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Directed By
Jon Favreau
Written By:
Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Matt Holloway, Arthur Marcum, Larry Lieber, Don Heck
Cast:
Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Samuel L. Jackson, Leslie Bibb, Stan Lee, Shaun Toub, Bill Smitrovich, Faran Tahir, Sayed Badreya, Clark Gregg, Tim Guinee, Will Lyman, Marco Khan, Kevin Foster, Ahmed Ahmed, Tom Morello, Russell Richardson, Jon Favreau, Nazanin Boniadi, Donna Evans, Patrick O'Connell, Adam Harrington, Peter Billingsley, Gabrielle Tuite, Tim Griffin, Joshua Harto, Micah A. Hauptman, Daston Kalili, Ido Ezra, Zorianna Kit, Fahim Fazli, Stacy Stas, Masha Lund, Garrett Noel, Eileen Weisinger, Gerard Sanders, Tim Rigby, Thomas Craig Plumer, Robert Berkman, Lauren Scyphers, Frank Nyi, Marvin Jordan, Jim Cramer, Reid Harper, Summer Kylie Remington, Ava Rose Williams, Vladimir Kubr, Callie Croughwell, Javan Tahir, Sahar Bibiyan, Meera Simhan, Ricki Noel Lander, Jeannine Kaspar, Sarah Cahill, Justin Rex, Lana Kinnear, Nicole Lindeblad, James Bethea, Ben Newmark
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Iron Man (2008)
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Movie Review by Zara 
May 2nd, 2008
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Favorite Movie Quote: "Next time, baby."
Ooooo... I actually liked this movie. I wasn't sure how much I was going to catch onto being that I've never read the Iron Man comic books or seen any of the cartoons (if there were any) and I didn't know any of the characters or their dynamics. I'd spent the last 6 months or so discussing the nature of those character with the Alpha Male and his take on why Robert Downey Jr was a great choice for Tony Stark and so forth. But none of it really meant bupkiss to me since it was all second hand knowledge.
But after watching the first showing that they had available in advance of its official release date of 05/02, I can officially say that I'm impressed. Not only is Robert Downey Jr incredibly and indelibly remarkable in the role of Tony Stark, he just solidifies how intense of an actor he is, was and always will be. Watching him reel you in (and shut up the young male audience that was cackling like idiots until the story got underway) is mesmerizing.
Tony Stark, the character, from what I've been told, was a power and money glutton, fat on living the life of a Lothario who drank too much and did as little as possible, all while being an MIT genius. I can understand why the Alpha Male thought that Downey was a good choice for the role, based on his personal background of indiscretions. But he doesn't just embody that part of the role, he falls deeply in love with the idea of being a superhero and saving the world from the madness that he set up with the weapons division of his company. He is a sinner at heart and always will be, addicted in some form or fashion to what is just within his reach, ever stretching to see how far he can go.
The movie is great in the fact that you get to really examine Stark as a character, as a person, and not just as Iron Man. Favreau was careful in confining the action sequences to when they were solely and completely necessary to the story. He simply lets Downey own the show, letting the audience in on how a superhero can be built and not just born.
What action is there is plentiful and tinged with a feeling of victory. This is seemingly meaningless violence that has a meaning. Because Favreau so carefully guides you through understanding and getting into the shoes of the billionaire who was held captive and forced to create his alter ego for escape and survival, you feel as if you're in the suit yourself. You feel as if you are righting your own wrongs. This is so rare in superhero movies of late, where there is little to grasp onto other than fast action and a lot of dazzle but very little background so as to understand why the revenge is so satisfying.
And the action (as well as the movie as a whole) is winking with Favreau's comedic slant. Downey has long since learned to make fun of himself and what people might think of him due to his checkered past. So the two men together create a film which represents a whole unit of quality, as far as comic book movies go.
My two SMALL gripes are that 1) Gwyneth Paltrow is adequate but feels somehow misplaced in her role and 2) Terrence Howard feels as if he's dialing it in for the exposure to a larger demographic. I don't feel he needs to do that considering that he is widely known to true movie lovers as being a hard-working consistent and dedicated performer. He feels and acts like an accessory piece in this movie, which I suppose is what the role called for, but I personally felt like it was beneath him.
Overall, awesome storytelling in an action movie. How often do you really get a chance to say that?
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May 2, 2008 2:52 AM
May 2, 2008 3:28 AM