A while back when we heard that there's an Iron Man movie in the making Bobby gets all excited and tells me that he has always been a fan of ol' tin can, not to mention comic master Stan Lee and his league of tortured superheros. Having not read the Iron Man comics in my youth (I preferred my X-Men and Swamp Thing) I must admit to not knowing who Iron Man really was. All I knew was he donned a stiff looking metal suit. I was just happy to hear one of my favourite actor and Golden Globe winner Robert Downey Jr got a chance to work. After reading the stories of him in and out of drug rehab and how directors were scared to work with his addictions, I was hoping that he'll get back on the saddle again.
So really, it was a stroke of genius (and irony haha) on the part of director John Favreau, that bad-boy-oft-seen-combating-blow Downey Jr be casted as Tony Stark, the hip and highly intelligent engineer who loves the opulent life (booze, women, machines and a press conference) a little too much. Incidentally the lifestyle paid by by the good ol' US government who buys bad ass weapons from his company, Stark Industries. The comeuppance for Tony happens when he gets badly injured by one of his own weapons, unbeknownst to him sold to the enemy by his business partner Obadiah Slate, played deliciously evilly by a bald and bearded 4X Oscar nominee Jeff Bridges. Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow came out of yummy mummy/Coldplay's band-aid sabbatical to play Tony Stark's Girl Friday (the rather unfortunately named Pepper Potts) in a manner reminiscent of Maggie Gyllenhaal's perverted character in the S&M movie The Secretary in tight pencil skirts and sky high heels complete with a geeky, yet restrained tart, demeanor. Terrence Howard, also an Oscar winner, plays Stark's confidante, and whilst his role was rather sparse, you can expect more from the sequel when he too will don the suit.
After being badly injured and kidnapped by the enemy terrorists Tony Stark is forced to build his latest super weapon the Jericho Missile from the broken down parts of the terrorist's Stark Industries weapons cache. After some soul searching, Tony Starks plans his escape and builds his Iron Man Suit Version 1.0. instead. He is greatly assisted by Yinsen (played by Shaun Toub), another captive who is not too shabby at engineering himself and who also saves Stark's life by embedding a magnetic device in his chest that will keep the bomb shrapnels from entering his heart.
Even with the top notch supporting cast (including Tony Spark's Robotic Arms assistants), almost perfect CGI and witty dialogue, the movie belongs to uber talented Robert Downey Jr and his past. When Downey Jr/Tony dons the Version 2.0 of the armoured suit for the first time (after inserting a flashy red to its golden exterior and some pretty cool gadgets within) past middle age and thankfully un-Botoxed, you get a feeling that he's giving himself another chance to contain the demons. Even though at the end, Tony Stark (and Downey Jr), remains just a little bit flawed.
Well played Robert, well played.
(because I am rooting for RBJ)
Ps/ If you're in Brunei, you should go watch Iron Man at a cinema near you. For movie schedules until the end of the month click here.
PPs/ If you watch the movie, stay right until the end credits have rolled because there is an extra scene with Samuel L Jackson. A bunch of us watched the movie at the Empire last Saturday and I can't believe the Empire Cinema stopped the movie in the middle of the end credits so we did not get to watch the extra scene! Thankfully, we have YouTube (and people with video recording capabilities on their phones):
And if you can't make out what they are saying, here you go:
Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury: Think you're the only super hero in the world? You're starting to become a part of a bigger universe.
Tony Spark: Who the hell are you?
Samuel/Nick: Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. I'm here to tell you about the Avengers Initiative.
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