I tried to get the kid to wear his Iron Man tee to the movie, but he's 14 now and starting to be a little more discriminating about his clothing. Of course I would've worn it myself, being a huge comic book movie fan and despite the fact that it was probably 5 sizes too small for me and looked like a belly shirt that chicks wear. After my wife threatened to leave me, I put back on my more conservative Transformers t-shirt and we all piled into the car.
At the theater, we sat for an hour and a half waiting in our sticky seats for the movie to start. Already jam packed, the typical geek crowd that goes to the first showing of all these kinds of movies was there. Conspicuously absent was the uber-geek who dresses up like the character focus of the film. There were people in green paint at the first Hulk movie premiere. Batman and Superman look-a-likes appeared at the openings of those super flicks. A multitude of mutant cosplayers appeared at the X-Films. Hell, there was a Spider-Man, Goblin AND Venom at Spidey 3 when I went. But alas, no Iron Man this day. It must be that the costume is a little too hard to sew--being metal and all. Still, I'm surprised nobody tried to convert their metal garbage cans into simulated armor.
Anyhoo, as the trailers started up, everyone screamed with rapture. There was an excited mumbling after the newest Indy trailer. Odd silence for Narnia: Prince Caspian. Again, nobody cared about Speed Racer. Hulk got a few cheers, and so did Hancock, but the room exploded for The Dark Knight--still the fan favorite.
All the hype over the trailer leak this week didn't do it any harm either. Finally, the movie started. Everyone cheered anew when the Paramount stars arched around its familiar logo. I was certain they would've worked in a little Iron Man figure too--like they did with the jets in Top Gun, but no.
The action came quick. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is captured by militant Islamists and forced to build a WMD. Instead he makes the Mark I armor and escapes. The experience changes his irresponsible cad qualities into responsible cad qualities, and when he finds out that his company is "double-dealing" or selling weapons to both sides, he has to take action. After fixing the icing problems of the Mark II armor, Tony perfects his design with the Mark III. Now he is ready, and takes it out on the evil extremists by routing them out of a small Afgany town they are terrorizing for seemingly no good reason, other than the odd fact that they seem to be storing a lot of Stark's high tech weaponry there. His first excursion out as Iron Man doesn't go unnoticed and his business partner Obidiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) gets wind of the Armor and starts building his own. Once back at home we learn that Obi was behind Tony's capture all along, and that he was supposed to have been killed by the terrorists. Sexy secretary Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) does some reconnaissance for this info and gets into trouble.
She runs off with a guy from S.H.I.E.L.D. as Tony suits up to confront Stane, who somehow, inbetween scaring Ms. Potts and donning the War Monger armor, had appeared at Stark's house to steal the one element of Tony's armor that his scientist/engineers couldn't duplicate--the chest piece power source that energizes the whole thing. When Iron Man and Iron Monger meet, they battle in the street. Cars and buses go flying in a SFX extravaganza. Of course, the good guy wins in the end.
Speaking of the end, if you wait until ALL the credits are done rolling, you get a short scene with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury telling Stark about the "Avenger Initiative." Those stalwart fans, like myself, who stayed long enough to see it crapped in their pants and weeped as the nerdgasm ensued.
My analysis? A damn good movie! Marvel is sure to have several sequels with this and be able to finance many more comic book movie projects to come. There were multiple hints of that potentiality in this movie such as the Jackson scene just mentioned, and a scene where Stark's military buddy James Rhoades (Terrence Howard) checks out the Mark II armor with obvious interest and states, "next time" as he opts for a sports car to take him where he's going--an obvious War Machine tip. The movie had a good story which didn't stray far from the comics origin. There couldn't have been a better cast. They are all oscar winners or nominees--and it showed. And the action, essential in a film of this type, was spot on. Also of note, the film didn't suffer from any origin story woes that have bored movie-goers in past superhero films. If I had to be anal and point out problems, the only two I would forgivingly mention would be the scenes where the Afgany village is being sacked, and the amazing speed of Stane's travelling abilities at the climax. The first scene was obviously put there to give Iron Man something to test his armor out upon. There was no explanation why those poor villagers had a ton of advanced weaponry stockpiled in their town, and were the targets of abuse by the terrorists, so if felt kind of staged. Also, the continuity problem of Stane appearing in Stark's house and then back at the office again inbetween the time he scared off Pepper Potts (at the office) whereby she brought in the SHIELD agents is nothing less than magic or teleportation. Again, these are forgivable idiosyncrasies.
The bottom line is that Marvel has a winner with this one, and has proven that when they take the reins on one of their films, they will deliver it in the manner that comics fans will appreciate. I give it 5 Mighty Fists!