Could Have Been Better Average Superhero Movie

Rating: 5/10 (2 May 2008)

Well looks like it's not even summer yet but already there are superhero movies flying to a theater near you. And after what looks like a string of well made blockbusters that started with Bryan Singer's X-Men, it seems Marvel Comics has begun to run on empty with the recent spate of lousy films like Elektra, Ghostrider and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer among others.
Now comes Iron Man, the heavily-hyped Jon Favreau directed movie starring the newly reformed Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, the billionaire arms dealer who creates a suit of powered armor to escape his captors and predictably becomes a high powered superhero. Downey has been featured on many magazine covers lately as a former drug-addicted Hollywood bad boy who has now turned his life around and was lauded for landing a role as close to his character- in the ULTIMATES comic book version of Iron Man, Tony Stark is an alcoholic with a brain tumor who primarily becomes a superhero for corporate publicity and kicks.
So your question would obviously be: is it as good as the hype? Well, not really.
This looks to be the first Marvel superhero movie to ditch the opening credit sequence as we get thrust right into the action. In the original comic book, Tony Stark was a POW in Vietnam (hey, the comic was created by Stan Lee in the 60's after all) who created an armored suit to escape from his captors- the movie updates this to Afghanistan as we get rocked in the opening scenes with an IED attack on a military convoy. As Stark struggles with his terrorist captors (who seemingly are equipped with weapons built by his own company) to free himself, he unwittingly uncovers a conspiracy at the highest levels of Stark Industries and his seemingly loyal partner, Obadiah Stane (played with a bald palate and beard by industry veteran Jeff Bridges). With the aid of his trusty military sidekick James Rhodes (Terence Howard of CRASH) and voluptuous secretary Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow- what a name her character has!), Stark goes from right-wing military playboy to a humanitarian liberal after spending a few weeks in a cave.
I would think that a good formula for superhero movies would be that you need to have an interesting villain that people can empathize with- Spiderman I and II did this very well with both the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus (the X-Men's Magneto was also a well-rounded bad guy- he had a noble cause even though he wanted to wipe out non-mutants to fulfill it). The problem with IRON MAN is that Obadiah Stane is just an average, greedy and corrupt run of the mill villain- you get no understanding as to why he does what he does other than just simple greed. Jeff Bridges tries (as Nick Nolte did in Ang Lee's HULK) but there isn't a lot in the writing to work with. Downey comes off as the occasional charmer in Tony Stark but the lack of any real emotion in the script reduces him to stock hero status. Paltrow is wasted as Pepper while Howard seems out of place playing a Colonel in the military. The action sequences are okay for the most part but they are few and far between and get cut short just as they are about to go into overdrive.
All in all, this is just an average superhero movie- better than FF: Rise of the Surfer, better than Ghostrider and Elektra, slightly less than the X-Men trilogy but well below the level of Spiderman and Batman Begins.
5 out of 10.