Iron Man (2008)

Iron Man (2008)

Release Date: May 2, 2008

After seeing how successful several of the films starring their characters had been, as well as the general downward trajectory in quality after Spider-Man 2, Marvel decided to make their own superhero films, with blackjack and hookers. Iron Man was the first attempt, and it would be fair to say that they hit the ground running.

Tony Stark is a highly successful and filthy rich weapons manufacturer, living the lifestyle of a playboy billionaire, as well as being the ultimate bro. After a demonstration of his new Jericho missiles (a rocket full of smaller rockets that wouldn’t be out of place in Ratchet and Clank’s armoury) to the US Military in Afghanistan, Stark is captured by terrorists who want the missiles, but don’t have enough money to pay for them, with a session of searching down the back of the sofa turning up £3.14, a mars bar wrapper, a piece of string and an IOU for backrubs. Tony isn’t having that, and instead decides to build a suit of armour in order to burninate the terrorists and escape. Fire! Fire!

After coming home to America, the traumatised Tony has an epiphany and announces that his company Stark Industries will no longer be manufacturing weapons, which the board of directors and Tony’s mentor Obadiah Stane aren’t particularly pleased about. Tony instead upgrades the Iron Man armour and heads back to Afghanistan to get revenge on his captors before they even have the chance to say “Durka Durka Mohammed Jihad.” This gets the attention of Agent Coulson of SHIELD, who starts to keep an eye on Tony. While Tony’s gone, his secretary Pepper Potts discovers that Stane hired the terrorists to kill Tony and lured him to Afghanistan so that Stane could take over Stark Industries. In response, Stane builds his own suit of Iron Monger armour, using Tony’s Afghanistan prototype as a base. Iron Man and Iron Monger fight, but Iron Monger’s increased strength and size lends him the upper hand, until Pepper Potts activates an EMP that temporarily deactivates both suits, causing Stane’s larger suit to lose its balance and make Stane fall to his death. End of Line.

At a press conference held after the events at Stark Industries, Tony decides not to go with the cover-up and alibis Agent Coulson supplied him with, instead announcing to the gathered audience that “I am Iron Man.” This stunt gets the attention of SHIELD boss Nick Fury, who invites Stark to join the Avengers. Apparently he’s so eager that he comes into Tony’s house at night to ask instead of waiting until the morning.

As the first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you would think that Iron Man would have to do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of world building and universe establishing, but you would be wrong. Iron Man remembers to place the focus on telling its own story, with the MCU set-up taking place alongside the film, not instead of it. The latter is a trap that films fall into all too often nowadays, focusing so much on setting up the sequel than there’s no time to do anything in the current one. Agent Coulson doesn’t try to force himself into the narrative, which helps make the film feel more natural. It also helps that Coulson is a popular and likeable character, to the extent that he got his own spin-off. #AgentCoulsonIsMyHomeboy.

Praise should be directed at Robert Downey Jr for playing Tony Stark. Actually, no. That’s inaccurate. Robert Downey Jr doesn’t play Tony Stark. Robert Downey Jr is Tony Stark. He gets the character absolutely spot-on. Tony Stark also offers something different from most other heroes in that he isn’t a permanent goody two-shoes, he is capable of being an egotistical douchebag at times, and will not hesitate to just have fun. Despite this, he remains likeable, as he brags about himself with his ego, instead of tearing down others. While it isn’t really touched on here, Tony Stark does have a history of alcoholism, which helps Robert Downey Jr play the character more accurately, as he has battled alcohol and drug addictions in real life and knows what it’s like. Iron Man, alongside Tropic Thunder and Sherlock Holmes, shot Robert Downey Jr’s career into the stratosphere, and deservedly so.

In the comics, Iron Man’s origin was that he was captured and held hostage during the Vietnam War. In the film, that was updated to Afghanistan instead. This is a clever decision, as it is more believable for superior tech as advanced as Iron Man’s to be available in the present day than it would be in the 1960s. It also helps make the film more relevant to the audience in terms of wish fulfilment. I’m sure many would want to go to the Middle East and stop the fighting if they could, and here’s this character doing just that.

The film follows the Superhero Origin Story formula established by Spider-Man. We see our protagonist’s regular life, then they become a hero, then they face a nice easy starter villain. While this would normally be seen as dull and lazy, Iron Man manages to keep things lively thanks to Tony Stark’s charisma, and the film’s pacing preventing scenes from dragging or being dull. The action sequences are great fun when they come, and the effects used to create Iron Man’s flight and lasers are excellent. Despite his relatively little screen time, Obadiah Stane is still fairly entertaining. The only issue with him is that we don’t get a whole lot of development for his character or exploration for his motives when it comes to his actions. As it is, we’re left to go with greed, which is rather weak considering that Stane was friends with Tony’s father Howard Stark, who likely wouldn’t be impressed with Stane selling out his son to terrorists. Maybe they could have added some mention of Stane running Stark Industries after Howard’s death and resenting that he had to hand it over to Tony after he came of age, or showing that Stane and Tony didn’t get along before Tony shut down the weapons division.

Nevertheless, Iron Man is a blast. The film remembers to have fun and never lets things get too serious or angsty, which leaves the viewer in a good mood once it’s over. With this first film, Marvel threw down the gauntlet and proved that they could play with the others. Will the streak keep going, or was Iron Man a case of beginner’s luck?

Next Time: Our first reboot.

Stan Lee Spotter: Stan Lee appears as Hugh Hefner and is greeted on the red carpet by Tony. Stan Lee is the Elder Bro, and he, Tony and Agent Coulson formed their own group, the Bro Force, in which they do bro things. Captain America wasn’t allowed to join because he’s a square. Cap insists that having respect for women isn’t square, while Tony says that sounds an awful lot like something a square would say. Little known fact, this argument was what really started the Marvel Civil War, that exploding school thing was just a cover-up. It was an inside job, I tells ya!