Iron Man

Jon Favreau, 2008

"Iron Man takes its sweet time getting Downey into the Iron Man suit, and it doles out big action setpieces sparingly once man has fused triumphantly with machine. Downey is so much fun as a breezy cad that it's a shame he spends so much time brooding and luxuriating in obsession. Like Ang Lee's Hulk, Iron Man is a comic-book blockbuster characterized as much by heavyweight acting and sober intellectual concerns about the use and misuse of power and technology as the usual comic-book foolishness. But Iron Man finds a much more palatable, audience-friendly balance between delirious spectacle and tortured introspection thanks largely to Downey, a great actor who's also a great entertainer." -Nathan Rabin

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is such an omnipresent part of popular culture at this point that it’s easy to forget how much time has passed since the first Iron Man; seven years. As well as the film holds up, and as fun as it still is, it’s also very much a product of an era that’s already fading away. In the opening scene, a soldier asks to take a selfie with Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. But he doesn’t call it a selfie. And he takes it with a digital camera instead of his cell phone. And Tony Stark’s cell phone has a flip-up screen. And he makes jokes about not wanting to see the pictures on MySpace. This Iron Man belongs to another world; one that’s clearly defined by the period after 9/11. He’s not fighting Norse gods or sentient robots; his enemies are Middle Eastern terrorists and war profiteers.
Some of the dialogue might be dated, but the effects in this movie still look great; I was impressed how cool the early scenes of Tony Stark testing his Iron Man suit and flying around still are. The visceral thrill of discovery and the pure freedom of flight pulse through the first two acts of the movie. A lot of the credit for the film’s success belongs to Downey, who makes Tony Stark so charming and likable, even in the early scenes when he’s a pompous, unreliable d-bag. Tony Stark has a real arc here too, and not just the reactor kind; his evolution from unfeeling capitalist to selfless hero progresses naturally and satisfyingly through his story.


Read More: The Ultimate Marvel Marathon 2015 Live-Blog | http://screencrush.com/the-ultimate-marvel-marathon-2015-live-blog/?trackback=tsmclip

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is such an omnipresent part of popular culture at this point that it’s easy to forget how much time has passed since the first Iron Man; seven years. As well as the film holds up, and as fun as it still is, it’s also very much a product of an era that’s already fading away. In the opening scene, a soldier asks to take a selfie with Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. But he doesn’t call it a selfie. And he takes it with a digital camera instead of his cell phone. And Tony Stark’s cell phone has a flip-up screen. And he makes jokes about not wanting to see the pictures on MySpace. This Iron Man belongs to another world; one that’s clearly defined by the period after 9/11. He’s not fighting Norse gods or sentient robots; his enemies are Middle Eastern terrorists and war profiteers.
Some of the dialogue might be dated, but the effects in this movie still look great; I was impressed how cool the early scenes of Tony Stark testing his Iron Man suit and flying around still are. The visceral thrill of discovery and the pure freedom of flight pulse through the first two acts of the movie. A lot of the credit for the film’s success belongs to Downey, who makes Tony Stark so charming and likable, even in the early scenes when he’s a pompous, unreliable d-bag. Tony Stark has a real arc here too, and not just the reactor kind; his evolution from unfeeling capitalist to selfless hero progresses naturally and satisfyingly through his story.


Read More: The Ultimate Marvel Marathon 2015 Live-Blog | http://screencrush.com/the-ultimate-marvel-marathon-2015-live-blog/?trackback=tsmclip