Iron Man

"Iron Man" (2008)
Directed by Jon Favreau

I find superheroes who are, at their roots, anything but super to be the most fascinating characters in the beginning-to-become overplayed superhero genre. Iron Man is a somewhat successful film that follows the adventures of such a "hero," the woman-chasing, arrogant, yet thoroughly entertaining inventor named Tony Stark, who is played by a wonderfully charismatic Robert Downey, Jr. Stark is the head of a wildly successful weapons manufacturing company and heads to Afghanistan to showcase his new weapons to military officials when he is ambushed by a group of terrorists, who themselves use Stark-manufactured weapons.

Stark's imprisonment sequence, with its stereotypical portrayal of terrorists who are headed by a predictably all-evil person with lots of funding (Faran Tahir), is the weakest part of the film. Stark is not having fun and neither, it is apparent, are the director and the actors. We are required to suspend disbelief when Stark randomly thinks that an iron suit would be the best way to escape, or that the terrorists would never notice that he is not making the missiles they wanted.

The rest of the film fares better in comparison, but the results are mixed. Stark returns home and decides to halt his company's weapon-producing sector, much to the chagrin of his second-in-command, Obadiah, who is played by a gleefully menacing Jeff Bridges. Bridges's excellent performance, however, hides his villain's innate dullness. The reasons his character hates Stark is never fully developed and he is not, behind the facade of Bridges's performance, all that interesting an adversary.

The rest of the film's action sequences, which stem from Obadiah's conflict-of-interest with Stark, are certainly entertaining, but they are not creatively choreographed, nor are they visually exciting. There is one sequence, where Stark is intercepted by two United States fighter jets, that feels completely unnecessary; it is merely an excuse to add another action setpiece. Though Iron Man is sold as an action movie, it is at its best when we watch Stark, a normal guy who we can all relate to, fiddling with his inventions and trying to understand both the capabilities and the limitations of being a new superhero.

Rating: 6.5

First Viewed: 5/24/08
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