My Own Private War

It's a rare luxury for us to see a movie currently in theaters - this is the first one I've reviewed since starting this blog. With how much movies cost in Oakville/Mississauga, we have to choose wisely. We did!

Iron Man is the first excellent film I've seen in recent memory that didn't also require hours of afterthought keeping me up all night. Yeah, it's a drama, but it bucks the current trend of dramas being really deep thinkers not by being shallow or dumb, but by being a pleasantly straightforward tale. Oddly enough, it's also the only film made so far about the current U.S./Middle East military action that moviegoers have actually bought tickets for.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is the face of corporate America: born to a brilliant father who worked on the Manhattan project and went on to found his own company focusing on weapons development, Tony grew from a child prodigy to a fully suitable replacement for his father. Stark is both a scientific and economic genius, perfectly suited for his role in life. He's also an ass - not in the "I'm so good at everything so I can do whatever" way, but in the normal, asinine people you meet every day kind of way; and, of course, he's also a womanizer (because we all know every asinine man also treats women poorly). For those of you who watch House, Tony Stark is what House would be if the latter didn't pride himself on being a fool. Intelligence and wisdom are not the same thing, and the presence of one does not guarantee the presence of the other. Tony, however, is the complete package - smart, wise (in many areas), filthy rich, and willfully ignorant of any negative repercussions to his company's arms production...until, after traveling to Kandahar to give a missile demonstration to U.S. troops, his convoy is ambushed by rebels and Tony is almost killed by a Stark Industries rocket. Dum dum duuuuum!

The rest of the story is straightforward, and I'm sure most of you know it. The rebels force Stark to build them the missile he was in Afghanistan demonstrating; instead, over the course of three months, he builds a suit of armour, escapes, and is eventually picked up by U.S. choppers in the middle of the desert. Upon landing in the U.S., Tony immediately blindsides his father's (and now his) right-hand man Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) by calling a press conference to announce that Stark Industries will no longer be manufacturing weapons - he's finally realized how easily the arms he makes to protect U.S. troops can fall into the hands of their enemies and be used against them. Cue his removal from the board of directors, who file an injunction claiming post-traumatic stress, which is fine with Tony because it gives him time to refine his suit of armour (in some brilliantly hilarious nods to YouTube) and use it to go kill rebels and blow up any of his weapons that have fallen into their hands. Despite the many parallels between Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, this film doesn't spend time debating moral quandries, but cuts right to Stark's inevitable betrayal by a trusted friend. Things are wrapped up neatly in the end, but with the introduction of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the naming of Iron Man the next film is well on its way.

The only complaint I have with this film is that I felt it could have easily been longer, and no one would have noticed the time. But that's what we call good marketing, as it leaves everyone wanting more. The casting is just brilliant, and it was especially nice seeing the core cast formed of three great actors, two of which haven't been seen in quite some time - Downey Jr., who's spent the last while getting his health back on track, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark's longtime personal assistant and only true friend Pepper Potts, who we haven't seen on screen since her stunning role in Proof as she's taken the last three years off to be with her young family. The interplay between Tony and Pepper is delightfully authentic in both writing and acting, and the scene where, having no one else to count on, Tony asks Pepper to help replace the electromagnet keeping his heart beating, is as odd and yucky as it is intimate and sweet.

Other notable pleasures of Iron Man include the comic relief of a robotic arm in Stark's workshop that doesn't quite work properly and is saved from the terrible fate of cuteness by the fact that he treats is like the machine it is, Stan Lee's funniest cameo to date, and the fantastic sound editing courtesy of Skywalker Sound. This is a big deal for me, because I can't remember the last time I saw an action movie in which I could make out every word of dialogue. Not even Batman Begins fully succeeded there. And did I mention that the casting is perfect? Really, I'm not being hyperbolic; it's so great to see Robert Downey Jr. in a leading role again, because he's fabulous. And we'll see him again this summer, in the upcoming 'Nam movie-making satire Tropic Thunder, in which he plays a method actor who undergoes plastic surgery to play an African-American role.

Wait a minute, you say. I thought I heard that Samuel L. Jackson was in Iron Man as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury! But he wasn't in the movie/why haven't you mentioned him in the review?! Well, Nick Fury is technically in Iron Man....but only if you respect the filmmakers enough to watch the credits. And you should, because the crew of this film was excellent, and anyways, Marvel films always have great credits.

Iron Man is well worth the cost of admission. It's a rare treat these days to see an enjoyable, entertaining, straightforward action drama.