Fantastic!

Rating: 9/10 (17 August 2008)

Billionaire arms manufacturer Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is kidnapped by terrorists during a visit to Afghanistan. Stark is held captive and is told by the terrorists to build them a missile. As he begins work, Stark sees first hand his legacy of death and destruction. What's funny is that just the day before Stark was rebuking claims of being a war profiteer by saying, "As soon as weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals." Let me come right out and say it. Iron Man may not be Marvel's most popular superhero, but he's officially my favorite. This film had the usual summer comedy and action but strangely enough, Robert Downey Jr. was able to bring a lot of soul to the role of Tony Stark. He's the hero with a heart, and considerably more dialogue than Peter Parker ever had in any of the Spider-Man movies. You see, back home Tony Stark was just another genius billionaire playboy (Bruce Wayne anyone?). His world consisted of his assistant Virginia "Pepper" Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Colonel James "Rhody" Rhodes (Terrence Howard). After his return to the United States, he immediately shuts down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark Industries. I know you're thinking this is problematic. "Didn't you say he was a weapons manufacturer?" Yes, and that's what makes it problematic for Stark's board of directors headed by Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). Stane ends up having his own agenda with Stark, but I'll save the rest of that for those of you who haven't seen the film yet (and if you haven't, stop reading and go watch it now!).
The entire cast turns in terrific performances, and not just by comic book standards. Tony Stark is the wisecracking, womanizing, filthy rich and absolutely brilliant weapons manufacturer who chooses to undo his legacy and destroy his weapons. Any movie that comes out in the summer is usually bound to be one of those mindless action movies with no plot; just a series of excuses for more action. Lately, the summer action film has been somewhat reinvented. They've been getting smarter, wittier, and they even try to capture a more human side of story telling. This is part of why Iron Man wins our hearts. The other part being that the film addresses so many issues of our time while maintaining the summer movie spirit. Stark spent his life following a few basic rules. In his own words, he became comfortable with a system that had zero accountability. His decision to shut down his company and use his vast ingenuity to help people is what makes him a noble hero. It's not Superman, who was born to do the job. It's not like Spider-Man, who had the responsibility thrown on him. Iron Man is a lot like Batman since they both chose to do the job. Both are filthy rich and both use everything at their disposal to save the world, one city at a time. The only downside to the development of the characters is the fact that Rhody was somewhat underplayed. I'm guessing this was so the movie could focus more on Stark. In the comics, Rhody dons the Iron man armor and eventually builds his own suit of armor to become War Machine. The little hint in the movie with Rhodes and the Mark II armor was something of a well placed teaser.
The only thing that kept me from giving this movie a perfect four stars was the action. Don't get me wrong, the action was great. I just wish there had been more of it. At just two hours long, I never once felt like Favreau was trying to rush through the movie. It never felt like he cuts scenes and took short cuts with the script to get to the ending. I did feel "jipped" with the action though. I wish there had been just one more big action scene, and that all the other scenes had been extended. In the end the lack of action is somewhat inevitable. With the film debut of any comic book hero, the makers always have to spend a considerable amount of time introducing the character and their microcosm to audiences that might not be familiar with the source material.
Early on I read that director John Favreau wanted to make this film somewhat politically ambitious. For the average American it probably was just that. Trying to paint a somewhat respectable image of Muslims, especially in Afghanistan has to be a difficult job. But for someone like me, being the child of a couple of Bengali Muslim immigrants to America, I think the end result was more like being politically ambiguous. While held captive in Afghanistan, Stark's cell mate Yensen (Shaun Toub; a Jewish actor from Iran) tells Stark of all the different languages that the terrorists speak. He goes down a list including Urdu, Arabic, Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Russian, and Hungarian. My interpretation of this was that the terrorists come from all countries and not just Arab speaking ones. How you interpret the implications of such a claim is up to you. But in a later scene, Favreau aptly shows that the majority of the victims of terrorism and radicalism are in fact, Muslims.
I think Iron Man has a highly successful and highly lucrative future ahead of him. This is the first official movie of the summer 2008 and I can't wait for the sequel!