Iron Man (2008)

Premise: Womanizing billionaire arms dealer Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) builds a suit out of scrap after he's kidnapped in Afghanistan* by a multi-national group of terrorists. After his escape, Tony seeks to perfect the suit and right the wrongs he realizes were a result of the under the table dealings of his business partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). Don't worry - Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) are along for the ride.

There's something about Tony Stark as a superhero. He's not your obvious choice. Sure, he's got the obligatory dead parents (cf the Waynes, the Els, the Parkers), but that's about it. He's not all tore up about it (at least not that we see this time around); it's not what's driving him. Instead he's a wildly successful middle aged man suddenly confronted with the reality that he is personally responsible for others' suffering, and he resolves to do something about it. That's brave and crazy.

Which is what makes Downey Jr. such a perfect fit for the role. For all the comic book movies I've seen over the years (and let's face it: I'm a bit of a comic book adaptation addict), I would probably still say that I think the Tobey Maguire/Peter Parker match up was the best I've seen. Peter's a confused and struggling young man, and Maguire brings all the necessary pathos to the role while still being able to lighten it up when necessary (see the "Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head" montage in S2). But now that I have seen this, well, it just might be my favourite. He makes Tony complex without making him obvious; fun without being cartoony; angry without being self-righteous. It's a tall order not to take someone who could so easily be initially unlikable and give him a big, dramatic turn around. Instead, under Downey's care, he goes from being someone you wouldn't mind being friends with to . . . someone you wouldn't mind being friends with, only now he's got this cool suit. I know that must make it sound like the character doesn't undergo a change, but you would be wrong to think so. It's quite the opposite. He may change as a response to the external, but with Downey he makes the change entirely internal. He looks at himself and decides to do better first. Being better will have to follow. I could probably count on one hand the number of actors and actresses that could quickly bring all that to the screen with the same ease and grace, and some of them are dead.

Let me put it another way: right at the end, I heard him say something that he didn't say. Not to sound crazy or to put too fine a point on it, but, by the end of the movie, between his facial expression and mannerisms, and because he created a character that I could know so well so quickly, Downey had me hearing something that was never said. That's not talent. That's a gift.

And did I mention that he is really quite sexy while he's at it? He is. Mmrrow.

I got a little ramblely up there, didn't I? How's the rest of the movie, you say? Pretty darn good. I loved it. Directed by Jon Favreau from a screenplay by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, it starts with Abrams' favourite trope, but it excels from there on out. It spends what might seem like a lot of time on how Stark came to be in Afghanistan and then on his time there, but it ends up working for the film. It's never boring. In fact, it keeps moving quickly, so you don't have time to think about it too much. It introduces a lot of characters and locations in short succession without feeling that you've caught the exposition express (okay, it might feel that way a little bit at the awards show). You meet and find reasons to like Rhodie and Pepper pretty quickly, and, well, then we're off to the races.

And what a race it is. I'm pretty sure that the only other directorial effort of Favreau's that I have seen is an episode of Undeclared. I like him. He's got a good sense of how to pace the film, keeping it fun to watch while sprinkling in enough details for future installments (I saw evidence for at least nine more), and he gives his actors room to breathe. Of course, when you've got an exemplary cast such as his, how could you go wrong? Howard looks like he is having more fun than he's had in ages; Bridges is fantastic, as always; and Paltrow is fresh and just a little bit spunky. The chemistry between Paltrow and Downey is so sweet. He knows if he finally breaks through he'll risk losing her forever, but he just keeps chipping away anyway.

If you add to that Ramin Djawadi's lovely melody for them, then you're done for. Djawadi's electric guitar driven score is exciting, sexy, and fun without ever calling attention to itself, based, or so I've heard, entirely on Downey's moods in the scenes as Stark. It was in his scenes with Paltrow that I noticed how much I was digging the score, and I found myself glad to hear that theme come back again, although it wasn't in any way obstrusive. It was just plain good.

After I saw the movie, I thought I would probably give something in the B range. Now, for the life of me, I can't remember why I would grade it so low. Sure, it's not brilliant. Certain scenes probably won't be keeping me up at night years from now. But why rate entertainment so low? Why doesn't wanting to see something again and again count for more? Isn't Downey's performance alone enough to rate something better? You know what? At least for now, I think it is. A-**

*I believe in the original series it was the Vietnam war. I think moving it forward to now was the right choice.

**I do have plans to see this again soon, so this grade is subject to revisal upon subsequent viewings.