Iron Man – Film Review
Heroes aren't born. They're built.
Movie Details
A billionaire industrialist and genius inventor, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), is conducting weapons tests overseas, but terrorists kidnap him to force him to build a devastating weapon. Instead, he builds an armored suit and upends his captors. Returning to America, Stark refines the suit and uses it to combat crime and terrorism.
If you have been following me on the Internet for a long time now, then you probably know that I am a massive fan of the decade-spanning Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I have watched every film in the franchise multiple times over and thoroughly enjoy most of them with the exception of just about two or three. For a film series that contains twenty-four installments, that’s genuinely impressive.
But it dawned on me yesterday after watching Black Widow in theatres for the second time that I haven’t actually reviewed all the MCU movies. I have reviewed quite a few of them but not every single installment, so that’s what I’m going to do for the next little while, in addition to new releases. Even though it’s the film that started the entire MCU, surprisingly, I haven’t reviewed Jon Favreau‘s Iron Man. So let’s fix that.
Before the release of Iron Man, eight-year-old me hadn’t really seen a whole bunch of superhero movies except for a handful of them. When my brother played the DVD of Iron Man for me for the very first time, I was instantly enamored and wanted to see more stories with Tony Stark as soon as possible. I was crossing my fingers that Marvel would eventually make a film about the Hulk (which they did and it kind of sucked) as well as Captain America.
Iron Man really opened up the eyes of every Marvel fan as soon as it was released, because it was clear that the potential for a massive universe starring a plethora of iconic superheroes was extremely plausible, especially seeing as how this film’s post-credits scene features Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury talking to Tony Stark about something known as “The Avenger Initiative”.
Not only did this film serve as an incredible starting point for the MCU to come, but it’s also just a remarkably good movie on its own terms. The MCU of today is usually action-packed and full of chaos which I do love, don’t get me wrong, but Iron Man takes its time building up to the action by developing the character of Tony Stark first and foremost.
Before Iron Man was released in May of 2008, Robert Downey Jr. was still seen as the washed-up actor with a ton of problems, but this movie proved that he was on the right track in his life in terms of not only getting his career back but his life as well.
To this day, I wholeheartedly believe that nobody else will ever be able to replace Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man. He perfectly embodies the character in more ways than one. The witty, humorous, playboy philanthropist could only be played by Downey Jr., and I am so incredibly glad that he got to reprise his role in the MCU many times over, up until Endgame of course.
Another excellent addition to this cast is Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane. He feels seriously intimating in the role of this character, but I must admit that I really do not like the character himself. He doesn’t get a whole lot of development throughout this story, and in the grand scheme of things, he is without a doubt one of the weakest villains in the entire MCU.
We do learn a bit about him every once in a while, but by the time the third act came around, I truly didn’t feel like I got to know who this man was. Bridges is great and straight-up scary in the role, but his character wasn’t anything impressive.
It was kind of interesting going back and rewatching Iron Man after knowing the path that the MCU heads down in the future. This is a Marvel movie that doesn’t really feel like a Marvel movie. The action in this movie is admittedly lacking and there are some scenes that are a tad bit boring to watch, but at the time of its release in May of 2008, Favreau’s Iron Man was easily one of the most groundbreaking superhero pictures out there. And while this isn’t in my top tier of MCU films, I still admire it like crazy because, without it, we literally would not have gotten this zany universe in the first place.
Overall Grade: B+
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Shaun Toub, Gwyneth Paltrow, Faran Tahir, Paul Bettany, Leslie Bibb, Clark Gregg, Will Lyman, Jon Favreau, Samuel L. Jackson
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Written by: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: May 2, 2008
Running Time: 126 minutes
