“How ironic, Tony! Trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever! And now, I’m going to kill you with it.”
The super hero Iron Man makes the leap from comic book to movie.
TITLE:
IRON MAN
Director:
Jon Favreau
Writer:
Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby
Art Marcum and Matt Holloway
GENRE:
Adventure, Thriller, Super Hero, Fantasy,
DESCRIPTORS:
Iron Man, Iron Monger, Tony Stark, Industrialist, Afghanistan, Military, Terrorists, Betrayal, Greed, Arrogance, Genius,
RATING:
Rated PG-13
SUMMARY:
Tony Stark is an engineering genius with a flair for developing weapons systems. As President of Stark Industries, he and his father’s partner Obadiah Stane have made billions.
We’re iron mongers, we make weapons.
While in Afghanistan to show off his latest weapon, his truck is captured and he is mortally wounded. Taken hostage by Raza, a terrorist, he is operated on by another hostage, a brilliant surgeon who uses a car battery to power a magnet to keep shrapnel in play that was too dangerously close to the heart to remove.
Raza demands that Tony make missiles for him. What Stark does is to make a suit of iron to both hold the shrapnel at bay and allow him to escape. It works but by the time Tony returns to the United States, his is a man with a changed agenda. No one is more surprised by this change than Tony’s second-in-command, Obadiah Stane.
As Tony remakes the Iron Man armor, forces behind the scene begin to move against him. Raza finds and assembles to remains of the broken original armor. Unfortunately the suit finds it way into the hands of the only other person able to capitalize and improve upon what Tony started.
The big battle between Iron Man and Iron Monger at the end is exciting and ends the movie with a bang. Hands down, this is one of the best movies based on Marvel comics since Spider-man.
APPEAL:
In my youth, I was a big comics nerd and one thing you get used to after reading thousands of them is the retelling and revamping of the super hero origin story. This movie updates the origin while remaining true to the essentials of the story. There is a lot of humor without being campy and the sort of funny quips/trash talk during a battle that you expect from super heroes. It is in every way worthy of the best the Iron Man comic book had to offer.
So you’re a man who has everything, but nothing.
Robert Downey Jr., did an excellent job of making Tony Stark both an arrogant genius and a hero. Becoming a hero does not automatically make his character flaws go away. He even looks like Tony Stark. Jeff bridges impressed me as Obadiah Stane, Tony’s second-in-command at Stake Industries turned villain who takes the Iron Man specs and creates the Iron Monger Battle Suit. Bald with a goatee, it took me half the movie to realize who was playing Stane.
The special effects were top notch. They didn’t drown out the actors in the movie and, something that I was concerned about, they made the armor look real.
NOTES:
Watch the ending and the credits. I didn’t and I seem to have missed an appearance of Samuel L. Jackson playing a very important character in the Iron Man stories. It alludes to future movies.
WATCHALIKES:
If you like Iron Man, try the three Spider-Man movies directed by Sam Raimi. Raimi takes more liberties with the origin story but still turns in movies that are faithful to the spirit of the many Spider-Man comic books.
Give me a scotch. I’m starving.
If Iron Man shows you what it would be like to be a powerful armored juggernaut, Spider-Man will take you web-slinging from building to building in scenes you’ll never forget.
You can order this and other movies through the Heights Library web catalog or order by phone by calling the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.
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