Century 21

Rating: 9/10 (23 October 2008)

What did I love about Ironman? Was it Robert Downey, Jr.? Not really... he was good, not great. Was it all the CGI hardware and effect shots? They were fun, but that's not it. I think what I loved was the fact that the movie grabs you from frame one and pulls you instantly, effortlessly, into an aggressive, fat-free narrative with drive... the story moves at light speed, and by the time you realized you haven't touched your popcorn you're in the solid center of a great comic book/superhero movie. The film is also a blueprint for the way all modern movies should be made. Welcome to century 21...
See, most superhero movies start with a first act that tastes like medicine. They're dour, solemn setups about nuclear accidents, childhood traumas and secret identities... it's redundant. We are now the sons and daughters of the MTV generation, in an omni-media world, and we know movies like the French know wine. Just put on the damn cape and start fighting crime! This is where Ironman makes even newer hits like "Spiderman" and "Batman Begins" look like creaky old dinosaurs; the first act is a self-contained mini-movie, as Tony Stark builds the suit not out of an idle need to do good, but to save his own life by escaping from his captors.
By the time Tony Stark is back home the movie has brilliantly weaved in all the exposition and back-story we need to enjoy the fun. Directors Steven Spielberg & George Lucas spoke about collaborating on "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and they maintained it was impossible to make an action movie without a "pointer scene," a flat, boring, talky sequence which serves only to fill in the back-story and set up the rest of the film. They named this after the scene in "Raiders" in which a government official literally puts a pointer to a chalkboard as he lectures Indy about the history of the Ark. Maybe it's a change of the guard, but there is no pointer scene in Ironman. You pick up as you go, and the payoff is a film that rewards you for being smart and paying attention.
Director Jon Favreau has to take the credit for the film's greatness. He makes this movie for the audience as he would make a film for himself or his friends; no dumbing-down, no compromised corn or clichéd studio stupidity. He is so committed to this story, so sure that this fantasy is real that he dares you to question it in scenes like the one in which Tony basically asks his secretary to perform open-heart surgery on him. You'll buy it. We're so deep into the brilliant fever dream that it all seems joyfully plausible. Bravo...
Ironman should stand as a lesson to ALL filmmakers: stop underestimating your audience. It is the twenty-first century and we've seen everything. Twice. Stop trying to paint by the numbers and just paint. Ironman is a great leap in cinematic storytelling... I hope it's just a beginning.
GRADE: A