After being held captive in an Afghan cave, a billionaire engineer creates a unique weaponized suit of armor to fight evil.
Director: Jon Favreau.
Writers:
Mark Fergus (screenplay),
Hawk Ostby (screenplay)
| .
Stars: Robert Downey Jr.,
Gwyneth Paltrow,
Terrence Howard.
Storyline
Tony Stark. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Son of
legendary inventor and weapons contractor Howard Stark. When Tony Stark
is assigned to give a weapons presentation to an Iraqi unit led by Lt.
Col. James Rhodes, he's given a ride on enemy lines. That ride ends
badly when Stark's Humvee that he's riding in is attacked by enemy
combatants. He survives - barely - with a chest full of shrapnel and a
car battery attached to his heart. In order to survive he comes up with a
way to miniaturize the battery and figures out that the battery can
power something else. Thus Iron Man is born. He uses the primitive
device to escape from the cave in Iraq. Once back home, he then begins
work on perfecting the Iron Man suit. But the man who was put in charge
of Stark Industries has plans of his own to take over Tony's technology
for other matters.
Movies Reviews:
With
a little tinge of shame and regret, my rare dalliances with the Iron
Man character stemmed from a few one off comic books, as well as
occasions during the teenage years of spending time in the arcade with
those Marvel games, where Iron Man was one of my preferred characters
because it came together with his incredible arsenal of weapons from
repulsor beams to this gigantic cannon which accompanied the execution
of some complex combo moves. There's something sexy about the red and
gold suit of armour, and having an array of weapons at the disposal of a
player, makes perfect sense for variety in dispatching your enemies.
This
may irk the fervent fans of Iron Man, but face it, the superhero
belonged to Tier B where superheroes are concerned, languishing behind
easily recognizable peers who already have movie after movie being made.
But thanks to the advancement in digital technology, bringing Iron Man
to life no longer consisted of the prospect and worrying thought of
having a man running about in a rubber suit passing it off as metal, the
way Ultraman would have been done, complete with mechanical clicks and
whirrs as sound effects to try and fool the visual sensory. Here, we
have a very detailed rendering of the entire design from scratch to
final modification, and we're in at every step of the way, with many
cheeky and sometimes a tad implausible scenes just for cheap laughs
thrown in.
I thought Iron Man the story worked because of stark
(pardon the pun) similarities with Batman Begins, also an origin story
which took its time to dwell on the man behind the suit, nevermind at
the sacrifice of having less action sequences, or by not giving the fans
what they want through the showcase of more than the basic powers.
Advanced capabilities can always find room in the sequel, and as the
first movie used to establish its characters, I felt that it succeeded,
given too that it had a cast of capables (just like Batman Begins had)
to pull the movie through without resorting to over the top and campy
performances, starting of course with the lead in Robert Downey Jr.
In
a nutshell, Downey is Tony Stark through and through. His affinity for
the character shines, and no doubt it bore some parallels between his
own personal, and Stark's life in the narrative future when he hits the
bottle. He was allowed to become a Two-Face of sorts, on one hand being
and later acting out his flamboyance self whose mission in life was the
continuation of his father's legacy of Stark Industries, a weapons
conglomerate, versus his personal mission in ridding his own weapons
from the hands of the bad guys, now updated to be freedom fighters in
the Middle East. The dialogue contained within each scene of Stark's,
except perhaps during captivity, is full of one-liners done in double
quick time, you probably would think it boiled down to a whole host of
natural ad-libbing.
But while Starks spends significant amount of
time in his unsecured basement building his masterpiece, his human
interaction come in the form of faithful secretary Pepper Potts (Gwyneth
Paltrow) who actually, for the first time I admit, looked really good
on screen as Stark's most trusted aide, bringing about some serious
spark of sexual tension and chemistry between the two characters of
opposite sex, more so than any other comic book movie I have seen. And
good friend from the air force Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) complete the
circle of trust who knows of Stark's secret identity, and you'd be
keeping your fingers crossed at the toss of a teaser of a certain War
Machine appearance should the sequel be out.
Who's the main
villain in the movie? It points the finger at Corporations, or at least
here, the weapons manufacturers and the shady deals that go through in
the name of profit, the sole objective for any corporation's existence.
And Jeff Bridges, in a rare villainous role, got to personify that greed
and wrestle for absolute power just like the trailer already suggested.
While his performance is refreshing as he disappears behind the ball
head and bushy beard, you could see his motivation and how the plot
would have been developed to introduced the ultimate fodder for Iron Man
to duke it out in a, sad to say, ordinary finale which any audience
would probably be able to stay a step ahead.
As mentioned
earlier, there are plenty of similarities with the Dark Knight of Gotham
in Christopher Nolan's reboot, but more so because of properties
inherent with the likeness between Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark. Both are
incredibly wealthy to devote time outside of the day job to pursue their
"hobby", both have to suffer personal tragedies in order to wake up to
the cruel world, and in the movie, both fall prey to the corporate
raider type, spend time perfecting their suit of war, have assistants
they would trust their lives with, and of course save them from
impending doom, and a finales set at their facilities.
But Iron
Man is still a special effects extravaganza offering a thrill ride
especially when he goes into battle mode, and without a doubt, Robert
Downey Jr probably should be credited for raising the profile of this
once Tier-B character, to perhaps becoming more recognizable now, and
obviously, expanding the fan base of this weaponry filled suit of metal,
which of course, in this origin movie, we were only given a glimpse of
its potential. can everyone now spell sequel and clamour for more
please? Iron Man has set the bar for the other upcoming comic book
movies to try and surpass this summer season!
No comments:
Post a Comment