rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2008
Directed by Jon Favreau; produced by Avi Arad, Kevin Feige; screenplay by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Terence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, Shaun Toub, Jon Favreau
'Iron Man' is about a super hero, but his super powers are created by himself instead of handed to him by spiders, mutation or just bad luck. Admittedly, Batman has no real super powers either, but for some reason most people think he has. Maybe it's the cape. Iron Man looks like the robots from 1950s science fiction films, or from the animated 'The Iron Giant', but it's only a suite, inhabited by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), an arrogant and wealthy business man.
Stark's business is weapons. While promoting one of them in Afghanistan he is captured and forced by his prisoners to make the weapon for them too. Instead he builds an armored suit, escapes, and after he has seen his weapons are used by the enemy, decides his company will no longer create weapons, something second man Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) is not happy with. Stark puts his time and effort to enhance his suit, eventually being able to fly as fast as a fighter jet.
As did 'Spider-Man', the film has a lot of fun with Stark discovering the possibilities of his new gadgets. Downey Jr. is the key in these scenes. I have liked this actor since I really noticed him in 'Chaplin' and 'Natural Born Killers' and I am glad he has found hiw way back into interesting projects after his drug addiciton. Since hit series Ally McBeal - he was one of positive things in it - he has made a series of good films, at least partly because of his presence. I am talking 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang', 'Good Night, and Good Luck', 'Zodiac' and 'Charlie Bartlett'. Now he feeds 'Iron Man' that little bit of extra it needs.
This film belongs to the more entertaining comic book adaptations of recent years, even though we have been spoiled with 'X2', 'Spider-Man 2', 'Sin City' and 'Batman Begins'. It introduces characters the way it should, is able to tell a entire story instead of just the prologue to the sequel, but still makes us want too see that second film. It also shows the guts to open popcorn entertainment in an existing war (Afghanistan) without offending the audience, something I thought only 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' could pull off. Come to think of it, 'X2' did it too...
In the end 'Iron Man' is the kind of film summer needs. Great action, mixed with comedy, actors having fun (I failed to mention Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark's assistent and Terence Howard as his closest friend), and at least some intelligence. I can not wait to see 'Iron Man 2', which leaves me to tell you to keep watching until after the end credits.