I'm gonna be "that guy". I have somewhat mixed feelings about IRON MAN. First off, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. This movie was just a lot of fun on almost every level. It's right up there with the best comic book movies ever made. The story was engaging and relevant, and the emotions were believable. The special effects were masterful. The performances were solid across the board, and Robert Downey Jr. gave what is probably the most involved, most immediate comic book performance that I have ever seen. He was just fantastic.
The tone of the movie itself is a bit meandering. Favreau seems never to be sure whether he wants it to be a serious superhero drama, a comic book romp, a horror movie, or a cartoon (the desert escape). I chalk this up to Jon Favreu's relative inexperience, and the nature of his prior films.
I also have minor issues with pacing and editing. Some of the cuts are just a bit jarring.
I have no issues with the nature of Stark building the suits, or it looking easy, because it's made obvious that it's not something that just "comes together". And it obviously it didn't work the way he expected it to at first. The actual Mark II suit and all it's elements was fantastically realized. Seeing through Stark's eyes, seeing the displays inside his helmet, etc, that was all very cool. The intricacy of it, the working parts, the way the flaps worked when he flew. That was very well done. The suit, and everything about it, was very thought out, other than maybe it's actual protective capabilities.
I still have some issues with the comedy elements. There was, I thought, a bit too much of it, and some of it seems a bit forced. Does Stark have to get hurt/surprised in a hilarious manner EVERY SINGLE TIME he tries out his new suit? Ha ha, we get it, there are some bugs to work out. The comedic moments are broadcast from a mile away. It's a minor complaint, just not real realistic to see him slammed into a wall at 100 MPH and...you know, survive. The moment in the desert after the escape, where he falls into the sand and his suit falls apart was ridiculous. Almost cartoonish in nature. Downey does a great job selling most of it, and some of the lines are classic.
"Hi, Mr. Stark, remember me?"
"Sure don't."
I suppose my main issue with the movie is the villain, the threat and the nature of the final battle. Jeff Bridges gave a fine performance as Obadiah Stane. But Obadiah Stane was pretty much nonexistent as a character. You knew he was a villain from the moment you saw him, you never doubted he was a villain, and any "twists" to that effect didn't have much impact. We never got into Stane's motivations beyond "I want us to have the power for the future". We never got to see the master strategist, with plans upon plans upon plans, and we never got to see anything but "pure evil" from him. He mentions at one point that he wants to protect Tony, and it would have been nice to see this angle played up a bit more, to see a bit more developed in terms of Tony, Stane, and Stane's relationship with Howard Stark. They seem like casual business partners throughout most of the movie, and the "your father" elements just don't have much weight to them. The problem with having a mentor turn on you, is that he has to be a mentor first, for that to have any weight. Stane's few "business advice" moments don't equal that kind of development.
And the final battle, as cool as it is, and as well realized, it just essentially devolves into a ridiculous series of relatively poorly acted comic book cliches, which quickly become very annoying, and took me right out of it. The dialogue there is just...pretty bad.
"Staaaaaane!"
The way the battle ends up is ok, and the use of the arc reactor makes sense in context, and will obviously have some future significance, but the last battle just kind of feels "pieced together", and it doesn't flow real well. It's like they just took some action sequence ideas and smushed them all into one battle. Do we really need to see him get run over by the hot soccer mom? Really?
As for the actors:
Robert Downey Jr. was amazing. There is no need to say any more. He is a fantastic choice for the role, visually and otherwise. His performance was at times subtle, overt, comedic, touching and tragic, and he displayed great range. The best comic book performance in years, perhaps ever. He really got into the role and sold it.
Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts was ok. Her acting in the last third of the movie left quite a bit to be desired. Her "damsel in distress" moments were just absurdly over the top. Her character really isn't all that interesting to begin with, but you do appreciate the dynamic between them, and she and Downey had pretty good chemistry together. Still, there were probably better choices for the role.
Terrence Howard I'm not sure about. His performance was all right, and there's a lot of empathy to it, but I'm not sure if quiet and soft is the right approach. He just wasn't all that impressive for the most part, and there were likely better choices for the role. The nod to War Machine was nice. "Daaaaamn" was not. I thought he accepted the fact that Stark was Iron Man a little too easily, given his position in the military and as Stark's friend.
Jeff Bridges did what he could with a fairly thin character. I won't debate that the man oozed evil. The scene where he's slowly pulling out Stark's "heart" was fantastically done between them both. No issues with the "villainy" part of his villain. The writing could have been much more interesting.
I thought that Shaun Taub was a bit too perky and over the top. I wanted to see a bit more gravitas brought to the role of Yinsen, with Stark providing him some hope in a hopeless situation, etc, but apparently he was just really chipper. It's a shame that his character and the time they shared together was never referenced again after the "Thank you for saving me" moment.
Jarvis was pretty funny. Paul Bettany was an interesting choice, and worked well. Making him into a computer was a neat choice, and gave Pepper more relevance in Tony's life.
Overall, the entire cast had great chemistry, and really bounced off each other well.
The story was pretty straightforward. Borrowing a page from BATMAN BEGINS and DAREDEVIL and telling some elements of it out of sequence didn't make it any more impressive. It was nice to see the relevance of the weapons and their impact on the world, but we didn't see much of it beyond that one small village.
Storywise, the story was everything "Iron Man's story" should be, which is good, but there's really nothing in this movie that isn't "obvious". There's a not a lot of what it "could be". And it hurts me to say that. Tony's motivations are very obvious, his transformation immediate. Every little nod made to the comics is "obvious". And that's...part of what they got right, but also part of what hampered the film a bit. There really were not very many risks taken. The story feels very "safe". Fun, and accurate, but "safe". Sticking a really blatant (but not all that satisying) nod to The Mandarin into the story without establishing his group's motivations (what, ruling all of Asia?) didn't work for me. I didn't feel the Ten Rings were much of a threat, just because they're painted as terrorists. Iron Man wiped them out quickly and effectively, and maybe there's a larger organization out there, but we never got a sense of that. The overall threat in this movie (Stane and the nature of Stark's weapons control), while very personal and well realized, just didn't feel like enough.
The SHIELD elements were very cool. They nailed the personality of the Shield agents (props to the actor who played Caulder), and the way SHIELD crept into the movie little by little was nicely done. As awesome as it is to see Nick Fury appear and talk about the Avengers Initiative, I think that they've asked Tony Stark to join rather quickly. I mean, the man JUST appeared. But then, something like The Avengers would take a long time to put together. It's really a minor quibble.
The dialogue ranged from fantastic to poor. Most of it was solid, and the actors sold almost every line well. Few complaints here.
The music was pretty standard, even lousy. Wayyy cliche. "DA DA DAAAAAA" when the villains appear is not a good score. Not an impressive score.
I give it an 8. A 10 is a movie that takes a completely mature approach to material, which this, in the final tally, did not. A 9 is a movie that has some fun, but manages to resist the urge to "pander" a lot. And with moments like "Daaaaamn", and the occassionally cartoony and predictably comic booky/random funny moment stuff, I think there was definitely a bit of that going on. It's a strong 8, and a very good movie with some minor but fairly apparent flaws.
This is a very good movie. But I don't think that it's a great one. They're building something. That much is obvious. I'm sure sequels will feature more specialized armors and more if Ten Rings. And War Machine, and SHIELD. And that's something to look forward to for sure.
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