Iron Man: A Strong Showing from Lesser Marvel Property
By Matt Nathanson | May 11, 2008
Category: The Wasteland
Directed by Jon Favreau
Starring Robert Downy Jr.
4.5/5 Units of Awesome
Aside from its likeable lead, well-crafted screenplay, tasteful romance, and thoroughly enjoyable action scenes, Iron Man sucks. Luckily for myself and for the millions of movie-goers who saw it this weekend, it has all those things going for it.
To reviewers, screenwriters, or anyone else interested in the mechanics behind the Summer Blockbuster, the script of Iron Man reads as a litany of what separates a good superhero movie from the studio flotsam tricked out over the last few summers – the abysmal Daredevil and The Punisher merely the tip of the huge, crappy iceberg. Why not have capable actors? Yes, I know Jessica Alba has great cans, but why should we accept her half-hearted attempt to interact with (poorly) green-screened CGI in sub-par action flicks? Why not have smartly written dialogue? Yes, I know this means hiring writers as opposed to shitting a script out in the executive washroom, but isn’t that what movies are about? Iron Man says, yes, I will learn the lessons of my fallen brethren. No, I will not cast Jessica Alba. No, I will not make a movie that simultaneously costs more than Slovenia’s GNP yet in all its vapidity leaves you feeling briefly, and ingloriously, raped. Bravo, director Jon Favreau, on not raping us.
It helps that casting is spot-on, with Robert Downy, Jr. proving yet again that he can take even mediocre material and make it shine (I’m thinking Ally McBeal here, which in the interest of full disclosure I did watch while Mr. Downy guest starred). I’d watch Robert Downy Jr. sit quietly in a room and play BattleChess on an Apple IIGS. He’s that entertaining. In fact, some of this movie’s best scenes involved RDJ merely talking to himself, punching numbers on keyboards, or occasionally wielding a blowtorch in dimly lit terrorist caves. That’s talent, folks. And the rest of the cast – almost inconceivably for a Marvel film – works too. We have no Hallie Berrie-esque miscalculations here (X-Men’s “Storm” will be ruined forever): everyone from Jeff Bridges to Gwenyth Paltrow suits their role. No one tries to steal the film, which is ultimately and unavoidably Iron Man’s, with trebly and uneven drama. And this is why we get what many are considering one of the first truly character-driven superhero movies: the actors show up, they do their bits, and then they go home. We get just enough to leave us wanting more, and we do.
The great unbilled star of Iron Man is the James-Bondish technology that inhabits Tony Stark’s world and constantly tantalizes the audience with what science has made possible in the last few years – the carrot at the end of the stick being the suggestion that one day technology will allow there to be superheros in the real world after all. This great paratextual suggestion—breathed by the images on screen but only resonating in our deeply puerile imaginations—is what elicited the most “Ohhs” and “Ahhs” from the high-school students and adventurous middle-aged couples that littered the theatre I sat in. Holograms, jet engines, computer-modeled advanced engineering, and high-concept cars: these semi-scientific (im)possibilities are what make the journey far-fetched and fantastic yet also, implausibly, give an air of authenticity. Will we ever be able to develop precision jet-packs allowing unfettered flight? Or, for that matter, how many years away are servile household robots with a comedic sense of irony? For the next two hours and six minutes we are delivered right there: the unspecified but not-too-distant future. And boy is it shiny and fun.
My few problems with the movie don’t amount to much and are basically excusable by using the eternal trump card of: “it’s a comic book movie after all” (for instance, what kind of terrorists would allow their captive that much freedom to build a bomb? They were really asking for the subsequent flame-thrower massacre…) All in all, if Iron Man is an early harbinger of the estival movie season I say bring it on full-throttle. And the best part is that now maybe the summer blockbuster season will start a bit earlier and give us some more thoughtful comic book adaptations than what we have been used to. Honestly I don’t see any reason for the trend to stop, because, as far as selling seats and popcorn goes, Iron is gold.
In addition to examining film, television, and books, Matt Nathanson is licensed to review anything in the universe. Like a city. Or a year. Or snow. Matt works in television and is a graduate of Tufts.