Light Metal: “Iron Man”

Iron Man (2008, Dir. Jon Favreau)

Jim Rhodes: That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
Tony Stark: Not bad, huh?

Among the ever-growing pantheon of movie superheroes based on Marvel comics, Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) is unique — rich as Bruce Wayne but ten times the wiseass, brilliant as Reed Richards but way hipper, as human as Peter Parker but with more grown-up concerns — a drinking problem and assorted pieces of shrapnel lying inches away from his heart, for example. It’s only fitting then that the first in what will surely be many films featuring the character is the first superhero film for grown-ups that we’ve seen in a while.

Oh sure, we’ve seen plenty of “mature” superhero movies — Batman Begins and The Punisher, just to name two. But subtract the grim trappings of those films and you’re essentially left with adolescent wish fantasies. In Batman’s sex-less universe, the prospect of a mature relationship with a woman would seem just as outlandish as, well, dressing up as a bat to fight crime. Likewise, the Punisher is too busy cracking skulls to even contemplate a romantic entanglement (and if Thomas Jane couldn’t get excited at the prospect of Rebecca Romjin in the film version, then there’s simply no hope).

There’s plenty of fun kid stuff happening in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, but at the heart of it all (no pun intended) is Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), and just as the character of Tony Stark took ’40s-era Howard Hughes as its initial inspiration, so too does the film, as it harkens back to the breezy fun of ’40s Hollywood action potboilers. Following the spirit of the Iron Man comic (if not the time period, as the original was set during Vietnam), the story traces Stark’s spiritual awakening. Weapons manufacturer mogul, genius inventor, Malibu resident, and all-around playboy, Stark thinks nothing of bedding beauties from Vanity Fair magazine and turning his private jet into a strip club, complete with willing stewardesses, but when he’s abducted by a terrorist cabal known as the “Ten Rings” during a trip to Afghanistan, and ordered to construct a version of his company’s latest and deadliest missile, he comes to see the folly of building weapons that everyone, including the bad guys, can get their hands on. Wounded and kept alive by a chest-plate magnet that prevents shrapnel from entering his heart, he befriends the wry, moral Yinsen (Shaun Toub, making the most of his small role), and decides to outsmart his captors by building the prototype of what will eventually become the new armored suit he will use to fight terrorists (industrial as well as ideological).

An American millionaire saving the lives of innocents in Afghanistan utilizing state-of-the-art gadgetry? Put that way, it sounds dicey, but fortunately Favreau is more interested in Tony Stark the man than Tony Stark the idealist. Riffing and joking like there’s no tomorrow, Downey makes the movie — he’s a wiseass, but a wiseass with a soul. When Stark sets about perfecting his suit with the help of his computer Jarvis (voiced by Paul Bettany) and the silent little helper ‘bots in his lab, the film reaches a state of daffy grace, as Stark goes through a painful trial-and-error process with each successive experiment. A near-seamless mix of practical effects and CGI, the suit is an impressive creation, and although you always face a problem when you have a superhero whose features are hidden when he’s suited up, Downey’s presence more than compensates. In past roles, he perfected his ability to be both irreverent and sincere, and both attributes serve him well here.

Favreau, who cut his teeth on whip-smart confections like Swingers, isn’t an ace visual stylist or pop mythologist, but his strength — letting his actors have fun — plays right into Downey’s (and the film’s) strengths. The characters get plenty of opportunities to engage in old-school repartee, with one-liners that are sexy as well as funny. All the best lines belong to Downey (“Give me a Scotch, I’m starving”), and he strikes sparks with Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Stark’s Girl Friday. Some might see Paltrow’s character as a major step backward following on the heels of empowered heroines and female superheroes in recent Marvel films (speaking of heels, she sports some doozies in this flick), but at least she isn’t reduced to damsel-in-distress mode at the end of the film, and her snappy comebacks to Downey suggest that the two will eventually be equals in love, if not social stature.

Better still is Jeff Bridges as Obidiah Stane, Stark’s co-partner at the company. While it becomes apparent pretty quickly where Stane’s allegiances lie (warning: a businessman with a bald head and a long beard in a suit is not to be trusted), Bridges underplays the part nicely, his trademark drawl and ice-blue eyes more sinister than any histrionics. The only weak link in the cast turns out to be Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes, Stark’s Pentagon liason and future partner-in-heroism — affable and loose-limbed, Howard is too laid-back to convince as a top-ranking Air Force colonel.

For a superhero movie, Iron Man is thankfully scant on eardrum-busting action sequences. The first two major setpieces, both set in Afghanistan, are zippy, rousing, and to-the-point. Favreau maintains the human element even when the effects get hot and heavy — a breathless chase involving two U.S. Air Force jets and Iron Man is nicely punctuated when Iron Man gets a call on his cell phone from a suspicious Rhodes (“What the hell is that noise?” “I’m driving with the top down”). Things only bog down at the big finish, in which Iron Man takes on an enemy in a gargantuan powered-up suit; superhero movies these days seem to feel the need to tack on a climax that involves mass destruction, noisy explosions, and soaring orchestral surges on the soundtrack, and Iron Man sadly cannot escape this particular paradigm. Fortunately the denouement is a delight, as Stark, giddy with the realization that the mysterious “Iron Man” has become a celebrity, wrestles with the idea of revealing his identity at a press conference (“I’m not the hero type … clearly …”). Iron Man won’t change your life and it doesn’t try to; instead, it delivers on the wit and sophistication, two elements you don’t find in many action extravganzas. Superheroes may appear and disappear from the scene, but men like Tony Stark, with their devil-may-care charm and human foibles, are sorely needed.