Review – Iron Man
- Ethan Cole
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Tony Stark; wealthy electronics super-genius subjected first hand to the PG-13 terrors of war discovering the impact of Stark Industries produced arsenal has a literal change of heart; decides to play superhero.
It’s nice to see that the trailers properly represented this movie for what it is (as opposed to deceive the public like they usually do). Unfortunately, the trailers contained the hint that something was ‘off’. Now, the picture released that sentiment is in full effect, it’s a solid yet underwhelming experience, just short of becoming Iron-Meh.
Downey pretty much carries and makes the film – not to say the other performances are bad, far from it, merely that there’s no real draw to Iron Man outside of his performance – effectively bringing energy and persona to what could have otherwise been an extremely bland experience.
Some would say no Marvel Film would be complete without a cameo from Stan Lee, I say: Stan Lee is the least of the problems with Marvel films. His cameos are annoying fourth-wall breaking moments – mostly because of his almost smug presence, especially in this particular Hugh Hefner styled presentation. Maybe they can put him in the next Punisher disaster as a corpse, that’d be incentive to check it out.
A cool element is the first time the cardiac solenoid device is implanted in Tony Stark’s chest. Whilst we don’t see the operation (this is PG-13) it’s a slick prosthetic look that should happy some cyberpunks – particularly how it’s attached to and what’s powering it. Personally I preferred this to the more stylized cool-glow of the power cell, but this is an Iron Man movie, not a ‘What If…’ scenario, but I digress. The cool glow power-cell looks great, seeming almost natural, a nice effect – Marvel merchandising could make it a good novelty necklace or t-shirt out of it.
The film stays light for the most part – never dwelling too much on the grimmer aspects of war nor crossing the line into the insanely preachy anti-war/armament sentiment that so many Hollywood-fucks like to preach. Additionally the comedy ranges from tight dialog with peculiar antics to slapstick instances, to his credit Favreau manages to balance them, something that ought to garner laughs for a range of audiences.
A good and steady pace is maintained – there’s almost no fluff in this picture, no scenes are wasted and none are drawn out pointlessly, but there’s some bit of substance missing. The music however is only passable, but easily the more tolerable of the Marvel line, with Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ playing over the end credits. The score too, is serviceable – working more on riffs than a full blown Iron Man theme – but it’s not too surprising as only Superman and Batman have really had memorable themes (Batman Begins almost had a theme).
ILM provides some great visual effects coupled with some excellent production design in regards to the suit – its effects an functionality, well integrated into the story and its evolution. The various stages of the suit and its testing is a welcome element, as it’s often something overlooked by many a superhero origin movie – rarely do we see them breaking in/working out the kinks, to some degree through trial and error. The mechanics of the suit is impressively conveyed; looking plausible within the realms of expected physics and the established reality – even Stark’s interactive holographic display. Further the suit doesn’t look clunky or restricted – nuances and personality is evident in some of his movement and actions. A particularly nice touch is with the repulsors spurting to life/powering down with sparks, it’s a minor effect but adds a lot. The flying however, whilst conveyed plausibly it looks a bit weird as he sort of flies like a fairy at times – Iron Man Tinkerbell, particularly when landing.
The action scenes are inconsistent, there are some good well composed shots and it’s always possible to tell what’s going on. In a couple of scenes the action is framed and staged fairly tightly, at one point switching back and forth between semi-POV shots… it works but it’s weird; to some degree it does make the film seem small and confined, looking somewhat amateurish (particularly the POV’s) almost as if they were trying to hide something. Regardless, the set pieces are fairly well conceived, with a nice twist on the typical super heroic rescue of saving some kid/family – it’s an odd scene but it plays fine.
The flaw of many a comic-book adaptation (actually many a movie…) is the third act (which is somewhat suprising given Hollywood’s hard-on for the three-act-structure). This film is no exception. Clearly building towards the eventful showdown – but the dramatic highpoint isn’t reached, less of an actual battle and more of a cat and mouse, it works fine on paper and in comic form, but from a dramatic standpoint it should have impacted on a higher note – bigger battle and greater threat, particularly when the redesigned MK.1. unit is bellowing it’s superiority. It had the makings of a good battle, it’s something that should have superseded the previous action sequence – maybe some budget or logistics restrictions held it back – as it could’ve been fine if the scope and scale of the battle was greater. Further it’s weakened by pacing, ending far too quickly – despite the logic of the events.
There are some nice nods to fans with a look off at one of the spare suits “next time”, though it’s doubtful they’d go the Tony Stark alcoholic route, unless it was mostly comical – which is possible given his portrayal as a womanizer here and how S.H.I.E.L.D. was established. Another welcome feature was the lack of a cliffhanger or some tacked on element forcibly setting up a trilogy.
For what it’s worth Iron Man is a solid movie with a weak third act but it’s probably one of the better Marvel films to date (not withstanding the Blade Trilogy) – early summer ‘fun’ typical of a Marvel film, but it just so happens this isn’t shit, rather something both adults and kids can watch – you emo fucks can go watch Spider-man (especially Spider-man 3) on DVD or Bluray.
Rating: 6.8/10
Cumjackulation Rating: 8.0/10
(ratings explained)