With Iron Hands: Regarding Iron Man
I don't know if you remember but going into 2008, superhero movies were generally regarded as entertaining schlock. Like there were a few that caught audiences by surprise (Batman Begins, Spider-Man 2), but nothing had really captured mainstream attention anywhere near the level it has now. My roommates and I watched Iron Man, the inaugural flick in the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe on opening night and it was immediately clear that this was a caliber above anything that had preceded it; it was a comic book movie that didn't necessarily feel like a comic book movie, that almost derivative quality that was pervasive in the genre.
To speak how much of a bad rap superhero movies were getting at the time, I had to convince my girlfriend to see a showing of it later in the week like it was a Michael Bay movie. Keep in mind this was someone that loved Star Wars so much she was a Jar Jar Binks apologist and was into Star Trek and would read comics and all that stuff. Convincing someone like her to watch Iron Man wouldn't be a task at all now. I was faced with skepticism every step of the way before the cinema lights dimmed in 2008.
The movie works because of Robert Downey, Jr. Straight up. Without his charismatically eccentric performance as Tony Stark, there is very likely no Marvel Cinematic Universe. And this was a time when audiences were starting to grow wary of superhero movies again too. People went out to see Spider-Man 3 and X-Men: The Last Stand but everyone agreed both of those movies fucking sucked. And those are Marvel A-list properties; before 2008, nobody knew who the hell Iron Man was so Marvel Studios needed to come out the gate with a strong win.
What makes Tony Stark interesting is that he's a hopelessly self-centered, egotistical bastard even after he puts on the suit. Sure, the tech-driven genius billionaire philanthropist shuts down his weapons manufacturing empire to go out and fight injustice around the world as the armored Avenger Iron Man but it all comes from a selfish place. Zooming across the world to blow shit up without checking in with anyone, treating his friends like absolute garbage, mouthing off everywhere from the red carpet to Capitol Hill because he can, Stark (at this point, anyway) believes himself above the consequences; that his genius-level intellect and Midas Touch with tech simply makes him better than everybody else.
Iron Man was not a character I was big into as a kid reading comics. His villains largely were usually just knock-offs of himself and byproducts of a recently finished Cold War (Crimson Dynamo? Titanium Man?). His cartoon wasn't as cool as Batman or the X-Men. Also, his Jheri curled hair and mustache made him look like an unholy cross between John Oates and Magnum, PI which was somehow maddeningly disappointing.
More than that, there was the idea that anyone that could be Iron Man if you just put on the suit. It really was Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's Extremis storyline (an influence on this film as well as Iron Man 3) that made me realize only Tony Stark is truly Iron Man. A supergenius of the Marvel mold that is only ever completely in his element tinkering with machinery living in a world of electromagnetism and circuitry, Tony Stark can't help but put his mind towards crafting lethal weapons, it's what he was put on Earth to do, how he brought his father's company to stratospheric heights after taking the reins. Sure, he does it to right the wrongs he caused as the world's leading weapons manufacturer and of course he's a hero but how many different ways can the Iron Man armor straight up murder someone with little more than the flick of a wrist? Fucking shitloads, that's how many.
That's a running subtext for the character throughout these films and it starts from square one with OUR HERO getting knocked on his ass by a missile bearing his own name. Jeff Bridges (I know his character's name is Obadiah Stane but, hell, he's just evil Jeff Bridges) accuses Tony as much reminding him in trying to rid the world of his weapons, he gave it his best one yet; Bridges/Stane is not wrong. Stark can't help himself, he needs to build stuff that spectacularly blows shit up.
Years later, I learned most of the dialogue in this film was improvised which really speaks to everyone's acting chops, Downey's naturally smug charisma, and his chemistry with his costars particularly Gwyneth Paltrow and Terrence Howard. I always get kinda bummed now whenever Howard looks at the prototype Iron Man suit that would become the War Machine armor in the sequel and remark "next time, baby" because, for Howard, there would be no next time. Baby.
Director Jon Favreau pulled off the under-appreciated tricky feat of introducing Iron Man to audiences all over the world and making him such a beloved character without compromising his more problematic traits. Most of the film still holds up a decade (?!) later because of its likable performances and the sequences of Tony developing his second suit of armor in his Malibu workshop is one of those scenes I wish would never end. The biggest problem areas are something that would haunt many of the franchise's later efforts: A rushed, somewhat perfunctory final showdown that maybe goes on a reel too long. Favreau would consciously up the caliber of his action sequences in the follow-up but that's all a different story for a different day (Like, Wednesday, at this rate?).
When my girlfriend and I walked out of that theater on the outskirts of Yorktown in 2008, she immediately turned to me with the biggest grin on her face and asked if we could see it again. I was grinning too; this was a pre-The Dark Knight world cinematically and I had just seen what comic book movies could be (And despite her initial skepticism, I was safely in her good graces). I went into that theater as someone middling on the character and left it hungry to read more. And that's the highest praise I can give it, I think.
To speak how much of a bad rap superhero movies were getting at the time, I had to convince my girlfriend to see a showing of it later in the week like it was a Michael Bay movie. Keep in mind this was someone that loved Star Wars so much she was a Jar Jar Binks apologist and was into Star Trek and would read comics and all that stuff. Convincing someone like her to watch Iron Man wouldn't be a task at all now. I was faced with skepticism every step of the way before the cinema lights dimmed in 2008.
The movie works because of Robert Downey, Jr. Straight up. Without his charismatically eccentric performance as Tony Stark, there is very likely no Marvel Cinematic Universe. And this was a time when audiences were starting to grow wary of superhero movies again too. People went out to see Spider-Man 3 and X-Men: The Last Stand but everyone agreed both of those movies fucking sucked. And those are Marvel A-list properties; before 2008, nobody knew who the hell Iron Man was so Marvel Studios needed to come out the gate with a strong win.
What makes Tony Stark interesting is that he's a hopelessly self-centered, egotistical bastard even after he puts on the suit. Sure, the tech-driven genius billionaire philanthropist shuts down his weapons manufacturing empire to go out and fight injustice around the world as the armored Avenger Iron Man but it all comes from a selfish place. Zooming across the world to blow shit up without checking in with anyone, treating his friends like absolute garbage, mouthing off everywhere from the red carpet to Capitol Hill because he can, Stark (at this point, anyway) believes himself above the consequences; that his genius-level intellect and Midas Touch with tech simply makes him better than everybody else.
Iron Man was not a character I was big into as a kid reading comics. His villains largely were usually just knock-offs of himself and byproducts of a recently finished Cold War (Crimson Dynamo? Titanium Man?). His cartoon wasn't as cool as Batman or the X-Men. Also, his Jheri curled hair and mustache made him look like an unholy cross between John Oates and Magnum, PI which was somehow maddeningly disappointing.
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| Like if Robert Oppenheimer totally loved being Robert Oppenheimer. |
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| "I shall call him...Mecha Jeff Bridges." |
Director Jon Favreau pulled off the under-appreciated tricky feat of introducing Iron Man to audiences all over the world and making him such a beloved character without compromising his more problematic traits. Most of the film still holds up a decade (?!) later because of its likable performances and the sequences of Tony developing his second suit of armor in his Malibu workshop is one of those scenes I wish would never end. The biggest problem areas are something that would haunt many of the franchise's later efforts: A rushed, somewhat perfunctory final showdown that maybe goes on a reel too long. Favreau would consciously up the caliber of his action sequences in the follow-up but that's all a different story for a different day (Like, Wednesday, at this rate?).
When my girlfriend and I walked out of that theater on the outskirts of Yorktown in 2008, she immediately turned to me with the biggest grin on her face and asked if we could see it again. I was grinning too; this was a pre-The Dark Knight world cinematically and I had just seen what comic book movies could be (And despite her initial skepticism, I was safely in her good graces). I went into that theater as someone middling on the character and left it hungry to read more. And that's the highest praise I can give it, I think.
