In 2008, Marvel released it’s first film in it’s long anticipated Avenger’s line up. The movie, directed by Jon Favreau, was a box office smash receiving critical acclaim and nominations for many awards. The film projected an all-star cast that included Robert Downey Jr., Gweneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, and Terrance Howard. I was unable to see it in theatres, but I was able to get it on DVD and I can definitely say that I was hooked. Now, I am a DC myself, but I do love many marvel superheroes and this did not disappoint.
The film was wonderful, a true masterpiece in cinema, everything from it’s acting to the directing to the soundtrack was just great. It made fans everywhere pleased and brought in an even bigger fan base once it was released. It also treated us to the expectation of every Marvel fan’s wet dream: The Avengers live-action film. This revisit will actually be the first of five in which I revisit each of the Marvel films that lead up to the Avengers. However, does Iron Man still hold up today? Well, lets find out.
Story: A terrorist group, known as The Ten Rings, captures Tony Stark and forces him to build the Jericho missile for them. During this time, he builds a suit that helps him escape and eventually become rescued by his best friend, James Rhodes. During a press conference he states that he was blind to the effects that his weapons caused and that he saw the horrors that occurred over in the Middle East. He then announces that Stark Industries will shut down it’s weapons manufacturing chain, which concerns many and leads to Obadiah Stane, portrayed by Jeff Bridges, watching Tony and plotting his death. After Tony rebuilds his suit, he finds out that Obadiah orchestrated his capture and planned to kill him from the start. He also finds out that Obadiah is the one who has been selling weapons to terrorists, along with the fact that he is building his own suit. After a showdown between Iron Man and the Iron Monger, Tony Stark gives a press conference to clear up the explosion at Stark Tower. However, Tony then states that he is Iron Man. The movie ends with Nick Fury, portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson, visiting him to talk about “The Avengers Initiative”. This in my opinion was a great way to “set off” the Avenger’s movie lineup and leave a cliffhanger for fans to be anxious about. The story also added a great mix of humor, seriousness, and action and played off all these aspects very well. I felt that there was something missing, although I still can’t figure it out. Maybe it was because it is an origin story and many movies that deal with origins have this problem. Non-the less, it was still great.
Director: Let me just say that Jon Favreau is a genius. He is no stranger to Comic Books and has done some great work in this genre, which include Cowboys and Aliens and Iron Man 2. His ability to bring the well-written script to the big screen, juggle the personalities of all of these actors and characters, and still manage to bring in the audiences attention and keep them entertained is just phenomenal. It is absolutely brilliant and you can tell from the way he did this film that he cares about the material, the movie, and the fans alike. In the end, the director needs to be able to bring the movie to life and Jon Favreau was the perfect man to do it.
Writing: Brilliant. Need I say more? I mean, to be able to incorporate such intensity and personality into these characters is a big deal. Many writers have to do it; you need to if you want an interesting movie, but the writers for Iron Man were able to make the characters have depth and really interest and attach the characters to the audience. I know I felt the chemistry on screen between Pepper Pots and Tony Stark. Plus, the movie made me look at the characters as just that, characters. I didn’t think I’m watching RDJ or Gweneth Paltrow talk, nor did I think I’m watching “The Dude” fight Iron Man, I watched Tony Stark and Pepper share romance and felt the passion that these characters were displaying. I felt the anger and hatred Obadiah felt towards Tony and the intensity during the battles. You felt something for these characters, if not with these characters. In conclusion the writing was great and definitely one of the high aspects of the film.
Acting: What good is a movie without actors? They are the people who can make or break a movie, somewhat tying it all together. I mean, you could have kept Jon Favreau and the writers on the project, but if you had Megan Fox as Pepper and Justin Chatwin as Tony, you would leave the theatre pretty disappointed. However, the actors in the movie were able to bring the script to life, which in turn brought these characters to life. RDJ’s performance as Tony Stark was brilliant and you could definitely tell this role meant something to him. He was able to bring out a smart-ass and cocky side of Tony’s personality while also bringing out the tragedy and pain that the character feels and goes through. The maturity and evolution of Tony throughout the movie is brought out so well by RDJ that it really made me mark it as one of the best character portrayals I have ever seen. Gweneth Paltrow was also wonderful on her performance for Pepper by bringing out a shy and loving side, but also a concerning and serious side. Terrance Howard was also great as James Rhodes because I feel he gave off a serious personality while juggling the caring protective best friend persona, which makes the character so great. However, even though RDJ was able to bring out all of the aspects of Tony that many people know and love, I felt one person also deserves mentioning: Jeff Bridges. He really does bring a menacing type of persona to the table and comes off as a man who will do anything for power, but also finds self-satisfaction in watching Tony fall. Although those two characteristics are similar, they are quite different and for an actor to balance both of those characteristics is impressive and worth noticing.
Editing: The editing is another aspect that is important to the film. It can help with the fluency of the movie and sometimes the relationship between the movie and the audience. An example of how bad editing can go wrong is Green Lantern where chemistry between characters was destroyed because it was interrupted by space shots. However, Iron Man does not have that problem and instead the movie is thoroughly fluent in all aspects of each characters situation. It once again pull in the audience because the editors made sure the scenes did not drag on or get boring. The relationships and story were split up perfectly and, in the end, the “building blocks” of the movie worked to bring us a great film.
Action: As we have all known for a while, the one thing that many people love about Comic Book Movies is the action. It is a delicate aspect of a film because, although we all love a good smack down here and there, there can be too much action. If you are skeptical about that, take Transformers 2 and tell me you didn’t get a little bored of seeing the same thing with a bigger explosion here and there. However, there can also be too little action like in Superman Returns. So, when the movie was over, it was nice to look back at the movie and not say I was bored because there was too much or too little action. Plus, the CGI used in many action scenes was great and did not rely heavily on the CGI. The other action scenes that did not use CGI did not suffer, which shows that it really was an intense, attention-grabbing scene. It is also a good thing when you can’t name a specific fight you liked because they tied for first place.
Overall, the film was really great. I felt there was something missing, but as I said before with origin stories, it happens. The high quality acting, writing, and directing mixed with great action scenes and editing makes this movie an example of how a CBM should be done and is definitely one of my favorite films in general. With that said, I give it 9/10.
If you would like to check out some of my other revisits/reviews, visit my fansite
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