Iron Man

I never was much of a fan of comic books, but over the past two decades I've come to appreciate them more and more as a spectacular source of creative fodder for Hollywood. Some of my favorite films have oddly enough been based upon one comic book or another which I've never read or in many cases never even seen.

Such is the case with Iron Man, the blockbuster released this Summer based on a Marvel Comic of the same name. I first watched the film with my son in June while on vacation, he had already seen it once but did not seem the least bit bothered about watching it again within less than week - always an auspicious sign. I was not disappointed.

The film began with a quick pace and took what was a rather incredible set of premises and fit them snugly into a surprisingly realistic, contemporary setting, making the whole thing seem somehow plausible. The notion of the Defense Contractor seeking moral redemption was an interesting twist that I didn't quite anticipate, but I think the writers played it well with the exception perhaps of the Jeff Bridges character. If the film had focused primarily on the original group of villains in the near east, thematically I believe the movie would have been sharper. However, the director decided to explore the 'depth of responsibility' for the weapons lifecycle back to the source, Stark's company and to the super-villain of the story, Stark's partner Jeff Bridges.

Tony Stark is of course Robert Downey Jr. and he most certainly carried this film single-handedly. Gwyneth Paltrow's role seemed unreasonably shallow and Bridges, well he went Opera on us. I actually like Jeff Bridges a lot, I think he perhaps our greatest unrecognized actor - but this role simply did not suit him well (no pun intended if you've seen the robot he ends up wearing). Terrence Howard makes an appearance but also seems hopelessly outclassed by Downey throughout the movie. I can't think of another movie offhand except perhaps Cool Hand Luke where the lead character so completely dominated his surroundings. I'm guessing, but it's hard to say, that Downey was in large part playing Downey - but whatever he did, it surely worked in this performance.

Aside from the soul searching about arms production and proliferation, there aren't too many deep themes in this movie. The special effects are however, completely awesome - enough to make a computer geek like me gush in sheer admiration of the technical effort put forth. Needless to say both myself and my son are looking forward to Iron Man II with great anticipation.



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