I am not a big fan of comic book films, so I haven’t exactly been thrilled with the modern tendency of churning out multi-million dollar blockbuster adaptations year after year. We’ve had how many comic book movies in the past decade or so? Batman & Robin, Batman Begins, the three Spider-Man flicks, the two X-Men movies, Superman Returns, Daredevil, and Hulk, not to mention the upcoming The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight. Whew!
Out of all of those, I’ve only seen a few and have only enjoyed Batman Begins and Spider-Man 2. So what made me want to go see Iron Man — yet another adaptation from Marvel — even though I’d never even heard of the character before? Because of all the rave reviews it received from critics across the country, and because I like me some Robert Downey, Jr.!
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Downey, Jr. stars as billionaire genius Tony Stark who has made his fortune developing and selling advanced weapons to the highest bidder without regard to how, where, or by whom those weapons are actually used. He’s also a womanizer and a drunk, and he doesn’t mind showing off how wealthy he is. Because of his less than stellar personality, the only people who can stand to be around him are Pepper Potts (played by Gwenyth Paltrow), his personal assistant; Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard), Stark’s friend and connection in the military; and Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), the man who helps Stark run his company.
Early in the film, Stark is kidnapped in Afghanistan by a militant group called the Ten Rings after traveling to that country to demonstrate his latest weapon system. During the kidnapping attempt, Stark is injured by shrapnel, which compromises his heart. Fortunately, he’s placed in captivity with a man named Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub), who rigs a device to help keep Stark’s heart going. Later, the two of them build a more permanent solution using technology developed by Stark’s company years ago.
The leader of Ten Rings, Raza (Faran Tahir), orders Stark to build them a replica of the new weapons system using components that Ten Rings has on hand. Raza then locks Stark and Yinsen in a cave together, monitors them on closed circuit TV, and doesn’t seem to notice that Stark seems to be working on a massive iron suit instead of a weapons system.
When the suit is ready, Stark and Yinsen plan to make their escape. Yinsen is killed while running interference for Stark, and tells the billionaire not to go on wasting his life. Stark takes Yinsen’s words to heart after he returns home, choosing to hole himself up in his basement lab until he perfects the Iron Man version 2.0 suit.
From that point forward, the film follows Stark’s trial-and-error approach to building the Iron Man suit, his resolve to change his company’s focus to something more positive, and eventually, his fight to save everyone from the evil Iron Monger.
My Reaction: I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised by Iron Man. As I mentioned before, I’d never even heard of this character before the movie promos started going out, so I didn’t know what to expect. But I think going in with a clean slate helped me appreciate the origin story a lot more than I would have if I’d known all about the comics, and made for an enjoyable 2-hour show.
My favorite part of the film, by far, was Robert Downey, Jr.’s performance. He was very believable as a genius billionaire without a conscience, and his transformation into a superhero didn’t stretch the bounds of credibility all that much either. He was funny throughout, and seemed very comfortable in the role. Moreover, it was such a refreshing change to come across a superhero who embraces his role. Usually these guys are very reluctant to give up everything for the sake of their alter egos. In fact, one of my favorite parts of the film was the scene at the end when Stark just admits at the press conference that yes, he is Iron Man. How cool was that?
I also appreciated the fact that the storyline in Iron Man was pretty straightforward and easy to follow. The bad guys wanted to get their hands on Stark’s weapons so they could rule their little patch of the mountains. Stane was a traitor. No problem understanding any of that stuff!
Overall, I thought Iron Man was a very strong film from beginning to end. You don’t have to be a comic book fanboy to enjoy this one, so go out and see it in theaters. It’s definitely worth the price of admission, and I give it 8.0 stars out of 10!