"Iron Man" (2008) - Movie Review

Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark is a geeky, cocky and ultra cool businessman we have seen in the super hero league. “Iron Man” another comic hero taking the screen form is not as dark and inventive as “Batman Begins” but is a script sticking to the soul of the character and moves the story keeping us occupied as much as possible brushing aside the frivolous materials of certain logics as side steppers. This is clean and neat entertainment having the stronghold on Downey’s smirk and facial simplistic reactions he brings on with subtle comic timings.

Much has been publicized about the summer arrivals of super hero block buster films and “Iron Man” is a good screen opener for all those. It manages to run on the comic world of stretching impossibilities as needed and plays the real world of war, crime and business as demanded and this is the thing which makes it more apt and interesting that it never confuses its territories. The overlapping of these two regions of logic is put together in a form absorbed by the comic book and movie fans simultaneously.

The film follows the science master and irresponsible head of a weapon manufacturing empire Tony Stark which is the “Stark Industries”. He has made peace with himself on sustaining on the war branding the purpose of his machineries put to use on destroying clearly defined evil. He dresses in business attire with a rebel attitude in his chin and his shades. He talks fast and circles good enough to invite women to his bed with ease. He has a secretary Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) who seems to operating in a more nurtured wife for his appetite for randomness in his busy schedule of work.

In his fun tour for business deal with the US Department of Defense in Afghanistan, he gets captured by a group of terrorists and put in together with another scientist Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub) to build a missile he has designed. Instead he builds a personalized “Energizer bunny” reactor for his wounded body with a robot shield for ultra strength and agility. After his escape, he returns to his lifestyle which he realizes is feeding for terrorists and many; he starts to work on his alter ego crime stopping capable machine. He has his father’s family/business friend Obadiah Stone (Jeff Bridges) to run his business while his science project is been developed in his luxurious basement with the coolest robots.

The interaction or his clinical conscience catharsis with Yinsen is the character revelation Stark has. The driving factor for him before that is the geek’s project funding putting into use. It would have been nicer to look into more of the damaged Stark and also more contemporary conversation of the contradictions in the current scenario of war business in his mind. Director Jon Favreau surely has laid a foundation which is going to build up a franchise or even a combination with other super hero franchises but the two hours clocking film could have further had some clashes of egos and conscience for the pre-capture of Tony Stark. This hinders its progress towards the status “Batman Begins” and “Spider Man -2” achieved.

If any one could have been at more ease in a character emotionally suppressed and deeply into the dungeons of selling soul to the devil that would be Robert Downey Jr. But if the same personality got to shift in the positions of his doings and for a change be the geeky dude seriously trying to stop the evil, then I would have had the doubts. And Downey simply takes those witty dimensions of Stark post the capture in to this hurried up talkative and new soul conveniently through us. The way he talks with his main frame control machine “Jarvis” or the attachment/comic altercations he has with his robots while testing his iron suits, it tells more than a comedy of this character. First he is likeably boasting and secondly is the devoid of human attachments. Of course the hidden liking for Pepper and Pepper over him is there which is one another relation given in an adult quirky tone of unevenness.

Most of the “Iron Man” passes well along in front of us with a likeability and maturity the failed super hero films misses. The nemesis for this alloy man is not strong or sensible enough in sense and character. Obadiah Stone is a matured thinker and his frustrations of obsession over company and ultimately the power is fine but how it gets transformed does not even apply in the comic book world. But those are the super hero film formalities done imperfectly which gets buried under the well composed performance of Robert Downey Jr. “Iron Man” is not perfect but Robert Downey Jr. is.