Bait and switch

Rating: 2/10 (19 April 2008)

This movie is a scam.
The director Jon Favreau committed what is the most insulting (both to the authors, and the audience's intelligence) fault a filmmaker can do when adapting an existing property: instead of finding a character or universe more suited to his tastes and capabilities (I've heard "Deadpool" is up for grabs...) he chose to do the opposite: switch a mature character for a childish ersatz and shoehorn his trademark campy humor and unfunny one-liners. The bait being the star-studded cast which gives the project some face value. But eventually this is a mindless, shallow exercise of selling-out we're given.
The basic story (billionaire industrialist Tony Stark is kidnapped in Derka Derkastan then builds a suit of armor and fights back his evil foreign captors and later a larger version of his outfit) is just a toy commercial stretched to fit the big screen, but neither the feeble story nor the puny direction have large enough shoulders to carry it.
I can't totally blame the director, because the writers at first did a very poor job with loose plot and lousy character development. Even by comic book movies standards this is terrible.
The actors are decent, but since there is no real threat the old saying "the meaner's the bad guy, the better's the movie" isn't developed and leaves a bitter taste in the mouth eventually. Robert Downey Jr obviously gets the lion's share, but his character is so loosely written that his change of heart (from cocky, cynical prick to unexpected hero) lacks depth and meaningful situations to blossom. He mellows too much to be relevant when the movie ends - on a slight twist that mostly falls on its face.
But the real turn-off comes when you realize that most of the screen time is wasted in silly gags: whether it's failed slapstick to show the hero's "weaknesses", or the wannabe sharp humor and chemistry between Downey and Paltrow (worthy of the cheesiest McConaughey/Hudson romantic comedy)... the movie as a whole is reaching. An half-baked script that tries too hard to be funny, with 40 year old actors dumbing down their act for the kids audience.
You may not be as disappointed as I was when you'll see it, but you'll probably wonder why you wasted ten bucks and risked a date fight for that. That's not worth it. Clearly.