Review of Iron Man. Clear Your Schedule

A Review of Iron Man

Clear Your Schedule-See It Twice

Boy-o-boy ... I knew going in I would like this movie, but being a Marvel superhero fan from the time I was old enough to read, I tried to keep an open mind. And I did, until the scene where Tony Stark built his prototype suit, kicked insurgent butt, and ignited his rocket boots to escape. That's when my "open mind" went out the window and I was a kid again. After that, it was wave after wave of goose bumps.

After months of tantalizing snippets of footage, TV trailers, and bits and pieces of action scenes from the internet, I agonized a lifetime, it seemed, waiting for Iron Man to hit the theaters. But I was concerned that all the hype and previews of what were, in my estimation, really cool scenes, would be too much exposure too soon and ruin it for me, and as we all know, the studios tend to release some of the best footage for trailers leaving nothing new for the moviegoer once they pay their $7.50. Man, was I wrong.

I remember when the Marvel heroes began appearing in the theaters; Spiderman, The Hulk, X-Men and The Fantastic Four, and I wondered if they would do an Iron Man flick. So when I heard one was in the making, I put it at the top of my movies-to-see list. Then as May drew closer, I saw an interview with Robert Downey Jr., and he made reference to a comment by someone concerning the pecking order of his Iron Man character in the Marvel Comics world.

"Iron Man was a second tier super hero," they said.

Downey's reply: "The operative word there, being 'was'."

He was right. If you don't see another movie this summer, see Iron Man. You will not regret it. Forget the special effects. Forget Paltrow is absolutely HOT in a played-down, non-sexy (except for the open back dress at the party), girl-next-door sort of way. Forget Jeff Bridges shaved his head for his first bad-guy role ever. Forget that Downey had to fight for the role, actually taking a screen test, to beat out the likes of Nick Cage and Tom Cruise. Forget all those things. This movie has a bang-up storyline: playboy turned humanitarian, life-long friend and partner to his dead father turned bad guy, terrorists you just love to hate, smoldering love interests, robots with personalities ... its got it all.

The movie, like all Stan Lee's celluloid incarnations, holds true to the comic book and we would expect nothing less. In the comics, Tony Stark (Downey) was a millionaire playboy, owner and creative genius behind weapons manufacturer Stark Enterprises. As I remember it, Stark is mortally wounded and a piece of shrapnel threatens his heart rendering him relatively immobile, or at the very least, inexertable.

After the attack, he is captured and forced to design a weapon for his captors. Instead, he creates a suit of armor with a magnetic chest plate designed to "pull" the shrapnel away from his heart. Escaping his captors, he experiences a moral reversal after seeing the weapons his company made in the hands of the enemy and decides to use his newly created technology to fight bad guys, crime, injustice, etc, etc.

Like Spiderman, the Iron Man character has a learning curve. While designing the suit, Stark has to learn to use it and suffers the occasional comical mishap when his calculations are wrong, and the robotic technology he uses to help him assemble the suit provides a bit of comic relief, leading one to believe it has a mind of its own.

In this adaptation, his partner and right-hand-man, Obadiah Stane (Bridges), betrays him for (yep), personal gain. When Stane's plot to assassinate Stark in Afghanistan fails, he takes matters into his own hands, steals the plans for the suit of armor, and uses company resources to design a bigger, better, suit. He tips his hand when he attempts to kill Stark, and steals his brilliantly innovative power source to power the suit, then moves to kill Pepper Potts (Paltrow), Starks good-looking Girl Friday. Stark, with a power diminished Gold-alloy and Titanium suit, takes on the much larger, much stronger, Stane inhabited suit and finds himself on the verge of destruction. After an epic battle, he prevails against Obadiah and his pirated armor. The next day, Stark addresses the Press with a cover story written on crib-cards by the military, but decides at the last minute to ... well that would give away the ending. But trust me. It's very cool.

I don't remember a single vulgarity or profanity, there wasn't any blood to speak of, and the CGI effects weren't so fast and jerky you couldn't follow the action. All in all, a great experience. I know you'll see it twice and it will be money well spent. Besides, the price of admission won't even buy you two gallons of gas these days.

Lastly, stick around until after the credits roll. It seems that Hollywood has taken to including little hints of things to come after the credits. But if you're like me, you can make it to the bathroom and back before the credits are finished and you won't miss a thing.

Rating: 3.5 of 4.0 stars