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Iron Man DVD Review Director: Jon Favreau Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard. Screenplay: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby Cinematography: Matthew Libatique By Don Young When you pop a DVD into your player, the first few seconds tell you what you need to know about a movie. This is especially true on Iron Man. The Paramount logo lasts 20 seconds, the animated Marvel Studios logo lasts 12 seconds, and the movie begins at 35 seconds. There are credits but they appear bottom left over the action of a trio of humvees driving across a desert in Afghanistan. Music blares from a CD player inside a humvee and we are introduced to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) at 1:15: a man in a suit surrounded by 3 soldiers. His take-control attitude and sense of humour are clearly evident. This is a man who not only makes the rules, but breaks them with equal ease. A humvee explodes and the column is under attack. It’s only three minutes into the movie. Stark gets away from the humvee while his escorts are all killed. He hides behind some rocks as a small missile lands a few feet away. Not just any missile, but a Stark Industries missile, clearly marked so there is no mistake. It explodes and blows Stark away, where the blood shows on his shirt to prove his bulletproof vest was not up to his own weapon. He passes out. When Stark awakes, he finds himself amongst a gang of gun toting Afghani rebels, being filmed on a video camera. The title screen pops up. It is 4:15 minutes into the film, and we are hooked. The movie continues with a flashback to 36 hours before, at a banquet in Las Vegas, where Stark is seen on a video tribute. Colonel James Rhodes (Terrence Howard) attempts to present Stark with an award, but he is not there. It is accepted by Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), the second-in-command, who actually runs Stark Industries. The scene jumps to the roulette table, where Stark is doing some high-stakes gambling. Colonel Rhodes steps in and presents the award. The games continue. Stark loses the throw and leaves with his entourage. Outside, he is accosted by a pretty blond reporter, Christine (Leslie Bibb), who wants to portray him as a warmonger. Stark counters with all the good things Stark Industries has developed to help mankind; he takes her home and spends the night with her. The next morning, Christine wakes up alone. Her investigations are stalled when Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) brings in her clothes, cleaned and pressed. The two have a nice competitive interchange, which Potts wins after her comment, “Sometimes I even take out the trash.” The scene moves to the basement, where Stark is working on his antique roadster, in spite of being expected at the airport hours earlier. He expresses the expectation that the plane will wait, since it is his own plane. The story continues with the flight to Afghanistan, and a demonstration of a new Stark Industries weapon of immense power, the Jericho missile. During the return trip to the airport, the attack on the humvees occurs, and the scene jumps to an operating table, with Stark being the patient. He wakes up on a cot, with a car battery wired into his chest. In the cave with him is a man in a suit, Yinsen (Shaun Toub), who installed the magnetic apparatus to collect barbed scrapnel before it enters his heart. Stark is requested by Raza (Faran Tahir) to build a Jericho missile like he recently demonstrated. He declines and they torture him as an incentive to comply. Then they show him all the hidden weapons in their stockpile, all labeled with the Stark Industries logo. He gives them an extensive list of equipment he needs to build the missile. The first thing he builds is a new power source to fit in the receptacle in his chest. Next Stark and Yinsen construction something bigger, but it hardly resembles the Jericho missile. The rebels begin to wonder and their big leader, Abu Bakaar (Sayed Badreya), gives them until the next day to complete the missile. Stark and Yinson work through the night, and in the morning, are ready to show off their work. But it is not a missile; it’s the original Iron Man suit, which Stark wears as he destroys the camp and the armaments. Then he flies away, crash-landing in a sand dune, and wanders around in the desert until he’s found by Colonel Rhodes. Stark returns and announces the end of weapons manufacture by Stark Industries, something that upsets a lot of people, especially the Stark Board of Directors. He wants to develop his new energy source, something few people are happy with. While the Afghan terrorists are gathering the pieces of his previous suit, Stark designs and builds a new suit, with improved flight controls and armament. He creates further refinements and the suit is rebuilt, and tested. Stark also creates a more efficient power supply. Stark attends a charity function where he finds that the latest Stark Industry weapons are in the hands of the Afghan rebels, and being used to terrorize the people. They now have the Jericho missile. Stark makes it his quest to destroy all the Stark products that have been sold by Obadiah Stane to rebels. Stane has not been successful by being stupid, so he has started his own development of an armoured suit and a power source to run it. When his attempts at a power supply fail, he steals the one from Stark’s chest, which almost kills Stark. Pepper Potts has been smart enough to save the earlier power source that Stark built in the cave. Stark uses this to power his suit. There is a showdown between Stane’s larger and more powerful creation against Stark’s. This is a fast action film, and there are lots of examples of fast paced action. Since it originated as a comic book, it can and does stretch reality a bit. The audience may not even notice it as they are carried along to each new scene. Stark leads a privileged life, and walks through danger as if it doesn’t exist. In the humvee attack, he survives (although hurt severely), while most everyone else in the convoy is killed, except for Colonel Rhodes, who is in the last humvee. We never see how the rebels captured Stark without Colonel Rhodes preventing it or being captured. Towards the end of the movie, Stane removes the power device from Stark’s chest. Stark almost dies before he replaces it with the earlier power unit. But the unit only powers a magnet that attracts scrapnel, preventing it from getting into Stark’s heart. When Stark upgraded the power unit earlier, with Pepper Potts, its removal didn’t affect his strength at all. And in four months, there is unlikely much scrapnel in his system. What’s especially interesting to me are the examples of technology in the suits and power supplies. These were created at Stan Winston Studio, one of the best of the established special effects houses. They also created some of the makeup effects. While one might find the technology beyond present realities, I remember the Dick Tracey Wrist Watch Radio that dates back to January, 1946. It was updated to a Wrist Watch TV in 1964, long before technology made it possible. So any of the advanced technology seen in Iron Man may not be real today, but don’t discount it for the future. Marvel Studios is really just an office that creates projects that are based on their comic book heroes. But they do it very well. Their projects are fully funded to ensure that the movies are as special to view, as they are to make. No special effect is too great, no actor is too expensive. In the past ten years, they have created over twenty movies, including such franchises as Spider Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Hulk. They’ve made some lesser movies, but each is well made, and a credit to the studio. Both Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk will have sequels. Simply, Marvel makes movies worth watching, just as they made comics worth reading, in my day. The acting in this movie is great. Robert Downey Jr., in spite of his many poor choices in real life, can deliver a performance on the screen. His supporting actors are equally capable. The action starts quickly and doesn’t end until the movie is over. This is clearly a movie made for the audience, not an exhibition of filmmakers’ egos. This is a movie one should rent or buy, if one likes action and technology. DVD Contents: Disc One has the movie plus deleted/extended scenes and a teaser on the Iron Man Animated Series. Disc Two has several features: I Am Iron Man – a long feature on the creation of the movie. Wired: The Visual Effects Of Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. Film Test The Actor’s Process. Onion News Network – Adapting The Iron Man Trailer To A Feature Film Galleries (include concept drawings of Iron Man and Iron Monger suits, plus scenery, wardrobe and photography). |