Wesley's Iron Man Review

After yesterday’s exhausting and incredibly long post covering why The Hitcher is such an awesome movie, I’m going to keep this Iron Man review short and sweet.

All in all, Iron Man is a great movie. It has everything a superhero movie should have: great casting, great direction, great story telling, great action sequences and a whole lot of fun. I really did just enjoy watching this thing.

I certainly had my doubts over the film in the past few months. While I loved the trailers released and thought the casting of Robert Downey Jr. was perfect, I was still unsure of Jon Favreau’s ability to direct a comic book movie. After all, this is the guy who was in Swingers and the director of Elf. However, it turns out that Favreau was absolutely perfect for directing Iron Man. Much like Sam Raimi in the two Spider-man films (people keep telling me there’s a third one- I don’t know what they’re talking about), it is obvious that Favreau understands Iron Man, the universe that he lives in, and what makes him special. This love for the character comes out in every shot and frame of the film and it’s really a joy to see a fan getting a shot at creating something that he obviously has a strong vision and cares for. I’ve heard that, throughout the filming of Iron Man, Favreau constantly carried a note around with him that stated “plausibility.” Favreau applied this to his directing and story telling and I must say that it works tremendously well. Even though the story of Iron Man is very fantastic in its nature, Favreau manages to keep it grounded in reality. He does this by constantly showing how Stark builds and constructs all of his devices and how he uses modern techniques to construct this Iron Man suit. These sequences of construction were never boring and I found them to be very fascinating to watch.

Aside of Favreau’s fresh approach to directing, Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man’s biggest strong point. What perfect casting. I read a review by one of Iron Man’s comic book writers where he expressed dismay that Downey Jr. was able to create a Tony Stark that ended up being more interesting and enthralling than the character they had been writing about for years. And he’s right. Downey Jr. is Tony Stark and more. Downey Jr. manages to display the many emotional changes that occur in the character seemingly without breaking a sweat. Plus, the man has some of the strongest comic timing that I’ve ever seen, something that he uses rather well in the film’s lighter moments.

The supporting cast is rather strong as well. Jeff Bridges plays bad guy Obadiah Stane as deceptively as possible. It really looked like the guy was having fun with the role and thus, it’s really fun to watch him get into it. Plus, he had a really awesome beard. Gwyneth Paltrow also did a good job at playing Pepper Potts, Stark’s possible love interest. I really enjoyed how the love story was played out in the film and how it didn’t necessarily go in the same direction that most do. It seemed more realistic and grounded in reality and I enjoyed that. Terrence Howard also did a good job as Jim Rhodes. His friendship with Stark seemed very genuine and believable. I’m looking forward to him putting on the War Machine suit in the sequel.

So, what else did I like? Well, the action sequences were very well handled and quite intense when they happened. Iron Man can certainly inflict a lot of damage, more than I thought he was capable of. Seeing him in action was really entertaining and I’m looking forward to more action in the sequel. I also really liked the way that Favreau chose to start the film. Not only is it a great, humorous introduction to Tony Stark as a character but it also lays down the realistic approach that film chooses to take. I mean, Stark gets to know some soldiers that he is being transported with, they all get brutally gunned down, he gets bombed, and then he’s shown as being kidnapped. Then the title “Iron Man” pops up. What an intro. That’s how you start a superhero movie. 

I still wouldn’t say that Iron Man was the perfect film. One thing that I was kind of worried about that came true was that most of the film (and all of its action sequences) were given away by the trailers. So, in the end, there were not really any big surprises waiting for me when I stepped into the overcrowded theater that Saturday night (well… it got overcrowded, I was first in line…). Still, the movie was so well done that I still thoroughly enjoyed myself. Another thing that I had a problem with was the generic-to-bone original score the film had. As Caleb stated afterwards, it sounded like something I would have written on my guitar in the eighth grade with some strings put behind it. It just sounded like your run-of-the-mill rock music. It had none of the magic and soaring nature of Danny Elfman’s Spider-man scores or the brooding and exciting nature of Hans Zimmer’s and James Newton Howard’s Batman Begins score. I don’t know who Ramin Djawadi is, but I say they drop him and get someone more skilled to do the music for the sequel. Another thing is that, even though I enjoyed all the film’s humor the first time around I don’t know if it’s going to hold up on future viewings. This tends to happen for most superhero movies that try to inject a lot of humor into their film. I enjoy it the first time around but, as I watch the film over and over again, it starts to get annoying. For example, I re-watched Batman Begins yesterday and all of David Goyer’s one-liners (honestly, I can’t see Christopher Nolan writing this stuff) were really getting on my nerves. I still feel he took away from Batman’s first appearance by having him look at that hobo and say, “Nice coat,” before pulling Falcone away into the air with him. But I’m getting off topic…

Overall, Iron Man is a great superhero movie. It has a great story line, great cast, and the perfect director for the job. Although it is a little lighter in the action department than I thought it would be, I still enjoyed it immensely and I am looking forward to watching it again. It’s the kind of movie that’s so fun that it kind of makes you feel like a kid again. While it is the best reviewed superhero movie of all time, I would not say it’s the best one I’ve ever seen (I still prefer Superman: The Movie, Spider-man, X2: X-Men United, and Batman Returns to it). However, it is still way up on the list. It’s a comic book movie that really tailors to the nerds in the audience with hints to War Machine, S.H.I.E.L.D., and other comic book alliances. However, with its careful balancing of elements, it can also be enjoyed by non-comic readers. So, if you haven't seen Iron Man, please do. It deserves all the money it’s making right now.

8/10