“Iron Man” (Review)

Filed Under Blockbusters, Comics, Movies

I saw the first “Spider-Man” movie in the theater ten times. I’d started reading comics in earnest at age 12, and even then, there were rumblings that a Spidey flick was in development. It took a full decade before the rights issues were sorted out and Sam Raimi won the game of musical director’s chairs. The finished product was the biggest movie of 2002, thanks in no small part to my repeat business. It connected with the geeks and the mainstream audiences alike. Overnight, Marvel Comics became Central Casting for franchise-starved studios, each looking for the next “Spider-Man.”

“Iron Man” was in development for at least ten years as well. Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise were both up for the title role in the ’90s. Quentin Tarantino, Joss Whedon and Nick Cassavettes all came close to directing. But for one reason or another, Shell-Head didn’t make it to the screen for one summer after another. Then Marvel Studios struck a distribution deal with Paramount and named “Iron Man” as its first in-house project. Jon Favreau was hired on as the director and Robert Downey Jr. took on the lead role(s). It was the perfect storm — a geek-friendly director, a brilliant character actor and a studio that clearly understood the character. No Hulk Dogs, no giant rain cloud standing in for Galactus, and no Punisher using a phony fire hydrant in an elaborate scheme to make sure the baddie’s wife gets a ton of parking tickets. Thank God.

Tony Stark is Howard Hughes by way of Halliburton. As Robert Downey Jr. plays him, he’s a loveable bastard — a boozy but brilliant womanizer and war profiteer. After a demonstration in Afghanistan of his new WMD, the Jericho, Stark’s convoy is attacked and he’s captured by a terrorist group called the 10 Rings; if you’re a fan of the comic, there’s your reference to Iron Man baddie the Mandarin. Shrapnel embedded in his chest is slowly edging its way toward his heart, and he’s kept alive only by a magnetic device built into his breastbone by his cellmate Yinsen (Shaun Toub). The terrorists want Stark to build the Jericho for them. They also seem to be sitting on quite a stockpile of weapons emblazoned with the Stark Industries logo. He realizes he’s been arming both sides. Ridden with guilt, he engineers a suit of armor with wrist-mounted flame-throwers and proceeds to wreck shop in the terrorists’ cave HQ.

Stark is rescued by his friend, Air Force Colonel Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard). He returns to the States, his long-suffering personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwynth Paltrow, a stunner with red hair) and his number two at Stark Industries Obadiah Stane (a beared and bald-headed Jeff Bridges). At once he calls a press conference to announce the cancellation of his weapons division. With Stark Industries’ future in question, he goes into seclusion, where he begins to develop a more sophisticated suit of iron. A government spook from the organization S.H.I.E.L.D. tries to get to the bottom of how Stark effected his escape. Meanwhile, Stane isn’t about to close the doors on the the weapons division, especially not once he’s gotten his hands on the Mark 1 suit. And Pepper is smitted with Stark once she realizes he’s not so heartless after all.

Iron Man’s not really known for having A-list villains (hello, Crimson Dynamo and Living Laser), so the bulk of the film doesn’t hinge on one bash-up after another. This is Robert Downey Jr.’s show here. The man can make scenes of testing boot jets and gauntlets with repulsor beams endlessly entertaining. He’s never boring, and even when he does disappear completely into the red-and-gold suit, the setpieces are far more coherent than the sound and fury in the final act of “Transformers.” The film is a reward not only for the fans of the comic, but summer movie-goers. It’s the blockbuster that was missing from last May when the troika of three-quels showed audiences that they needed a new franchise. “Iron Man” is it.

See it. Then see it again. And stay through the closing credits. The coda is a geek-gasm.

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