Iron Man

It was good. You should go see it. Now.

In all seriousness, if you’ve never seen a Marvel comic strip, or subsequent film adapation in your life, then you should see this film. And you’ll really enjoy it.
If you have read the Marvel comic strips, you should still see this film. But you might not enjoy it as much.

Perhaps I overhyped it. I was never a big Marvel or DC fan, but I had a few comic books and decided pretty early on in my life that Iron Man was my favourite. Probably because at the time (early 1980’s) I was coming to terms with my adoration of Boba Fett, from the Star Wars trilogy. And there are a number of comparison’s to be made.

They bask in the shadows, for instance. Boba Fett stands behind Darth Vader and Jabba the Hutt whenever he is on screen. Iron Man stood in the shadows of more famous comic book superheroes for years, such as Superman, Batman, Spiderman etc. So it could be argued that they were both cult figures. They are both flawed “heroes” in as much as Boba Fett iced Han Solo and collected the bounty, but you’d still want to be him. And Tony Stark, the man behind Iron Man, is a flawed human being, selling arms to the highest bidder whilst attempting to drink himself into an early grave.

But more important than any other comparison is this - they both have really cool armoured suits, and mean looking crash helmets. And they can both fly.

This film has been in development hell since 1990, when Universal Studios first bought the rights to it. Since then it’s been sold on to 20th Century Fox, New Line Cinema and eventually to Marvel Studios. Nicholas Cage and Tom Cruise have both been linked with a starring role, and even Quentin Tarantino wanted to write the script.

Now Jon Favreau (yes, it really is billionaire Ultimate Fighting Chump Pete Becker from Friends) has unleashed his first ‘action’ movie, following modest success with Elf and Zathura. Robert Downey jnr was an inspired piece of casting, with Downey jnr quoted as saying he “wanted to make a film that people would actually go to see”. This followed some relatively poor box office performances (although excellent DVD sales) of his recent Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

I read the Da Vinci code before the film came out, and I enjoyed the film. My wife hadn’t read the book and she LOVED the film. But I felt that certain aspects of the film had been glossed over, and the jaw dropping moments at the end of each chapter were replaced with a high-tempo chase. This could apply to my reaction at the closing credits of Iron Man. I had looked forward to this film for a number of years and I did enjoy it, but it didn’t satisfy me. I wanted more. A lot of the enticing lines which were shown in the trailer were cut, and the film seemed to be rushed through. Maybe I just wanted to see more of the Gold and Red suit.

Gwyneth Paltrow isn’t annoying at all, despite my worst fears. Jeff Bridges is excellent as Obediah Stane, Stark’s business partner and friend, whilst Terrence Howard seems to sleepwalk through most of the film.
The whole cast, and director have been signed on for another two films, with the first sequel to be released in 2010. So perhaps this is a work in progress. It’s a really good film. Just not a great film.