Iron Man

A certain ad during the Super Bowl inspired me to begin reviewing the films leading up to the Avengers. First on the list is Iron Man, which came out in 2008, was directed by Jon Favreau and stars Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges.

I really didn't want to see this movie at first because I just didn't think Iron Man was an interesting enough character to have his whole movie. But Robert Downey Jr. proved me otherwise. He is completely perfect as Tony Stark. He's a huge jerk, but is still incredibly likable. He completely owned the role and made the movie, and definitely deserves a point in my book.

I will add another point for turning Jarvis into a computer. In the comics, Jarvis was originally Tony Stark's butler and a near clone of Bruce Wayne's Alfred. Stark and Wayne already share too much in common, so it was a really good idea for them to try to separate the two a little more in the movie. Now, Jarvis is a pretty cool omnipresent computer, attached to some really cool computers and technology Stark has in his house.

The score will rise to an 8 for Pepper Potts. She seems like a meek and lowly assistant, but quickly shows her underlying strength with the "taking out the trash" line to the skanky reporter. Potts also has great chemistry with Stark, and it was a delight whenever the two of them were together on screen.

I love how they took their time with Tony in the cave. It was really cool to see him build his suit in secret and really show just how smart he is. We also got to see him slowly grow up, and while he still is quite pompous, he now is more responsible and concerned with what's going on in the world. It was also pretty neat when he first put that suit on and blasted the bad guys with his flame throwers. That's when we knew we had a serious movie on our hands. The score is now 9.

The most important thing in this movie was the suit. It had to look realistic and super cool. They succeeded on both counts. And, like in the cave, they took their time showing Tony put the suit together. It was a really fun process, and it had a great payoff when it finally came together.

I will have to take a point off for the skanky journalist. I didn't mind her first appearance, but for her to return at a high-scale party with very good, very classified pictures was just too much for me. How'd she get those pictures? And why did she get all dressed up to show them to people at the party? The movie already showed that she's not a very good journalist because she slept with her source, but now she's supposed to be this hard-hitting investigator? Give me a break. Having studied journalism at college, I am perhaps a little overly sensitive to how they are portrayed in movies, but I think most reasonable people were annoyed by this character.

I can't help but add another point for when Tony takes the real suit out in action. He was picking up guys and throwing them around like nothing, using special targeting guns to take out the bad guys with hostages, ripping through walls to grab guys, and blowing up tanks. It was a lot of fun to watch. I also liked the element of realism with the Air Force getting involved. You really wouldn't be able to just fly into the middle of a war zone without repercussions.

One of my biggest worries with this movie was who the villain would be. Let's face it, Iron Man doesn't have very many good villains. But Obadiah Stane was a really good choice here. He was someone on the inside, someone you don't suspect at first. And he is incredibly calm, collected and in control for most of the film. He does show a couple of hints of explosiveness, which was good, but then he kind of went completely insane too quickly. He had been working up this master scheme perfectly for so long and then suddenly he's in the suit, throwing cars around, not caring who he kills or who sees him. I know he was about to be arrested, but it would have been good if they could have taken a little more time to show his world collapsing around him, giving him a little more justification to snap.

The very end of the movie was a legitimate surprise, and a refreshing one at that, when Tony simply said, "I am Iron Man." It doesn't make sense for his character to pretend like Iron Man is his body guard, but it makes complete sense for him to confidently boast about the awesome machine he invented. It really does make for a nice change of pace to have a superhero unconcerned with his secret identity.

I could also add another point for the inclusion of SHIELD and Nick Fury at the end of the credits. This movie was not only trying to be a good movie on its own and save Marvel after the X-Men and Spider-Man shot themselves in the foot, but Iron Man was hoping to set up a new Marvel continuity where various films would be connected and have cross-overs. Now, that plan is finally coming to fruition, thanks to the success of this film.

Iron Man not only breathed life in the Marvel movie business, but it shot the character Iron Man up to the top of Marvel comics. Suddenly he became their version of Batman, appearing in every major adventure (and sometimes too many for my taste). But that's what happens when you make a really cool and realistic film. In time, I believe this film will be as historically significant as the first Superman and Batman movies. Technically, it gets a 12, but I won't go over 100%.

Final score: 10 out of 10.