The Man in the Iron Suit

A successful "Marvel comic to film" adaptation requires three things; one, the ability to capture the sense of fun and wonder that those classic Marvels always embodied, two, a willingness to deal with a larger theme of inner conflict that invariably deepened Stan Lee's creations, and three, the casting has to make sense.

I'm happy to report that "Iron Man" passes muster on all three counts.

"Iron Man" begins with a lengthy but fast paced and meaningful origin sequence that features cocksure "boy genius" Tony Stark being captured in Afghanistan by rebels who are using the very technology that Stark designs and markets. The rebels exort him to create a version of his latest weapon, the Jericho missle, whereupon he will be released, though Stark realizes he'll never make it out of the prison camp alive. Adding to his woes is the fact that he's been injured in a way that places deadly shrapnel perilously close to his heart, and is only surviving by an ad hoc invention of a fellow prisoner and scientist that keeps the shrapnel from moving. Stark manages to improve upon this crude life saving device using some of his own technology (this is, admittedly, a marvellously well equipped and advanced rebel prison camp) and, after a dark night of the soul contemplating both his father's ethos and his own, sets about trying to simultaneously escape and devise some means to address the wrong direction his life has taken. A carefree, reckless playboy who lives in a rarefied bubble of cheap sex, booze and high tech gadgets, Stark has never faced or even acknowledged the real life effects of his inventions, nor has he kept a very close eye on what they were being used for, or by whom. Fashioning a crude prototype of what will become a fully operational metal body suit capable of flight, self defense, supersonic speed and amazing strength, Stark sets out to do just this.

Jon Favreau's "Iron Man" works on nearly all levels, founded by a truly inspired and letter perfect performance by Robert Downey Jr. as Stark. Downey was a marvelous choice, keying in on the various seminal aspects of Stark's character, his arrogant intelligence, his impetuousness, his sense of duty and his need to honor his father's legacy, and his sense of boyish glee as he tests drives his inventions and finds his own identity in the world. It's a remarkably joyful performance, and to Downey's credit he plays it for all its worth, respecting the material and lending it a real credibility. One test for me of a successful performance is always the question "Can you imagine anyone else in this role?" and in this case, I absolutely cannot.

The rest of the cast was likewise well chosen. It's still jarring to think of Jeff Bridges ("Lightfoot!") as the "old guy villain" but he plays Obadiah Stane with equal parts congeniality, smarminess, cold calculation and outright menace. I also enjoyed Terrance Howard as Stark's loyal but skeptical best friend, Jim Rhodes, Shaun Toub as Stark's fellow prisoner who has a huge influence on him, and Faran Tahir as the leader of the Talibanish group that captures Stark is perfect at conveying ambition and ruthlessness. Gwyneth Paltrow also worked well as "Pepper" Potts, Stark's gal Friday and maybe love interest, though their potential romance marked the film's one sour note for me. Both leads were appealing, but for some reason their scenes together seemed forced, full of the quasi hip, rat a tat dialogue of "Friends" and "West Wing". If and when there's a sequel, I'd advise the writers to just let the dialogue be more natural and less self consciously clever.

There's a geeky thrill factor to this film that works quite well, too. Who wouldn't love to have a magical suit that flies, is nearly invulnerable, hurls flamethrowers and ultra powerful repulsor rays, and makes the wearer super strong? The sequence where Iron Man tracks down some of Stark's technology to the same group of radicals that captured him (and is now tormenting a innocent villagers) is particularly rewarding. Iron Man acts as a kind of vengeance seeking angel whose technology matches the radicals' every craven move, and his absolute trouncing of them is shamelessly invigorating.

But underneath that escapist comic book ride, there's something deeper being said about taking responsibility for your life and moving past a reckless youth and into a period of adulthood and maturity. I've heard rumblings about a political subtext here (i.e. "American foreign policy is flawed by shortsightedness and inconsistency") but I really saw it as a much more general theme of dealing with the consequences of your own actions and owning up to your own culpability in the world's imperfection. These themes aren't pounded home ponderously, and there's some nice bits of humor to lighten the mood at appropriate times (the fire extinguisher robot scenes are priceless, as are most of the scenes between Stark and Rhodes).

The effects of "Iron Man" are, not surprisingly, state of the art. The suit is sleek but faithful to the comic, and the Stane robot is truly formidable and monstrous, a huge clanking behemoth of metal and malevolence. But the effects are not overdone, allowing the story to take its rightful place at center stage. There are only three major "suit" scenes (not including the prototype's scene) but each one is essential to the narrative and again, never allows us to forget the man inside the suit.

That's something that Stan Lee never allowed his readers to forget either, and I can't think of any higher praise than to say that this film could has Lee's fingerprints all over it, from its relevance to its kinetic action, from its humor to its humanity. Even the quasi-shocker ending is vintage Lee, leaving the viewer (reader) to wait with bated breath for the next exciting chapter.