He is Iron Man
Caught up with the first blockbuster of the season yesterday, Iron Man. All the trailers beforehand were for forthcoming blockbusters - Indiana Jones, Dark Knight, Prince Caspian, etc. - and for whatever reason, it brought out the counter-snob in me. It's too easy to sneer at popcorn movies, these expensive, index-linked, machine-tooled, noisy, high-concept, low-subtlety machines for entertaining. Nobody would wish, Morgan Spurlock style, to exist exclusively on a diet of superheroes, natural disasters and CGI, but they serve a purpose. For all their modern posturing - the ironic dialogue, the offbeat casting choices, the nod, the wink, the innuendo - these are old fashioned pictures; pure escapism. And they do not ignore the outside world, either. Iron Man, another Marvel comics adaptation (this time produced exclusively by Marvel), could easily be written off as a run-of-the-mill, by-numbers 3D paint job. In the first act, we meet playboy inventor-cum-weapons-manufacturer Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., either relishing the role, or simply relishing still being a working actor in Hollywood), kidnapped by non-specific desert fighters in Afghanistan and forced to build them a rocket in a cave. He tricks them and builds a big old Iron Man suit instead and blasts his way out of there. In act two, he sees the light, changes his ways, becomes one of the good guys, builds a much better Iron Man suit in his underground "shop" and falls foul of the stockholders while attempting to win the war on terror. The geopolitical upgrade is successful enough - the original 1960s strip saw Stark kidnapped by the Viet Cong - and the casting of Downey Jr is a masterstroke. Unlike, say, Ben Affleck in Daredevil, he does not seem in any way embarrassed by the superhero suit. Though his persona is based on flippancy and smirking, this suits Tony Stark, and when he's locked inside the armour, you need someone with the spare personality of Downey Jr to break through the gold-titanium alloy. This, in conversation with his personal computer Jarvis, deftly voiced by an uncredited Paul Bettany, he does well. Jeff Bridges bulges out of his role as boardroom nemesis Obadiah in the same way that his fat neck bulges out of his suit: another key casting decision. Even Gwyneth Paltrow makes something out of her role as the dowdy PA, bringing a lot of meaningful looks to bear. (Apparently director Jon Favreau - yes, the bloke from Swingers - encouraged improvisation among his actors. If so, I think it shows, and such touches of humanity are just what you need around this much CGI and pomp.)
It's not one of the greatest films ever made - the climactic battle is not the best sequence in the film, which can't be right, surely (see also: Spider-Man 3), and yes, there's a scene in a military operations room where everybody cheers and high-fives (ugh!) - but it does its job for two hours and I'm glad I went to see it. Films can't all be 88-minute indie psychodramas about incest and divorce starring Laura Linney. Iron Man cost around $186 million to make. It took about $100 million in its opening weekend in the States, which will please the accountants. But such economics should not necessarily blind us to the armrest pleasure of the blockbuster. It's easy to read bloodless, corporate cynicism into the need of such huge films to turn a profit, but as long as some creativity has gone in at the other end, and the film does its job, why let snobbery stand in the way of enjoyment?
posted by Andrew Collins @ 8:10 PM
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12 Comments:
I thought this was alright (amazing what they can do with computers nowadays, etc.), but I couldn't figure out how the hell he managed to make that first suit right under the noses of his captors. A big suit doesn't look like a missile, anyway you slice it. Still, good fun, and a nice intro to the summer blockbuster season. Roll on Dr. Jones ...
Did you hang around through the 10 minutes of credits to see that extra little bit of film featuring a cameo from another Hollywood actor and the beginning of a plot thread for a future film that won't mean much to people who aren't familiar with Marvel comics?
(There should be some punctuation in there somewere, I'm sure...)
No.
Went to our local cinema last weekend to watch and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I tend to only go to cinema to watch films of this genre. For more cerebral films, I'd rather be at home and watching a DVD, in a comfy chair and with fewer distractions*.
Annoyingly I missed Iron Man's after credit scene. Though I'll be getting it on blu-ray as soon as it's released.
* It's obvious that I don't have children then!
AC: with you on this I like a good indie film but if we all go down this road we art in danger of looseing one of the wonders of cinema, which is spectacle. It's fun to see 100's of galleon battling at sea or king kong on the top of the empire state. Admitedly the later starwars films suffered a bit from fill the cocking sky with space ship syndrome but the moment of "whooa" that you only get on a big screen is as important as well drawn characters, plots etc
Ironman? Is that the sequel to 'Iron Chancellor' about the dour Scottish guy who spends 10 years in the shadow of his nemesis who lives next door. In the movie, he eventually defeats his nemesis, only to find that his superpowers have deserted him and he's now just a baggy old scottish man who nobody really likes.
It's the pre-release hype that really annoys me when it comes to summer films. I try to give it a couple weeks after the release when folk have moved on to the next bright and loud film.
Was going to catch Iron Man at the Odeon Leicester Square last week until I discovered the ticket price was £13.50! And Americans bitch that they have to fork out around eleven bucks at their theaters.
I have to say, I'm really glad it has made a whole lot of cash because Favreau seems a decent guy and Downey Jr - inspired casting and perfect to play Tony Stark - deserves the success.
These studios must be bricking it when it comes to opening weekend. Iron Man was expected to make around $70 million and made $100 mil. This week Speed Racer, Warner Brothers' big summer flick - which cost around $120 mil, before P&A - opened with a box office total of... $20 million. Ooops.
I think the lesson is... throw in thrills and spills that deafen and temporary blind the audience by all means... but don't forget to include well rounded characters.
I could never be a film snob - my favourite film is Flash Gordon.
Deb Holt
There was a bit at the end? That's annoying. Why do they do this when they know the majority of folks get up and leave when the credits roll?
I wasn't planning on seeing that movie, after Cosmo Landesman slated it in the Sunday Times and he's usually pretty good. But after your recommendation Mr Collins, I went this morning - only £4.50 in Edinburgh for the 11.30am showing.
Yes, very enjoyable stuff. As you say, good casting (like Batman Begins) is obviously the key. With wooden actors in the leads, this could have been a real turkey, but is actually pretty good.
As ever, The studios won't take that onboard and will no doubt continue with a 'hot name' for the next superhero/action movie, rather than some people who can act properly. 'You can type this stuff George, but you can't fucking speak it.'
£4.50? That's like a small popcorn down here. Flippin' heck!
I concur wholeheartedly. I didn't love this but I willingly went to see it and hate it when people won't even entertain the idea of doing so. It puts me in mind of when Susan Sarandon sniffed about Return of the King winning all the Oscars ahead of the more "worthy" Mystic River. Funny that being so high brow didn't stop her husband from starring in the infinitely inferior War of the Worlds. There's room for all kinds.
Veegog
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