(note: Yes, I’m far behind on these movie posts but May looks to be a month to catch up. Look for at least weekly movie talk beginning with this one. Hopefully I’ll even have a second one up this week.)
“I’m not the hero type… Clearly.”
Let’s talk a bit about what makes a good comic book movie. This week, Brad asked me what my gold standard for super-hero movies was. My immediate answer was Spider-Man 2, but at the time, I really couldn’t say why. Other answers we got as we asked this question a bit more was Superman, Batman begins and I even got a Hellboy in there as well. When I answered Brad though, in the back of my mind was the hope that Iron Man would bump Spider-Man 2 out of that position. From the previews, Robert Downey Jr. was already delivering a great performance so the movie probably didn’t have that far to go.
Let me preface what I’m about to say with the fact that I really, really like about 2/3rds of this movie but it had two big stumbling blocks:
- a cliched third act
- a fairly weak and limited group of supporting performances
There, I said it.
Geez, where have we seen a third act where the trusted advisor, mentor, friend or father figure turns out to be the mega-maniacal, ass-pounding bad guy? How about Spider-Man, Batman Begins and The Hulk. What separated Obidiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) from Norman Osborne, Ra’s Al Ghul or Nick Nolte (I can’t remember him by any other name than “Nick Nolte”)? In these origin stories, it’s become a cliche to have someone close too the good guy become the bad guy who ultimately tries to hand the good guy his head. As my wife pointed out, all Stane had to do was have some kind of henchman get into the suit and then Stane still remains the evil bad guy and Tony Stark has to fight on two levels.
Another related problem is where did Stark and Stane’s brains go during that last fight? I think it’s set up pretty good that Stark is a genius and Stane is a smart but ruthless business man. We’re not talking about town idiots here. It’s a bit disappointing then that the final fight is merely a physical fight. Again, Stark should be smart enough to fight a battle on two fronts; a physical and a business front. That would have shown off unique traits of the character much better.
But my other problem with the movie is the use of the supporting cast, whom director Jon Favreau is one of. As Happy Hogan, he disappears after the first act but he had to so that Tony can tell Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow) that she’s all he has. What about Happy Hogan and James Rhodes (Terrance Howard,) Tony? Don’t you have them too? O.k. Hogan may work for you so he doesn’t count but the camaraderie between the two is strong and he’s nowhere to be seen after the first act. And James Rhodes is put into the movie to only serve as a plot device. He’s there when Tony needs to be given an award, or when he needs to be set correctly, or when he needs to keep the sky clear of fighter jets. Rhodes is there to serve Tony and be a plot piece for him when the movie is too lazy to have Stark deal with things himself or have other characters do it.
After all that, you may ask “well what’s good?” Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark gives one of the best performances in a super-hero movie, creating a flawed, charismatic and humored character. He creates a character that is real enough while seeming fantastic. And he enjoys it. It’s not about revenge or fate or some long taken oath for Stark, though he does sort of make a promise at the beginning. It’s about the fun and adrenaline that one could get from putting on a fully automated iron and doing good. It’s addictive and geez, could that be a plot point in the inevitable sequel?
Oh, and the armors looked cool. I guess if you’ve got armors that are designed great and look fantastic that you can be given a bit of leeway to making an entire act be about those armors beating the crap out of each other.
For now, I’ve got to wait around for something to still knock Spider-Man 2 from it’s pinnacle of judgment but I actually think that an Iron Man 2, when they can get past all of the origin story and hopefully develop a supporting cast better, could do that.
Note pt. 2— Ty already has his review up over at Boxwatcher.