Iron Man is a 2008 production from Marvel Studios, directed by John Favreau and written by a group of four: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. The movie with Robert Downey Jr. in its main role got 7,9 stars on IMDb as well as a similar 79 Metascore. Alongside its cover man, you’ll also see Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow star in major roles within this movie.
A Summary
Iron Man is the first movie of the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe and gives us the backstory of one of its main protagonist throughout the first three phases, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). How did he amass his riches and create the world’s most recognisable superhero?
Tony is the son of the ingenious inventor Howard Stark. He is an absolute genius, performing extremely well in school and quickly becoming the head of Stark Industries after the passing of his father. The company’s main cash goat are weapons. The newest technologies designed by Howard have gathered the family billions. As far as public knowledge goes, mainly because of contracts with the US Army.
During the beginning of the movie, Tony needs to give a presentation of the company’s new weapons at an army base in Afghanistan. On his way back to the base disaster strikes. Their escort gets blown to pieces and every soldier is killed, while Tony himself gets captured. Later, he wakes up in a cave together with Dr. Ho Yinsen and a car battery attached to his body.
Yinsen operated on Tony because of bombs used during the ambushed, which caused damage to Tony’s body. He managed to fix most, but there are still pieces of shrapnel near his heart. The battery powers an electromagnet that keeps the shrapnel from killing him. The terrorists that captured him wants Tony to build his newest rocket.
After some torture, Tony concedes and starts working on the rocket, at least that is what he said to the terrorists. Meantime he is working on a power core as well as what would become the first Iron Man. The terrorists don’t know what he’s up to until it’s too late. He blasts everybody out of his way but loses Yinsen during the fight.
Back in the US, he wants to steer Stark Industries into a new direction. He noticed that the terrorists had access to nearly every Stark weapon and caused destruction with it. So he declares that the company will no longer produce weapons. This causes the company’s shares to drop dramatically and Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), a long-term family friend and major shareholder in the company, was furious with Tony.
Tony follows up on Obadiah’s advice and lays low after the announcement. In his basement, he starts working on new versions for his power core and Iron Man suit, with some help of his assistant, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Sometime later, Obadiah tells Tony that the board of directors have filed an injunction to gain full power over the company.
As it turns out, Obadiah is the one who’s selling weapons to the terrorists as well as the one who filed the injunction. Meantime the terrorists are murdering whole communities with Stark’s weapons. Tony gets into his newest Iron Man suit and flies to the rescue, killing multiple terrorists and giving the leader of the group to the people of the city. Obadiah talks to the group that he tasked to kill Tony, the same ones who captured him earlier but ends up killing the group and taking the designs for the Iron Man Tony build in the cave.
The movie nears it ends with the fight between Obadiah in enhanced Iron Man Mark I against Tony Stark in his Iron Man Mark III. After a tough fight, Tony ends up winning with some help from Pepper. He declares himself Iron Man to public and gets contacted by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) from the Avengers Initiative.
The Story
I believe this story was too crammed for this movie. They quickly move from situation to situation and keep almost no time to calm down a bit. For example, Tony getting captured and being held in the cave could’ve been a movie on its own. This would allow the writers to delve a bit deeper into these characters, let us meet Tony Stark as well as Yinsen.
Now there are multiple stories combined into one, which maybe isn’t so bad according to certain people. I do like the Obadiah storyline, a family friend who betrays the family and company he’s has been working for. Of course, our hero Tony doesn’t want their company name on weapons being used by the enemies and decides to take matters into his hands. A task that he should be fit for, being a genius and billionaire, basically overpowered.
It’s also very interesting how he is able to build the most advanced power source within a cave with limited resources, so you may need to forget about any logic to watch MCU movies.
The Characters
Tony Stark / Iron Man
Our protagonist in this movie and many other MCU movies to come. He is a genius and billionaire with a huge business giving to him by birthright. Not exactly your original arc, looking at the likes of Batman. However, I am a fan of the character and especially Robert’s performance on it. He is a smooth gentleman, smarter than anybody he talks with and manages to get whatever he wants, just through his personality.
And he does have his honour, as his redemption arc to save his name shows. During one of his fights, he evens catches a car and puts it safely on the ground so the people inside aren’t hurt.
Obadiah Stane
An unusual antagonist, he is a long-term family friend and basically runs the company in Tony’s name. With multiple enemies in Afghanistan, his plans aren’t immediately coming to light. A viewer will only find out what he has been doing all along during the end of the movie. I especially love the scene where Tony finds out. Obadiah asks Tony to take pictures with the press and during these, he tells him about his plans, so Tony won’t be able to attack him. Some clever and interesting dialogue.
The Production
For a 2008 movie, it probably did alright. As is the case with most superhero movies, CGI plays a large role in the movie. The animations are great, but also not that bad. They didn’t bother me and got us our first look at the Iron Man, which we will see in even greater glory during later movies!