1. Somebody did their homework. It is amazing, in hindsight, exactly how much Iron Man lore was crammed into a 126-minute feature film. You had the complete origin tale showing how and why Tony Stark first donned the suit, you had Tony’s social consciousness awakening when he decides to shift his company away from weapons development, you have most of the major supporting cast from the early years (even Happy Hogan gets his perpetually-scowling face on screen for a few moments), and you have Tony being progressively pushed out of his own corporation by a scheming Obidiah Stane. Really, with the exception of Tony’s alcoholism (and there’s even a subtle nod to that – read on), you could say that in one movie we were treated to a hyper-compressed Reader’s Digest version of the first 20 years of Iron Man comics. Yet, amazingly, the movie never feels rushed, and all the pieces fit together beautifully.

2. It’s all about the little things. There are little, subtle details in Iron Man that will have fanboys going nuts. For instance, the very first time we lay eyes on Tony, he has a drink in his hand – comics fans will undoubtedly be familiar with Tony’s past grapples with alcoholism, even though this movie makes no mention of it. Later on, we see Obidiah Stane looking up from a chess game to watch TV; Stane, during his comics tenure, was a chess fanatic that was often seen using the game as a metaphor for his own plots. Still later, after Tony suits up to take his company back from Stane, Rhodey casts a wistful glance over to a prototype Iron Man suit, only to comment “Next time, maybe”… a nice, subtle foreshadowing of War Machine. Speaking of the suit, Tony’s first pass at Iron Man (developed in the cave with Yinsen) actually looks very much like Don Heck’s original design from the first comic story - and if you look quick, you can see Tony design, then reject, an all-golden version of that armor before settling on the iconic red-and-gold color scheme. There are some Easter eggs in the dialogue too; Stane, at one point, refers to men like him and Tony as “iron mongers” (Iron Monger was the name given to Stane’s own battlesuit, and it’s even in the script for this movie, though it is not spoken onscreen), and I’m pretty sure I heard someone utter the phrase “tales of suspense” (the Marvel comic in which “ol’ Shellhead” first appeared in 1962), though I can’t confirm it.

3. Robert Downey, Jr. is Anthony Stark. Let’s face it, sometimes “stunt casting” doesn’t work out at all. Actually, it’s rare when it does work. This is one of those rare times. Downey really nails Stark to a T, and comes off almost exactly the way I always “saw” him in my head when reading the old comics. (The goatee has to go, however; it does you no favors when you look almost exactly like wimpy WWE announcer Michael Cole. Just IMO, of course.) He’s a hoot as the fast-talking, carefree “playboy millionaire” during the opening sequences, and his somewhat sarcastic running commentary of his own experiments with the suit deftly recalls some of Stan Lee’s witty asides to the reader back in the day. On a less lighthearted note, Downey pulls off an eminently credible depiction of Stark’s transformation from “spoiled rich kid” to a “mine eyes have seen the light” denouncer of weapons manufacture, and makes such an improbably-fast shift in values believable. Not many actors can do that without the smell of camp creeping in, but Downey does well in keeping it as real as possible under the circumstances. Excellent job.

4. Good Lord, that is Jeff Bridges? I absolutely did not recognize him as the bald, heavily bearded Obidiah Stane. He’s certainly changed his look over the years, hasn’t he? Maybe it’s a side effect of the new “Merlin Olsen” look, but I didn’t even recognize his voice!

5. They let her keep her name? In today’s PC-obsessed entertainment society, I would’ve thought the chances a major female character with the nom de plume of “Pepper Potts” would be a non-starter. Either I know far too little about how Hollywood thinks, or a lot of writers were simply unaware that her name used to be a slightly “blue” slang term for big breasts. Even the comics eventually had her going largely by her given name (Virginia) after a while. Regardless, Gwynneth Paltrow turns in a fine performance as Tony’s all-purpose “Girl Friday,” with a wonderfully understated crush on her boss sparking the romantic angle that, unlike past superhero movies, never threatens to dominate the film. (Yes, Spidey, I’m looking right at you here…)

6. I’m getting the soundtrack CD at the earliest opportunity. Yes, a certain Black Sabbath song (or at least a remix thereof) is evidently part of it, but that’s not my motivation here. The soundtrack itself is one of the best I’ve ever heard in a superhero movie; what it lacks in bombast, it more than makes up for in catchiness.

7. The updates work, but… One of the major problems with Iron Man compared to the other heroes created during Marvel’s early-’60s resurgence was the fact that his origin was so closely tied to Vietnam. We weren’t yet “in” ‘Nam in 1962, but Tony Stark was still there doing weapons testing. The shrapnel in his heart was put there by a Viet Cong landmine, and when he was captured, it was done so explicitly by the VC. This presented a problem in later years simply because, while time keeps moving forward on our side of the comic page, the same cannot be said for those whose lives are but so much ink on newsprint. As Vietnam receded further into history, a little retconning was necessary to keep up with Marvel’s in-house dictum that it’s never more than ten years since a given superhero’s first appearance. Ultimately, they found a way to keep the explicit Vietnam references out of Iron Man’s origin story, simply by stating the apparent VC were really soldiers in the employ of the Mandarin, one of Iron Man’s most iconic foes. This is good, as it keeps the whole thing from becoming dated. However, the movie shifts the locale of Tony’s injury from the jungles of Southeast Asia to the sand-swept desert of Afghanistan. While effort is made to keep things nonspecific to current US military activity (by eventually having it revealed that Stane paid off the “insurgents” to kill Stark), there’s still the danger that one day down the line, Afghanistan will become as dated a reference as Vietnam is today. On the other hand, film dates far less spectacularly than do comic books, so it may be a non-issue. Time alone will tell. (One thing that really works, however, given that one of the main themes of Iron Man sees Tony trying to pull out of the war-profiteering racket, is that his injured heart comes courtesy of one of his company’s own weapons. If that doesn’t get you to open your eyes, nothing would…)

8. One-two-three-four, we don’t want your Civil War! Iron Man is a great movie on many levels, but as a comics fan, one of the most pleasant things about it is how it so thoroughly cleanses my palate of the foul taste left there by (IMO) the garbage known as Civil War. The Tony Stark we see here is not the “neo-fascist” Stark who championed registration, founded the Initiative, and sparked perhaps the single most divisive conflict among the so-called “good guys” yet depicted on good old Earth-616. The movie divorces itself of all that convoluted Quesada crap, which in my eyes is a Good Thing of the highest order. In so doing, it actually accomplishes the near-impossible – it makes Iron Man a sympathetic character again. I can only hope some of this spills over into the comics.

9. “You know what, screw it. I am Iron Man!” I heart the last scene, which really goes straight for the jugular in playing up how absurd the whole notion of a “secret identity” can really be. Admittedly, Iron Man originally had one of the most flaccid cover stories of any Silver Age superhero – and that covers a lot of ground, folks – by making him supposedly one of Tony Stark’s “bodyguards.” Even Tony himself knows that nobody’s going to believe this story when the SHIELD agent feeds it to him, as indeed they do not… so right there, on the spot, in the last shot of the film, Tony decides to just play it straight and admit to the whole world that, to paraphrase another great movie line, he is the hero they’re looking for. It plays perfectly into the impetuous, spontaneous nature of Downey’s Stark, plus it underscores just how different the world is today from the Silver Age. In these Internet-savvy days, you just can’t believably keep up appearances anymore; the days of Superman being able to don glasses and comb his hair to hide in plain sight are long gone. That this movie acknowledges, however implicitly, the ridiculousness of such measures is a wonderful note to end on. (Besides, after only a few years it came out in the comics that Tony was Iron Man anyway, so it’s not like the filmmakers were stepping on any toes with that one.)

10. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! Yes, Stan the Man gets his now-customary cameo appearance in a Marvel movie, this one being probably the most jaw-droppingly audacious yet. Just keep your eyes open. You’ll see.

My overall opinion: Of all the recent superhero movies that’ve graced our multiplexes since the first Spider-Man in 2002, Iron Man may well be the best one yet. It hits almost all the right buttons, appeals to both casual moviegoers and the Comic Book Guys of the world, and the two hours just whizzes pleasantly by. If there is a negative to be found, it’s that the film is maybe a bit too predictable, but all these movies follow an obvious pattern anyway, so that’s not too overly annoying. Go see it, if you can – I cannot concieve of anyone being disappointed.

If you liked that, try...

1. Spider-Man 3 Swings and Stings
2. Watchmen production blog started
3. Whedon’s next project not Wonder Woman after all
4. Comic Rundown: Sweet Salvation
5. Comic Rundown: Howard the Duck is the Highlight?!!?

2 Comments »

1. 
   Shawn M.
   May 3, 2008 at 2:28 pm

   11, if I may: The scene after the credits looks like it might set up some interesting possibilities for the future.

   I loved this movie. Loved it. Even though I grew up reading Spider-Man and didn’t follow Stark’s adventures, Iron Man did things so right. Perfect pacing, a great story, and perfect casting (Spider-Man 1 had been my previous favorite Marvel movie, but Kirsten Dunst’s MJ has always been a sore spot for me). After a minute of watching Robert Downey Jr. onscreen, I totally forgot it was him and not the real-life Tony Stark.

   I’ll probably end up seeing it another time or two while it’s out, which is a pretty rare thing for me. It’s that great. Great movie, and great article, Devin.

   [Reply]
   Devin de Gruyl Reply:
   May 3rd, 2008 at 3:02 pm

   I’d heard there was an extra post-credits scene, but the Philistine in the projection booth cut back to the stupid policy-statement slides my theater shows in between movies just about a minute before the final crawl ended. I know I heard something about an Avengers tease…

   [Reply]

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