Thank you, Marvel Studios. Thank you, Jon Favreau. Thank you, Robert Downey Jr. Thank you for not only making the first good comic book superhero movie since 2005's Batman Begins, but also for restoring my dormant enthusiasm for what had become a favourite sub-genre of mine. I grew up reading comic books, so once they started coming out with quality adaptations of comic book heroes, beginning with 2000's X-Men, I generally had a few movies a year to get geeked up about in anticipation.
I loved the first two X-Men films, the first two Spider-Man films, and even the underappreciated Hulk film. But following the triumphant Batman Begins, the genre spit out three years of dreck, beginning with the mediocre but fun Fantastic Four, followed by the abysmal X-Men: The Last Stand, the bloodless Superman Returns, the embarrassing Ghost Rider, and the disappointing Spider-Man 3, which became a microcosm of the genre as a bloated mess that drowned in its own excesses.
The result was that I no longer greeted the announcement of a new superhero adaptation with excitement, but instead dreaded what Hollywood had in store (with the lone exception being this summer's The Dark Knight). If they could screw up the Spider-Man franchise with the same players in place from the earlier two films, there wasn't much reason to suspect that they'd get new franchises right, particularly since the properties were being handed over to hacks like Brett Ratner and Mark Steven Johnson, and roles being populated by affordable non-stars like Brandon Routh.
So when the early news of the Iron Man film started filtering in, I mostly met it with indifference. Jon Favreau to direct? Sure, I liked him as an actor well enough, and felt that Elf was a decent comedic vehicle for Will Ferrell, but getting the director of Zathura to helm a new blockbuster sounded like getting the director of Barbershop to helm a franchise (oh wait, that happened).
But then they cast Downey Jr as Tony Stark, and suddenly, in spite of myself, I was intrigued. It was such an inspired casting choice that I had to take notice, and it only got better when they filled out the cast with Terrence Howard as Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, and Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane. That's a surprisingly A-list cast for a film of a character who was second-tier in terms of popularity throughout his career.
My next problem was getting psyched for a character that I never cared all that much for. For me, Iron Man was always a cool looking costume, but I never read many of his comics (maybe four or five Iron Man issues and another dozen or so Avengers comics featuring Stark). Then the trailers started popping up, and I was forced to admit that it looked pretty good. Then the favourable buzz started filtering out of Comic-Con and suddenly, after a few years of indifference and bitter disappointment, I found myself looking forward to the theatrical debut of Iron Man almost as much as I was the theatrical reboot of the Joker.
I'm thrilled to report that Iron Man meets all the anticipation and hype, kicking off the blockbuster season of 2008 with a bang. It's big and brassy in the best traditions of the action blockbuster, without having to insult the intelligence of its audience to pull off the big thrills and effects of the genre. It captures the spirit and energy of the genre of my youth while adding enough maturity through its cast (the youngest principle cast member is Paltrow at 36) to engage an adult audience. Favreau expertly weaves physical effects with CGI, giving the action scenes a sense of realism one wouldn't expect from a movie about a guy in a high-tech suit of armour, while infusing the film with a smart sense of humour that keeps the origin-heavy story engaging.
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