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Iron Man

Editorial Review

Iron Man is a superhero for the 21st Century. Or, at least under Jon Favreau's direction, the once Vietnam War hero is now. Tony Stark's world is recognisably our own. It's a place where an asshole billionaire arms merchant cossets himself from the effects of his trade with blithe platitudes, while the US military, a fawning Vanity Fair magazine and pole-dancing stewardesses queue up to give him blow jobs.

Tony Stark's playboy life may be a comic-book reader's fantasy, but Favreau and Downey ensure his emptiness and culpability are always visible beneath the glib exterior. And reality intrudes the way it has on the American imperial fantasy in the form of a devastating IED and attack on a Humvee patrol in Afghanistan. Iron Man is all about blowback and secret war profiteering.

On the face of it, Downey Jr is too an unusual choice for a superhero. But his facile, self-centred style suits Stark well, he doesn't push tongue too far into cheek, and his personal baggage adds to the notion that the character's a party animal forced to dig deeper. Downey Jr's surrounded by a stellar cast who'd more usually be found in an A-list ensemble drama. A bald, bearded Jeff Bridges does the best as Obadiah Stane, Stark's aide-de-camp. Gwyneth Paltrow labours honourably as Stark's doe-eyed P.A. Pepper Potts and Terrence Howard plays raspy military liaison Rhodes. The other star is the suit, and it's an enjoyably believable fx achievement, part RoboCop, part Predator drone and part temperamental jalopy.

Favreau grounds fans and newbies with a lengthy origin sequence, safe in the knowledge that it's an exciting, self-contained bit of action, drama and character development. Directors from Michael Bay down could take note of how to stage big action and not lose your humans amid spectacle.

Michael Adams