Iron Man

Tuesday, 29 Apr 2008 15:22

Robert Downey Jr stars as ol' Shellhead in the Marvel blockbuster

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i>Directed by Jon Favreau, out Friday May 2nd, starring Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, running time 125 mins.

In a nutshell…

Hate terrorists? Hire a superhero.

What's it all about?

When cocky industrialist Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is held captive by terrorists after a botched weapons display in Afghanistan, he uses his unique genius to turn his tormentors' task against them, ignoring their demands of a monolithic bomb and creating his own groundbreaking fight suit.

After taking out his wrath on the insurgents who kidnapped him, Stark moves to upgrade his suit of armour - adding "a little hot-rod red" - but the discovery of a conscience pits him against former mentor Obadiah Stane (Bridges) and the fight between good and evil gets a little closer to home.



Who's in it?

As actors' CVs go, Downey Jr's must have been one of the most worrying for studios to survey after director Jon Favreau threw his name into the hat, with the character inhibition that earned Downey Jr an Oscar nomination for Chaplin forgotten amid a flurry of drug arrests and a very public meltdown culminating in an unseemly standoff with police. But with a career redemption commenced in Wonder Boys and a superb comic timing exhibited in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, he's actually a perfect fit for the swaggering amorality of Stark.

Gwyneth Paltrow adds spice as Stark's PA/love interest Pepper Potts - forgive the name, it's a comic book movie, after all - while Oscar nominees Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges are on hand as Stark's best friend Colonel James Rhodes and his eventual arch rival Obadiah Stane.

And having shown how "money" he was in Swingers, Favreau moved behind the camera, faltering briefly with the underrated Zathura before showing a deft hand for emotion in Elf. And, well, he's got a whole franchise ahead of him after this…

As an example…

"Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair, can I ask you a couple of questions?" - Reporter
(whispered) "She's cute… " - Hogan
(whispered) "She's alright?" (Turns) "Sure!" - Stark

"I've been in captivity for three months and there are two things I want - one, an American cheeseburger, and the other is… not what you think." - Stark

"Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing." - Stark

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

Technical prizes are the only categories in which Iron Man is likely to be rewarded by the Academy - justifiably, too, after ILM's work on Transformers was overlooked - but Downey Jr's performance should comfortably see him in best actor categories at the Empire and MTV movie awards.

What the others say

"Light on both CGI and moral quandaries, [it possesses] neither the zip and sparkle of a Spider-Man nor the brooding existential subtexts of Batman Begins." - David Jenkins, Time Out

"Iron Man may not make the A-list of Marvel Comics' stable - home to Spider-Man, X-Men and the Hulk - but he may be the cinema superhero for the rest of us." - Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter

So is it any good?

The metal crackle of AC/DC's Back in Black opens the movie in Afghanistan and the livewire, sharp-tongued presence of Downey Jr's Stark is comfortably established, only for an untimely interruption from Afghan insurgents to dirty his suit and sully his intentions - for the good. This is all a preamble, however, and Favreau chooses an ingeniously explicit method exposition of Stark's back story, using a multimedia presentation ahead of the antihero winning an award. With all that out of the way, we can embark on a exploration of his brilliantly ridiculous playboy life, bantering back and forth with Rhodes and Potts, and showing off the stunning weaponry produced by his company and later the suit (with ILM's explosive effects in jawdropping form).

Stark's strength and greatest weakness are clearly defined in his battery-powered heart - with electromagnets preventing internal shrapnel from ending his life and powering the Mk II suit, the assembly of which - complete with trial and error mishaps, and perfectly-timed comic beats - is easily the most exhilarating part of the movie.

Fittingly, as armoured Stark resembles a living, breathing Transformer, there's an unshakeable sense that the Middle Eastern undertones to Favreau's picture make Iron Man almost the facsimile of a Michael Bay movie with a brain.

It's still a Marvel movie, however, and while consistently entertaining and dominated by an overwhelmingly charismatic performance from Downey Jr, it might be too obsessed with guns and bombs to attract anything other than a male audience.

The climax leans too easily towards a cliched race-against-the-clock climax, but thankfully, the potentially ridiculous sight of two respected actors barking at each other in iron suits is salvaged by their respective performances and Favreau's knack for extracting emotion from a scene.

As Black Sabbath's Iron Man roars over the closing credits, a new franchise is born - and set for bigger bangs next time.

7/10

Lewis Bazley

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