Iron Man is the first major hit of the summer, and it hits the summer blockbuster season full throttle with a real hit. It is one of the few movies based upon a comic book series which works and makes its way to film without any scene which feels silly. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that the film has a sense of humor and is not taking itself too seriously. This is not to say, however, that there are no serious undertones to the story.
Iron Man is the story of billionaire entrepreneur and gifted engineer Tony Stark. He is a man of flaws: he is a womanizer, alcoholic, self-centered, and egotistical, and yet with his charisma, he has many loyal friends (especially his secretary, Pepper Potts, and his military associate, Jim Rhodes) who help him no matter how much he disappoints them. He has inherited the family business, which is arms manufacturing. But he was also a child genius, and is completely at homes in computer engineering and development. He has been the “golden child” who has made the company go from glory to glory with the weapons he has developed for it. While showing off a new missile in Afghanistan, something happens: his car is taken out, and he is captured by “The Ten Rings” a terrorist group whose motives are not fully revealed in this story (but, connected to the over-arching Iron Man universe with one of Iron Man’s greatest foes, the Mandarin). His heart is damaged, and to keep him alive, he has a device next to his heart hooked up to a battery, while the terrorists demand him to build one of his super-missiles for them. One of the first thing he does is develop a power source to help his heart so it doesn’t need to be hooked up to the battery. Then he develops a huge suit of mobile armor, powered by his heart’s power device, and he uses it to escape. This suit of mobile armor becomes the prototype of his Iron Main suit. While he was held in captivity, he found out that they had somehow got possession of his company’s arms, and he will later find out how.
When he returns home, after months of captivity, he has had a change of heart. He wants to turn his business around. He doesn’t want it to be involved in the creation and selling of arms. This causes problems with the stock and his business partner, Obadiah Stane, a long-term friend of the family, tries to deal with the situation and help the company get back out of the rut Tony has made for it. Eventually, it is revealed he wanted to get rid of Tony (by having him assassinated), and he was the one who was selling arms to terrorists. When his weapons are shown to be causing significant damage in the Afghan region by the warlords who bought them from his company, Tony knows he must do something. He had already been working on his Iron Man suit, but now he finishes it and goes back to Afghanistan to help out some villages which have been harassed by the terrorists. Since he has done so on his own, and the US military did not know who or what he was, tries to take him out in one of the significant scenes of the film (Iron Man being chased by jets).
Eventually, Stark’s former-friend-turned rival finds the plans for the original Iron Man suit from his association with the terrorists; and he builds his own, bigger suit, with the results being what one expects from this: the eventual face off of two rival men-in-power suits. It’s probably the weakest part of the film: it’s done well, but it feels as if the development of the big suit went too quick after we have seen the difficulties Tony went through to make his own. Yet one could rationalize it if one wanted to (Tony was working by himself in the process).
While the plot of the movie can be simplified down to what I said above, what makes the movie shine is Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Tony Stark, his relationship with his friends, and how he portrays his change of heart through the movie. It’s clear he has had a revelation and wants to make something out of his life; but it is also clear his foibles are still there. He’s a hero with a dark side, but one who is trying to overcome them. He also goes from a marketer for war to a kind of Mo-ist (an odd kind of militant pacifism from China, which will enforce the peace through violence).
The film is rated pg-13 because of the violence but also because of a scene demonstrating Tony Stark’s womanizing (having him in bed, but with no nudity). It is not meant for children; indeed, it’s best to describe it as an adult film, despite being a comic book movie.
4 ¼ / 5 stars.
As a final note: if you are a fan of Iron Man and the Marvel Universe, sit to the end of the credits, where there is a short scene with Samuel L Jackson playing Nick Fury recruiting Tony Stark for “Project Avengers.”
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