; as if Robert Altman had directed Superman (1978), with shades of Tom Clancy novels, James Bond films, RoboCop (1987), and Batman Begins (2005)."

Again, it can be said it is fluff. But my oh my it is hugely entertaining fluff. A less mind-numbing experience than Spider-man 3, but more substantial than Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer, Iron Man clocks in at 126 minutes. It seems from here audiences looking for grand escapist fare at cinemas this summer won’t mind having spent their price of admission on it.