Having suffered through more misses than hits, comic book fans were understandably concerned about Iron Man, a second-tier hero for Marvel Comics, coming to the big screen. Those fears were blasted aside by the talented team behind the second best superhero film of 2008, a fitting designation considering that while Stan Lee claims Tony Stark was inspired by Howard Hughes, it’s hard not to see comparisons to Lee’s cross-town rival’s own millionaire playboy industrialist and more successful creation Bruce Wayne.
Iron Man is fantastic, filled with great action and special effects, particularly the outstanding CGI effects that seamlessly fit into the real world. You will believe an Iron Man can fly through the sky with planes. However, what helps the film rise above similar Hollywood fare is the story and characterization in the script, elements usually ignored and overlooked.
The film presents an origin story and updates it from the comics by setting it in modern times and moving the occurrence of his life-threatening injury from Vietnam to Afghanistan. The viewer is presented a quick sense of Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) character as the film opens. In Vegas, he blows accepting an award and shoots high-stakes craps. He takes a beautiful reporter home for the night to Los Angeles, but is gone halfway around the world before she wakes up. Filled with so much pride, the fall was inevitable.
While demonstrating Stark Industries’ new weapons system known as “Jericho” to the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Stark gets severely injured in a bombing, also a product of S.I., and is taken prisoner by terrorists, who want their own Jericho. Stark has a change of heart literally as shrapnel from the bomb is close to the organ, and the only thing keeping him alive is a magnetic device installed in his chest that keeps the pieces from it. Rather than build a version of Jericho, Stark, in the one sequence of the film that is completely unbelievable, builds himself a suit of armor and weapons to escape.
Shortly after his return home, Stark makes private modifications to the suit while making public modifications to the business his company does. He gets resistance to the latter, most notably from Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), his deceased father's friend and business partner. As they investigate each other, Stane learns of Stark’s Iron Man suit and attempts to build his own, setting up the final conflict.
Robert Downey Jr. was a superb casting choice because he was able to act as the smug, rich playboy and the humble hero. He carries off both the humor and drama of the story.
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