Rating: 
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges
Despite high hopes for the Batman sequel, the Indiana Jones comeback and the new Hellboy, it would not be a bad summer at all if the early arriving Iron Man turns out to be the best action-adventure of the summer. Jon Favreau, who does not have this kind of action movie under his directorial belt, just knocks it out of the park here, taking a very good script and an excellent cast and making it all explode off the goddamn screen.
The film starts with the dry humor Robert Downey Jr. does so well, and then veers into intense, chaotic violence that should put to rest any fears over Favreau’s lack of experience directing an action film. He delivers one of the best superhero adaptations done in recent years, and in fact is arguably the single best. It lacks the two-halves-jammed-together-ness (one hour origin, one hour Willem Dafoe raving) of the otherwise delightful first Spider-Man and stands on its own better than the excellent Spider-Man 2. It’s way more fun, but equally well-acted, written and directed, than Batman Begins. It’s far less self-conscious than the X-Men movies, and doesn’t flat-out suck like every other superhero film of the last ten years (except maybe for the middling Fantastic Fours).
Favreau and Co. are not reinventing the superhero story here. They’re updating the origin for the modern day with amazing fealty to the early-sixties source material, and they’re making it fun and flashy enough that it feels completely fresh. Iron Man was born out of a war story (Vietnam in the original), and this version reflects on the current landscape in a way that dances between actual relevance (which we might not need so much of in our superhero movies, really) and the simplicity (slanted pro-American) that we tend to expect in American comic-book stories.
What the film lacks, that Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire brought to the Spider-franchise, is “heart,” in the near-cloying sense of the word. Batman Begins lacked that, too, but what Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. bring in its place is cool, sheer, unrelenting cool. Nacent super-hero Tony Stark has to spend a lot of time alone in this film, and a lot of time breezing through scenes filled with extras so insignificant he might as well be alone, so the charisma Downey brings with his wisecracks and effortless style are absolutely vital to keeping the already tight script humming.
When he’s not on his own, Downey is backed by Gwyneth Paltrow, an actress who’s talented, but sometimes annoying. She’s really well-cast as Tony Stark’s aide-de-camp Pepper Potts (blame 45-year-old comics for that lame name). She’s mousy most of the time, beautiful when called upon, but in a way that doesn’t cast aside the character’s shy aspects in favor of Vogue-cover glamour. She’s written to be loyal and dynamic and to actually matter in the story, and she is all these things. 
Former leading man Jeff Bridges, sliding into solid character work, is excellent as Obadiah Stane, the business partner who carried Stark’s company between the years when the elder Stark died and Downey took over. He’s initially the voice of the old guard when the ordeal that creates Iron Man leaves Stark a different man than he’d been. Bridges underplays the part, which could’ve been hammed up considerably, and the light touch he and the writers bring lets the role unfold unobtrusively, to the benefit of the film.
Terrence Howard, as military sidekick James Rhodes (a character who spent some time in the Iron longjohns in the comics, so look out for the sequel), has personality and fire, and shifts effortlessly between military hardass and good buddy.
Iron Man is exactly what a movie about a billionaire wearing a high-tech weapon suit should be: fast, cool, funny and edgy. It sure as hell gives Batman, Hellboy and Dr. Jones something to worry about.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
interesting review, though i find your iron man gushing suspect after reading your disdain for batman begins & spidey while giving fantastic four the thumbs up. from my own viewing experience comic-to-film adaptations are much more interesting when they latch onto something in the ethos of the source that is convincing and alluring on the big screen. the spideys took a few story arcs from 40 years of print spidey, and made them iconic peter parker identity dramas. tim burton’s batman took the hokeyness of the ages old batman-joker cat and mouse game and made it into a neurotic carnival. sin city and 300 were noir eye-candy, ghost world was quirky and banal. but what was interesting about either of the fantastic fours? i would easily pass them up for a campy lost in space remake–oh wait there was one of those wasn’t there? i was never an avid reader of iron man, but it looks like robert downey jr. is the right man to play up the jerky humor. i guess i’ll find out tonight as i finally get a chance to sit in a theater sans comic shop goobers and teenage boys.
someone should do David Lapham’s Stray Bullets, Warren Ellis’ The Authority, or Brian Michael Bendis’ Powers. I can see good cinema coming out of those in the vein of Road to Perdition or History of Violence.
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:36 am
I think you need to read closer. He noted that Batman Begins was well-directed, written and acted; and that the Spider-Man films were “delightful” and “excellent” and called the FF movies “middling.”
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Delidel — You’ve got me wrong. I liked Batman Begins a lot, and said so. The FF films were mediocre, not as good as the X-flicks, but not as unbearably sucky as Daredevil or Superman Returns, nor as legendarily unwatchable as Catwoman or Elektra.
Iron Man is faster and more fun than Batman Begins, but the latter is still a very well-done movie, and I’m very much looking forward to the sequel.
So far, I don’t know anyone who’s not crazily impressed with Iron Man …
I cannot imagine Hollywood making a watchable film out of The Authority, though … wouldn’t it be great if they did?
May 4th, 2008 at 2:19 am
apologies are in order, i misread what looked like praise for the fantastic four movies while stark criticism for the spider-man movies, batman begins, and x-men. consider this my foot-in-mouth apology.
having said that, i retract all doubts i had about iron man. it was fully accesible for a non-reader, the dialogue was witty and non-kitsch (unlike that horrible line in the first x-men between storm and toad), the cg meshed well with the story-telling (not terribly cumbersome like the ff movies or the putrid hulk), and hey they even nailed interesting character dynamics between stark, potts, stane, and rhodes! the story revises typical idealistic (i.e. boring) heroism and in a more socially relevant move takes on the villian(s) of the military industrial complex. i would say the only weakness is gravity—not tony’s hilarious attempts at engineering stable flight–but rather the heavy handed third act build toward stark vs. stane. the scene where pepper potts confronts tony about his crusade marks the beginning of a clunky thread where the clunk monsters clunk it out for the sake of satisfying clunk-head spectators.
i’m glad your review goaded me into seeing for myself. overall one of the most entertaining films i’ve seen in the last 6 months. the only other unfortunate thing was that i walked out on the credits and missed the easter egg scene
May 4th, 2008 at 2:23 am
and the authority would be great in capable hands–let’s just see how watchmen comes out and pray there’s a reliable team there to take on authority
May 6th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Glad you liked the film. Good review there, yourself. And on the easter egg — the studio stripped it out of press screenings, so I haven’t seen it, either. I’ll have to rent or buy the DVD, I suppose …