2008 / 136 Minutes / PG-13
Reviewed by Dale J. Nauertz

Bruce Wayne is a pussy.

At least, he is compared to Tony Stark. As played by Robert Downey Jr., Tony Stark puts the smart in smart ass. He’s a child prodigy who grew up to become a munitions mogul, taking control of his daddy’s defense company and making smarter smart bombs, bigger and better missiles, more indestructible tanks and generally anything else that one country could use to destroy another. He’s become a billionaire by inventing new ways for people to kill each other en masse. He’s also the coolest alter ego in any superhero flick EVER! Whether he’s bedding a reporter bent on slandering him, talking smack to the computer system HE created or dinking around in his lab with a soldering gun, he’s the coolest cat in town. He drives fast cars, has a private jet (complete with hot stewardesses and a stripper pole), drinks constantly, wears cool sunglasses, has the best quips, is insanely charming and is always the smartest dude in the room. He’s like James Bond and Q rolled into one. Even before he becomes a superhero, this dude is a superhero.

But then he gets kidnapped by a group of Afghan terrorists who intend to force him to build them a better bomb. This makes Stark rethink his entire business strategy, as well as his outlook on the world and his place in it. But, first and foremost, he has to get out of that cave. So instead of building the superweapon his captors demand, he creates an electromagnetic device that will keep bits of shrapnel from piercing his heart…and uses the materials they’ve given him to build a badass iron super-soldier suit that will enable him to escape.

Stark escapes (oh, does he ever) and returns to his palatial estate in Malibu. He’s had a change of heart but that doesn’t make him a pansy. He does scrap his company’s lucrative arms and defense division, but he doesn’t stop being a smart ass or sell his garage full of sports cars. His contribution toward making the world a better place? Refining his super-soldier suit and defending the world from his own weapons and the psychopathic warlords who wield them.

It’s the self-made man aspect of this superhero movie that makes it so refreshing. That and Downey’s incredible turn as Tony Stark. Downey has always been a hell of an actor, something that’s been overshadowed in recent years by his addictions and off-screen shenanigans. But it’s easy to forget all those while watching him swagger through this movie, commanding it with a lift of the eyebrows or a simple smug grin. He easily captures the thrill of creating an amazing bit of technology as well as the obsessive nature of the creative act and the self-centered aspect of moneyed genius. And when Stark’s view of the world is shaken to the core and he decides to do something about it, Downey is remarkably convincing at that as well. As Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr. gives the finest performance in the history of comic book heroes. That’s not an exaggeration. He’s really that damn good. The CGI effects in this movie are awesome and endlessly thrilling, but Downey is the real special effect. The whole enterprise would come crashing down without him. He’s the jet boosters that keep “Iron Man” airborne.

The other actors do almost as well. Jeff Bridges is in fine form (as almost always) playing the man who helped Stark’s father build this munitions empire and isn’t exactly thrilled when Stark comes home promising to dismantle it. Gwyneth Paltrow is handed a rather thankless role as the standard love interest, but she does the most she can with it. She has some fine moments, especially when doubting the sincerity of Downey’s sudden life change. Terrence Howard isn’t given as much to work with, but he’s likable enough throughout this film. Jon Favreau started his career writing plum roles for himself and Vince Vaughn in the effervescent sleeper “Swingers” twelve years ago (sidebar: has it really been twelve years? Damn, I’m getting old.) and he brings his obvious talent for snappy dialogue with him as director of this affair and adds a gift for coaxing great performances out of admittedly great actors. Assuming that a lot of their time was spent staring at lights in front of a green screen, this quite a feat (one that old pros like George Lucas often have difficulty with).

Also, for an actors’ director, Favreau and his collaborators do an excellent job with the film’s plethora of action sequences. Not only are the action scenes gorgeous and thrilling, they’re also easy to follow. I’m so sick of movies like “Batman Begins” and particularly the “Bourne” films, wherein the viewer can barely tell what the hell is going on. Here’s a note to Hollywood: if you’re going to spend all this money creating this huge set pieces, keep the camera still so we can tell what you’ve spent that money on. Shaking the camera doesn’t make me feel like I’m in the middle of the action, it just pisses me off (and sometimes makes me motion sick). Favreau does a great job of letting the audience know exactly what’s happening and how it affects the characters within the scene as well as the backgrounds surrounding them. Well done.

“Iron Man” isn’t just Another Damn Superhero Movie. “Iron Man” is compelling storytelling that moves at a brisk pace without sacrificing character or any of the little touches that make a movie like this stand out. It also has some interesting things to say about our current geo-political environment and our responsibility within that framework…without battering its audience over the head with them. Iron Man’s first act of superheroics, for example, isn’t saving a kitten from a tree or rescuing some crashing commercial airliner, it’s jetting over to the Middle East and saving a village of Afghans from violent warlords. It’s nice to see a hero that works worldwide, for a change. Even Superman only seemed to spend most of his time hanging around Metropolis. It’s something about superhero movies that never pissed me off until “Iron Man” made me realize how annoying it was.

Alas, “Iron Man” isn’t perfect. The romantic subplot between Stark and his long-suffering assistant Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow and, incidentally, isn’t that one of the goofiest names you’ve ever heard?) is good but doesn’t quite measure up to the rest of the film. And the climactic fight between Iron Man and another steely titan isn’t as awesome as it could have been. But even with those couple of shortcomings, “Iron Man” is one of the finest superhero films of all time. It ranks right up there with Tim Burton’s original “Batman”, Sam Raimi’s first two “Spider Man”s and “X2″.

It actually leaves me giddily awaiting its inevitable sequel.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.