Iron Man

Iron Man At last! After all the waiting, the hype, the hopeful faithfulness of all true believers, the latest installment from Marvel Studios has arrived. Iron Man was always one of my favorite comics for two reasons; one, I loved the character of Tony Stark—the Über-genius billionaire man-about-town with no conscience, who produces the world’s most effective and destructive weapons systems, and two; the person he becomes inside the suit he designs—the man who champions the downtrodden and helpless, those caught in the grips of war and destitution, of unchecked crime and wanton violence.
The movie pays very careful attention to the story of how Stark becomes Iron Man, and, in my opinion, does as good or better job at being true to the spirit of the comic than any other attempt thus far. Robert Downey Jr. is well-cast as Tony Stark, the brilliant, wise-cracking, amoral designer behind Stark industries (and, now that I am old enough to notice, an obvious nod to Howard Hughes). Gwyneth Paltrow plays Pepper Potts, the efficient, dedicated, beautiful personal secretary to Stark, who is willing to sacrifice her career and even life to maintain her loyalty to him. (Gwyneth is looking fabulous in this role—those freckles slay me) And Jeff Bridges Plays Obadiah Stane (Get it? Stain?), the back-stabbing friend and business partner to Stark, who is selling weapons and munitions to terrorists under the table. Bridges plays a surprisingly effective villain. He is very believable. Lastly, Terrance Howard plays the Air Force Colonel who is the governments liaison to Stark Industries. All of these characters are from the original comics.
Stark, while demonstrating his newest weapons system, is injured and kidnapped by terrorists, who coerce him into building the new Jericho rocket for them. Instead he builds the Mark I Iron Man suit and destroys the bad guys. Woo hoo! He escapes, is rescued, and returns a changed man, keeping up the spoiled, playboy appearance, while designing and building the most effective weapons platform in history—IRON MAN! Da-da . . . da da dum, dadadadadadada da-dum-dum!
But wait! Obadiah has gotten hold of the original suit (now ruined) and the original drawings, and is making a suit of his own—bigger, badder, more powerful. Can Stark defeat his nemesis, Iron Monger? Will Pepper finally convince her boss that he is in love with her? And who’s going to repair the big hole in the roof of Stark’s bachelor pad?
Oh yeah, while all this is going on, Tony has developed a miniature version of a fusion reactor in order to power a thingy in his chest. It seems that when the bad guys got him, his wounds included some shrapnel in the chest. A few pieces had to be left in—too close to the heart—and an electro-magnet implanted in his chest is keeping the steel from migrating to his heart and killing him. So that solves his energy problem. The suit is awesome. There is a scene where his robotic helpers are putting him into it for the first time, that is one of the coolest sequences I have ever seen. Great special effects. The story is coherent, the technology is actually possible—several sources are saying it is all doable in the next 20 years or so—and the action is edge-of-the-seat.
Nita went and loved it. I had to restrain her several times, and remind her to be quiet, but she was pretty well-behaved for the most part. Newell and Grah both give it an enthusiastic thumbs up, and Mason, my 10 year old nephew, endorses it without reservation.
It is rated PG-13. Nothing overtly objectionable (other than Stark’s lifestyle) but there is a very brief fore-play-a-boing-boing scene. Everyone has some clothes on, and it really is brief, if enthusiastic. No cussing, no gore, lots of wonderfully antiseptic violence and mayhem, all directed at bad guys who clearly have it coming. This is definitely one I want to own.