Iron Man is an Iron Clad Hit

The boyos were with the parental units this weekend so Dream Girl and I went out on Saturday afternoon to check out the new Iron Man movie starring the talented Robert Downey Jr. and Jeff Bridges and the lovely and talented Gwyneth Paltrow.

 

Based on the semi-popular comic book character created by Stan Lee, the movie is about billionaire playboy weapons designer and genius Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) who is captured by terrorists on a visit to Afghanistan and is forced to construct hyper-advanced destructive missles for his captors.  Instead, with the help of a fellow captive, he creates a suit of weapons-laden armor and uses it to escape.

Having had an epiphany during his experiences in captivity, upon returning to the United States, Stark begins a mission to stop his own company from creating weapons that perpetuate war and terror.  He does this partly by improving and steamlining the suit of armor he created to escape the terrorists and plans to use it to stop them from using his weapons against American troops.  Meanwhile, Stark’s business partner and family friend, the ruthless Obadiah Stane (Bridges) is trying to thwart his plans.  If all this weren’t enough, Stark finds himself falling in love with his assistant, the indispensable Pepper Potts (Paltrow).

I went to see this film sincerely hoping that it would live up to all of its hype.  It does.  But not in the way you would expect.  My expectations were for an action-filled, non-stop thrill ride and although there are plenty of excellently choreographed action sequences, it was not the adrenaline laden movie I was looking for.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the film actually had some depth.  The characters were all fully developed and the storyline showed a man struggling for redemption.  Although not a direct protest of the War on Terror, it certainly did not shy away from making a few statements towards that end.  All the while the movie was entertaining and fun to watch.

I am always impressed with the underrated Robert Downey Jr.  He is a brilliant actor (if you have never seen him in Chaplin go out and rent it immediately), and he does not disappoint as Tony Stark.  As you watch him in the film, you become immediately convinced that no one else could possibly have played that part as well as he did.  This is especially true if you are at all familiar with the character in the comic book.

Gwyneth Paltrow is certainly “slumming” in this film considering how incredibly talented she is as an actress.  The character of Pepper Potts is the equivilant of a Juilliard trained actor playing a minor character in a high school play.  Luckily for us, when Paltrow applies her considerable skills to the role she is a joy to watch.

The performance I was most impressed with was that of Jeff Bridges.  I have never seen him play such an evil character before and yet he pulled it off brilliantly.  It is the deliciously subtle nuance in his performance that makes your skin crawl.  He and Downey Jr. work together expertly and seem to feed off of one another’s performances rather than trying to upstage one another as you often find when two actors of that caliber are sharing the camera.

I will admit that your appreciation of the movie will probably be higher if you are actually familiar with the mythos of the characters in the comic books, but you can still enjoy it as an excellent action flick if you aren’t.  There are relatively few drag points, and there is plenty of humor and action to entertain anyone.

As a side note, the movie is fairly family friendly.  They have to establish Stark as a scumbag playboy, but they do so without rubbing our noses in it.  It seemed as if the creators of the film actually recognized that a lot of kids would be seeing it (what a shock) and so they were careful and calculating in the way they portrayed certain scenes.  They were able to say what needed to be said for the sake of the storyline without resorting to anything overtly graphic or offensive.  I tip my hat to them for that courtesy.

I give Iron Man a very solid A.