IRON MAN
IRON MAN |
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Another Marvel comics superhero makes the jump from comic page to cinema screen when Tony Stark becomes Iron Man. | score 3+ |
moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable) |
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| Cast Robert Downey Jnr, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jon Favreau, Terrence Howard Director Jon Favreau Screenwriter Julie Delpy Country USA Rating / Running Time M / 126 minutes Australian Release May 2008 Official Site (c) moviereview
2006-2008
ABN 72 775 390 361 |
Tony
Stark (Downey Jnr) is the Dean Martin of arms dealers: a self-important
playboy everyone loves because he’s so good at what he does. Then
he’s kidnapped in Afghanistan with – oh cruel irony –
his own warhead. Tony learns a lesson in collateral damage and, in
escaping the terrorists, how to build the ultimate defensive weapon.
His flying suit, once refined with Stark technology, leads him to the
righteous path and in direct conflict with the board of his own
company. The fight between good and evil becomes a many-layered thing. Even though director Favreau frequently ignores fundamental laws of physics (Stark’s suit, not his body, is the stuff of super-heroes) and is prone to borrowing too heavily from the Catalogue of Blockbuster Staples, Downey Jnr’s charisma is more than enough to paper over the cracks. His performance is one of the most exciting since Christopher Reeves first donned a cape and ignites a sparkling chemistry when paired with zealous laboratory robots, his leggy assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) or the unexpected villainy of Jeff Bridges. He too lends the film significant weight, his bald-head-and-beard two-piece providing unexpected anonymity. Cut with fashionable frenzy by an over-caffeinated editor, Iron Man is not the most elegant of films though few in his target audience will care, or even notice. Penned wih enthusiasim by the screenwriters of Children of Men, their film is a stimulating and exciting one with an urgent morale tone and mischievous sense of humour that earns extra points outside the target audience. Producers looking for a new action franchise have clearly hit gold with the Favreau/Downey Jnr package, and in a world sorely needing a new action hero, Iron Man is da man. // COLIN FRASER |