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seriousficGUYS, THEY INCLUDED SHIELD. THAT’S FUCKING DEDICATION. THERE WERE NO BLUE BODYSUITS AND NO FLYING CARS AND NICK FURY WAS BLACK, BUT SHIELD! WITH EXPLOSIVE LOCKPICKS AND COVER STORIES AND STUFF!
It’s amazing, given that Iron Man is one of those heroes who has no really definitive story arcs or supervillains (or “eras” if you prefer), that they managed to create a story that seems inclusive of his whole history. Spider-Man, to its merit, favors the Silver Age (which makes it weird when they throw in someone like Venom just because he’s popular). Batman Begins favors Frank Miller’s interpretation, and the Dark Knight is going to have pick of the litter when it comes to iconic Joker stories (apparently, they’re going off The Killing Joke, so it’s going to be Miller!Batman versus Moore!Joker. The feminists are going to have a soup day). Yet Iron Man succeeds in making its origin exciting and immediate, instead of something you have to slog through to get to the real action. My brother asked me if I had any Iron Man TPBs after we watched it.
First, let’s start with what they did wrong. Nothing. Well, the final fight could’ve used more oomph, maybe another five or ten minutes, because it just seems to run through all the necessary plot points before getting to the quasi-heroic sacrifice (I love how the music gets all dramatic there like Tony risking his life is supposed to be a big thing, but he’s going to die for certain if he doesn’t, so it’s either the certainty of dying or the probability of dying). Especially after going through the effort of making Obadiah Stane into Tony’s erstwhile father figure, they never have the big emotional blow-up you want in a final fight. Tony might as well be chasing down a purse snatcher. So, as is, the film kinda peaks with the Iron Man vs. terrorists/F-22 chase.
And (okay, I’m being peevish) Obadiah Stane has a few motivations too many. He’s jealous of Tony’s fame, he wants to make lots of money, ooh, but he’s also the jingoistic imperialist that apparently all villains have to be after 9/11. As soon as he started talking about steering the world back on course, I kept thinking “shouldn’t he want to sell Iron Man armor to everybody, and make a LOT of money?” I get that he’s a hypocrite, but selling super-duper weapons to terrorists strikes me as a poor way to make America rule the world.
But what they got incredibly right is the character of Tony Stark. It must’ve been a gamble to make him, and the entire supporting cast, adults rather than the twenty-somethings the studio probably would’ve favored (take a look at the Fantastic Four). He starts off as probably most of us would if we were genius billionaire playboys… a little full of himself, a little obnoxious, but not an OTT Scrooge who gets light-switched into non-dickery. He’s not actively evil, just apathetic, and it makes his redemption arc incredibly realistic. He’s not a saint. Part of his reason for becoming Iron Man is that, well, it’s really cool. He wants accolades, he wants to tinker, he wants to have the coolest toy on the block (which is why I love the scene where he tries to get Rhodes in on the scheme, both because he could use the guy’s help and because… he wants his pal to share in how cool this is).
And after all the myriad ways Tony’s dated origin has been presented, the update is astonishingly… right. They don’t make it an obvious “plz don’t be offended, they are Neo-Nazis, everyone hates Neo-Nazis!”, but they also don’t make it an uncomfortably “look, evil Muslims!” thing either. In the same way that COBRA or HYDRA could be used instead of actual terrorists, they invent a terrorist organization called the Ten Rings. So you get the obvious awesomeness of Iron Man blowing up terrorists (amazingly, audiences would rather see this than Iron Man persecuting his fellow heroes. Who could’ve seen that one coming?) but without any of the… weirdness of Batman punching out Osama Bin Laden. Although why audiences seem to be more comfortable with Batman punching out President Bush than OBL is one of those things that probably deserves a meta post.
Now, it does take a while for the “true” Iron Man to show up, but the movie manages to make the build-up exciting and funny and character-insightfuling (not an actual word). So instead of being boring like it is in Hulk and the later seasons of Smallville, it’s fun like in Batman Begins because we can see Tony Stark becoming Iron Man (plus, we’ve had our appetites whetted by seeing Iron Man Mark 1 kick some ass). When we see Robert Downey Jr. stomping around in big metal rocket boots, it paves the way for Iron Man to fly around in big CGI rocket boots. Although Iron Man does take a few bumps that should’ve probably landed him in a hospital rather than just holding an icebag to his head. The man must have a cranium to put Michael Rosenbaum to shame.
Oh, and it perfectly taps into every little boy's desire to build, like, a rocket or a satellite or something out of old radio parts and circuitboards. Iron Man mask (faceplate?) covered with little technical notes is ORGASM (see icon. It has all this writing on it like "Tony, remember to widen the eyeholes" or whatever. There might also be a few girls' phone numbers on it. BECAUSE TONY STARK GETS THE DIGITS, OHMIGOD, MASK MAKES ME CAPS-LOCK!!! AND EXCLAMATION POINTY!!!!!!!!).
Although I’ve seen voices on both side of the aisle about whether Tony/Pepper is OTP or NoTP, I like it. It was nicely understated and Tony’s interest in Pepper was generally treated as a sign of maturity. Now that he’s becoming more responsible, he’s interested in a woman he could actually have a life with rather than the Playmate of the month. Still, it’s something that can be picked up or let lie, and I imagine that the next film is going to focus on a new love interest rather than consummate the UST. I can only imagine how Tony Stark getting in over his head with someone like Madame Masque would contribute to his Demon in a Bottle.
On the villain front, they nicely separate Obadiah Stane from the similar Justin Hammer by making him into a father figure for Tony Stark. This is a movie where the villain mystery actually works, so it’s good that the trailer didn’t really spoil it. The Mandarin-wannabe who kidnaps Stark makes for a great red herring, so people who aren’t familiar with the comic book (that’d be 90% of you) will just assume Jeff Bridges is an avuncular Segway-riding goodie-two-shoes. It’s kinda like the Ducard/Ra’s reveal in BB, although Ken Watanabe makes for a slightly more likely Big Bad. Who would’ve guessed they’d get an Oscar winner in for a cameo.
When Obadiah does turn, he keeps the avuncular, and it is pretty creepy. Although I do wish there’d been that ten minutes of Tony yelling about how Obadiah put his name, his father’s name, on weapons that killed innocent people and Obadiah yelling that Tony is a spoiled child… but I digress.
Jim Rhodes rounds out the cast, and “Next time, baby.” That’s all I have to say about that. But it’s interesting, considering I heard Iron Man described by TPTB as “the most dysfunctional family drama of all time,” how that would make Rhodes and Pepper the surrogate siblings, with Obadiah the surrogate father. It’d make “dating outside the family” happen in Iron Man 2, and maybe continue the repercussions of Obadiah’s betrayal, as I’d hate for Tony’s mentor turning on him to be something he just gets over. Rhodes and Tony have this great brotherly vibe, even slashy if you want it to be, and Rhodes’ anger over Tony ceasing weapons production is a nice bit of ambiguity. It shows that Tony’s new stand will have consequences beyond the unemotional fiscal, and puts an important face on the military.
As for the ceasing weapons production, I was afraid it was just going to be “time for the audience to like me now, GUNS ARE BAD!” But by using a plot from Armor Wars (or just using a rather obvious plot point that bears some resemblance to Armor Wars), they integrate the early “Tony Stark: Patriotic Weapons Manufacturer” with the later, equally important point that Tony refuses to manufacture weapons. Most importantly, by focusing on the arc reactor and other technological advancements, they show that Tony is doing something positive rather than just not doing something “negative.” It completely takes away from the usual hypocrisy of “Soldiers using guns = Good! We support our troops! People designing guns for our troops to use = Boo! They’re all making perfect killing machines and deserve to have those monsters turn on them in karmic justice.”
It’s amazing, given that Iron Man is one of those heroes who has no really definitive story arcs or supervillains (or “eras” if you prefer), that they managed to create a story that seems inclusive of his whole history. Spider-Man, to its merit, favors the Silver Age (which makes it weird when they throw in someone like Venom just because he’s popular). Batman Begins favors Frank Miller’s interpretation, and the Dark Knight is going to have pick of the litter when it comes to iconic Joker stories (apparently, they’re going off The Killing Joke, so it’s going to be Miller!Batman versus Moore!Joker. The feminists are going to have a soup day). Yet Iron Man succeeds in making its origin exciting and immediate, instead of something you have to slog through to get to the real action. My brother asked me if I had any Iron Man TPBs after we watched it.
First, let’s start with what they did wrong. Nothing. Well, the final fight could’ve used more oomph, maybe another five or ten minutes, because it just seems to run through all the necessary plot points before getting to the quasi-heroic sacrifice (I love how the music gets all dramatic there like Tony risking his life is supposed to be a big thing, but he’s going to die for certain if he doesn’t, so it’s either the certainty of dying or the probability of dying). Especially after going through the effort of making Obadiah Stane into Tony’s erstwhile father figure, they never have the big emotional blow-up you want in a final fight. Tony might as well be chasing down a purse snatcher. So, as is, the film kinda peaks with the Iron Man vs. terrorists/F-22 chase.
And (okay, I’m being peevish) Obadiah Stane has a few motivations too many. He’s jealous of Tony’s fame, he wants to make lots of money, ooh, but he’s also the jingoistic imperialist that apparently all villains have to be after 9/11. As soon as he started talking about steering the world back on course, I kept thinking “shouldn’t he want to sell Iron Man armor to everybody, and make a LOT of money?” I get that he’s a hypocrite, but selling super-duper weapons to terrorists strikes me as a poor way to make America rule the world.
But what they got incredibly right is the character of Tony Stark. It must’ve been a gamble to make him, and the entire supporting cast, adults rather than the twenty-somethings the studio probably would’ve favored (take a look at the Fantastic Four). He starts off as probably most of us would if we were genius billionaire playboys… a little full of himself, a little obnoxious, but not an OTT Scrooge who gets light-switched into non-dickery. He’s not actively evil, just apathetic, and it makes his redemption arc incredibly realistic. He’s not a saint. Part of his reason for becoming Iron Man is that, well, it’s really cool. He wants accolades, he wants to tinker, he wants to have the coolest toy on the block (which is why I love the scene where he tries to get Rhodes in on the scheme, both because he could use the guy’s help and because… he wants his pal to share in how cool this is).
And after all the myriad ways Tony’s dated origin has been presented, the update is astonishingly… right. They don’t make it an obvious “plz don’t be offended, they are Neo-Nazis, everyone hates Neo-Nazis!”, but they also don’t make it an uncomfortably “look, evil Muslims!” thing either. In the same way that COBRA or HYDRA could be used instead of actual terrorists, they invent a terrorist organization called the Ten Rings. So you get the obvious awesomeness of Iron Man blowing up terrorists (amazingly, audiences would rather see this than Iron Man persecuting his fellow heroes. Who could’ve seen that one coming?) but without any of the… weirdness of Batman punching out Osama Bin Laden. Although why audiences seem to be more comfortable with Batman punching out President Bush than OBL is one of those things that probably deserves a meta post.
Now, it does take a while for the “true” Iron Man to show up, but the movie manages to make the build-up exciting and funny and character-insightfuling (not an actual word). So instead of being boring like it is in Hulk and the later seasons of Smallville, it’s fun like in Batman Begins because we can see Tony Stark becoming Iron Man (plus, we’ve had our appetites whetted by seeing Iron Man Mark 1 kick some ass). When we see Robert Downey Jr. stomping around in big metal rocket boots, it paves the way for Iron Man to fly around in big CGI rocket boots. Although Iron Man does take a few bumps that should’ve probably landed him in a hospital rather than just holding an icebag to his head. The man must have a cranium to put Michael Rosenbaum to shame.
Oh, and it perfectly taps into every little boy's desire to build, like, a rocket or a satellite or something out of old radio parts and circuitboards. Iron Man mask (faceplate?) covered with little technical notes is ORGASM (see icon. It has all this writing on it like "Tony, remember to widen the eyeholes" or whatever. There might also be a few girls' phone numbers on it. BECAUSE TONY STARK GETS THE DIGITS, OHMIGOD, MASK MAKES ME CAPS-LOCK!!! AND EXCLAMATION POINTY!!!!!!!!).
Although I’ve seen voices on both side of the aisle about whether Tony/Pepper is OTP or NoTP, I like it. It was nicely understated and Tony’s interest in Pepper was generally treated as a sign of maturity. Now that he’s becoming more responsible, he’s interested in a woman he could actually have a life with rather than the Playmate of the month. Still, it’s something that can be picked up or let lie, and I imagine that the next film is going to focus on a new love interest rather than consummate the UST. I can only imagine how Tony Stark getting in over his head with someone like Madame Masque would contribute to his Demon in a Bottle.
On the villain front, they nicely separate Obadiah Stane from the similar Justin Hammer by making him into a father figure for Tony Stark. This is a movie where the villain mystery actually works, so it’s good that the trailer didn’t really spoil it. The Mandarin-wannabe who kidnaps Stark makes for a great red herring, so people who aren’t familiar with the comic book (that’d be 90% of you) will just assume Jeff Bridges is an avuncular Segway-riding goodie-two-shoes. It’s kinda like the Ducard/Ra’s reveal in BB, although Ken Watanabe makes for a slightly more likely Big Bad. Who would’ve guessed they’d get an Oscar winner in for a cameo.
When Obadiah does turn, he keeps the avuncular, and it is pretty creepy. Although I do wish there’d been that ten minutes of Tony yelling about how Obadiah put his name, his father’s name, on weapons that killed innocent people and Obadiah yelling that Tony is a spoiled child… but I digress.
Jim Rhodes rounds out the cast, and “Next time, baby.” That’s all I have to say about that. But it’s interesting, considering I heard Iron Man described by TPTB as “the most dysfunctional family drama of all time,” how that would make Rhodes and Pepper the surrogate siblings, with Obadiah the surrogate father. It’d make “dating outside the family” happen in Iron Man 2, and maybe continue the repercussions of Obadiah’s betrayal, as I’d hate for Tony’s mentor turning on him to be something he just gets over. Rhodes and Tony have this great brotherly vibe, even slashy if you want it to be, and Rhodes’ anger over Tony ceasing weapons production is a nice bit of ambiguity. It shows that Tony’s new stand will have consequences beyond the unemotional fiscal, and puts an important face on the military.
As for the ceasing weapons production, I was afraid it was just going to be “time for the audience to like me now, GUNS ARE BAD!” But by using a plot from Armor Wars (or just using a rather obvious plot point that bears some resemblance to Armor Wars), they integrate the early “Tony Stark: Patriotic Weapons Manufacturer” with the later, equally important point that Tony refuses to manufacture weapons. Most importantly, by focusing on the arc reactor and other technological advancements, they show that Tony is doing something positive rather than just not doing something “negative.” It completely takes away from the usual hypocrisy of “Soldiers using guns = Good! We support our troops! People designing guns for our troops to use = Boo! They’re all making perfect killing machines and deserve to have those monsters turn on them in karmic justice.”
