iron man! man of iron!

[freckles_and_doubt]

So, Iron Man. Gawsh. While this didn't actually kick me out of the cinema on the same dizzy high as did, for example, Stardust, it left me going "wheeee!" enough to have thoroughly fulfilled its obligations as a pulpy action/superhero flick, and then some. It's on my DVD-to-acquire list, which means I can foresee cheerfully rewatching it multiple times when in need of mindless action. (As a caveat, my personal own/rewatch/action category also includes Independence Day and the Fantastic Four movies, so you may not wish to regard this as any index of actual quality).

The interesting thing about this film, to me, is the way that its satisfactions are slightly off-centre - it's a pretty competent thing of its kind, but in various rather pleasing ways it didn't quite do what I expected.

For a start, and in sharp contradistinction to many recent superhero films (Spiderman, I'm looking at you here) it's actually well acted. This is a howling understatement - you could say Robert Downey Jr. carries the film, because he does, except that this unduly disses Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow, who are also excellent, quirky, believable. I enjoy Gwyneth doing sarky, as she did so well in Sky Captain, and I didn't recognise Jeff Bridges under the suavely smiling villain. Both of them made believable, interesting, slightly off-beat individuals out of a stock character. Either of them would have jazzed up any of the Spiderman franchise no end. Also, bonus not-actually-consummated potential romance. Several steps up on Mary Bloody Jane.

Robert Downey Jr. gets his own small fangirly rave, because, wow. As Strawberryfrog validly says, Tony Stark's character arc is also fairly stock - immature geeky playboy Grows Up, Makes Good, but he comes across as anything but a cliché. A lot of this is simply off-beat timing and emphasis which gives depth and complexity to fairly standard lines; there's none of that dreadful Hollywood heavy over-earnestness about This Truly Significant Statement. This is not just naturalistic acting, already a step away from comic-book stylisation; apparently there was also a lot of improv in the filming of the movie. It shows - the important stuff gets said, but in the middle of a morass of random shit which is actually fairly true to life. (At least in terms of the kind of possibly over-linguistic people I tend to hang around with). The whole thing works brilliantly for Tony Stark, whose basic superpower, as the actor notes, is simply brain. He comes across as having a huge amount of stuff cycling through an overactive mind at all times, and it gives him a complexity and a nervous energy which really works. It also serves to undercut the whole manipulative playboy role, which becomes explicable in terms of the fact that he basically gets bored very easily.

And, on a related note - coolest superhero EVAH, because in fact he's a geek, in the boingboing/ Maker/ hyperintelligent sense. He plays with stuff until it does interesting things, takes things apart to improve their tick. He's creative, innovative, driven, focused, inquisitive, and only secondarily an actual genius. This also makes him, interestingly, less tormented, possibly because his "superpower" is one to which he is entitled, for which he works - it's not dumped on him by a spider bite. He's also a fascinating comparison to all the brooding angst of Batman, who's also a technological superhero, but in a far more pretentious sense - Moral Mission very much overshadowing Cool Toys. Stark is, strangely, the more human and believable for being older - none of this adolescent Peter Parker pouting. The symbolic heart motif is another thing that works a bit left-of-centre, because really the film isn't interested in the obvious "Stark gets a heart" parallel. Rather, the mechanical heart provides the symbolic connection with technology that he's lost at the beginning of the film, his militaristic products divorced both from a sense of consequence, and from his direct control. He's a geek, and is only on track when the objects of his tinkering are part of him.

Oh, and fangirly squee will out, because that suit was gorgeous. All the overlapping articulated bits folding neatly into place. The flying! the zappy laser thingies! the basic hot-rod sensibility! I have to say, though, watching him being strapped into the Mark I in the cave scenes gave me incredible SCA flashbacks. But, in keeping with my sense of off-centredness, there actually weren't quite as many big special-effects set-piece battles as I expected. Iron men zooted around, things went boom, but the whole was kept in check with a narrative- and character-driven restraint I can only describe as anti-Baysian.

I haven't actually read any of the Iron Man comics - anyone familiar with them? Are the Interesting Things, TM, I find in the movie actually reflective of the source material? Or do I owe Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau a grateful bottle of gin for this new and pleasing thing they have wrought?

Last Night I Dreamed: demented dreams of large-scale and utter work failure, for which I blame Sid.

Comments

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

I have read iron Man comics, but never read the early issues which contain the founding myth shown on screen. Apparently it's much the same, give or take this decade's war. Robert Downey Jr certainly put hair (curly, gold-medalioned, funky) on the chest of the role.

I have expanded on my comments, here.

Needless to say, there are still differences of opinion as to the movie's merit.

PS: thanks for the links, I have approprated them, and the bit about natural acting, which I quite agree with.

Men of Iron

[(Anonymous)]

Did you catch the little trailer at the end, after the credits, with Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury? I missed it, unfortunately.

I'd buy Fantastic Four solely for seeing Chris Evans shirtless again.

Super-Pink.

Re: Men of Iron

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I waited for that. I knew there was something to come, but I didn't know what. Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury. Ok.

Re: Men of Iron

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I tend to sit through the credits in movies anyway, hoping for extras, so yes, caught it too. Nick Fury in the Ultimates version of the Avengers was apparently modelled on SLJ, with the actor's consent, so it's another Ultimates nod. It's a totally weird universe, comic-book superheroes, all this overlapping and alternative histories and what have you. I know Nick Fury from, what, Ultimates Wolverine stories?

Re: Men of Iron

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

I, too, enjoy Chris Evans. In a light, fluffy sort of way.

[khoi-boi.livejournal.com]

Apparently, this version of Iron Man (and seemingly any sequels - cf the postcredit) owes a bit to the Marvel Ultimates line - The Avengers retrofitted to modern sensibilities. We'll see how that pans out with the new Hulk movie. I'm sure phleeep/first_fallen will let you have them after I've finished...

I enjoyed it. It didn't quite make me go squeee! but it was a rush. The end did seem a bit rushed, though.

[schedule5.livejournal.com]

Nice icon, k_b :). It's ...... kinda you.

[niktoizniotkyda.livejournal.com]

Boo!

[bronchitikat.livejournal.com]

The way you review it sounds as if I might enjoy watching it - IF I can find a cinema locally that doesn't require arms & legs as admission price. Nice to find a Hollywood production which has good sub-plot as well as 'things go BOOM' CG'd all over.

Meanwhile I'll go watch Fantastic Four for Ioan Gruffydd!

Ftw

[first-fallen.livejournal.com]

It was truly an awesome movie. I have plans to go see it again. I rather prefer the Ultimate universe to the original Marvel universe, the characters are more identifiable and real, rather than a Good Guy that beats up Bad Guys. Also, RD Jr is delicious.

I loved the soundtrack too, Tom Morello (from RATM and Audioslave) provided all the random guitaring. Also, any soundtrack with Sabbath on is made of win.

Interestingly enough, the Ultimate Tony Stark doesn't have an artificial heart. They left out that whole thing (in the originals, he had a bad ticker and basically needed a pacemaker). We have Volume 1 and 2 of the Ultimates, will acquire the rest as soon as they come out.

Re: Ftw

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

Would love to borrow the Ultimates off you at some stage, if possible - can I score them off Khoi-Boi?

Re: Ftw

[(Anonymous)]

I'll bring them along to the khoi_party tomorrow. You two can fight over them. With two-handed plastic barbarian swords. In jelly.