Ironman, a review

Monday, May 12, 2008

I AM IRON MAN!
Malach took the kids to see Iron Man this weekend, and I must say kuods to a job well done. My kids are 6 and 5, a boy and a girl, and they both loved it. It is rated PG-13, but neither child had any issue with that (I am not even sure why it was rated that).

The movie itself is a adaptation of the comic book series Iron Man, and out of all the comic book films, this one is perhaps the most accurate depiction of any comic book hero in movie form. While not right in line with the comics, the changes they make, even moving Tony Stark out of Manhattan to the West Coast works. The plot is well written, with an excellent balance of dialogue, character development, and of course action. The casting was absolutely perfect. Robert Downey Jr.(RDJ) plays a role he was born to play in alcoholic playboy Tony Stark; Jeff Bridges, who always plays amazing villains, takes Obadiah Stane to a new level of nastiness; and even Gwyneth Paltrow plays Pepper Potts, and the unrequited sexual chemistry between her and RDJ is perfect for both roles. SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

The plot revolves around billionaire military industrialist playboy Tony Stark. Stark had inherited his father's business Stark Industries, and using his mechanical genius, creates some of the most powerful weapons is the world. Stark, while a genius, is a hard drinking, womanizing partier, and the day to day operation are run by his father's partner Obidiah Stane. Stark heads to Afghanistan to show off a new weapon, the Jericho cluster bomb. After his successful showing, he heads back to the airport in a military convoy, which is attacked by a Terrorist Organization called (foreshadow) The Ten Rings; all are killed except for Stark.

An unconscious Stark is taken captive in grave condition. As fate would have it, he is put in captivity with a Dr. Ho Yinsin, who creates a device that he embeds in Stark's chest that prevents the shrapnel in his chest from reaching his heart and killing him. Stark immediately improves upon the device, which was run by car battery hook up to work on it own power source, Stark invented arc power source. Yinsin and Stark become friendly, and Yinsin begins to show Stark the errors of his lifestyle.

The Ten Rings terrorists, demand Stark make them their own version of the Jericho missile, Stark agrees, but secretly designs his first crude Iron Man armor instead, and uses it to escape captivity, though Yinsin is killed in the ensuing battle.

Stark returns to the US a changed man, immediately announces Stark Industries would no longer produce weapons, which upsets Stane. Stane tells Stark to take some time off and reconsider what he said. Meanwhile Stane start working the board of directors against Stark.

Stark goes into seclusion, design a better power supply for the device keeping him alive, and then begins designing his second version of the power armor he used to escape. He also finds out, that Stark Industries has been supplying Ten Rings with Stark weapons technology under the direction of Stane.

Faced with this realization he dons the armor and sets out of right the wrongs his company has done. Stane who is working with Ten Rings, receives the broken up pieces of of Stark's old original armor, and sets about Stark Industries to create a series of armored soldiers which he calls Iron Mongers. And you can see where the rest of the story heads.

Ironman of course comes into battle with Stane, now in the first Iron Monger costumes. Titanic battle, and with the help of Pepper Potts (and a early SHIELD), they defeat Iron Monger, and Stane is killed in the process.

A cover story is created by SHIELD, of course Stark does not follow it, and reveals he is Ironman at the end of the movie . . . credits roll. But is doesn't end there. After the credits are finished, there is a final scene. Stark returns home to find Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) waiting for him. Fury tells Stark, he is not the only one like him, and they need to discuss "The Avengers Initiative" and the movie ends, obviously open for sequels. Their is quite the buzz about Jackson playing Fury; Fury is traditionally a white Clint Eastwood looking fellow (Except for his Ultimates incarnation, which is based on Jackson's look). It has to be better the 1998's version of Nick Fury played by David Hasselhoff. END SPOILERS

Iron Man, while not Citizen Kane was still a very fun, excellent movie, one of the best of the comic genre I have seen. My kids loved it too. It gets 4 1/2 out of 5 rubbersuit masks!