Difficult Simple

The comic book world has its iconic superheroes like Batman and Superman and Spider-Man and even the Hulk. Each have gotten the big-screen, big-budget treatment — many times over, in some cases — while other longtime heroes have waited for their chance to shine. Oldsters the Fantastic Four recently got their shot and were a disappointment. The X-Men started strong, but then Brett Ratner got the reins of the film series and drove it directly into the ground.

After a successful reboot in 2005 with Batman Begins, a second go-round with the Dark Knight titled (appropriately) The Dark Knight is due very soon. But he’ll find he’s not the only four-color hero at the multiplex. After a disastrous encounter with Ang Lee in 2003, the Hulk is back in action come June, but one of Marvel Comics’ most venerable superheroes has already made a spectacular debut: Iron Man.

Iron Man first appeared in comics back in 1963, his origins firmly tied to the burgeoning conflict in Vietnam and the Cold War at large. He was (and is) a superhero without super powers, just a man with an incredible gift for engineering and the drive to use that gift for good. Tony Stark is the human face behind the armored mask of Iron Man, a technological champion for the twenty-first century, heavily armed but devoted to the protection of others.

The character couldn’t have been a first choice for film producers. Despite his ubiquity in the comics world, Iron Man is decidedly second-tier when it comes to public awareness. Stars and directors came and went on the project over several years until finally Jon Favreau — a surprising, though ultimately excellent choice — settled behind the camera and cast Robert Downey, Jr. as Stark.

It seems an unlikely pairing. Downey has his troubled past, but is largely known as a capital-A actor and not an action star. Favreau has directed primarily comedies for the whole family. But putting these two men together on Iron Man created movie magic, thanks to just those things that at first blush don’t seem quite right for the material.

Iron Man is a superhero movie. It is an action movie. But it’s also the kind of superheroic action film we rarely see: one that takes the material seriously on all levels, but retains enough fun to keep it entertaining. Downey and his cast-mates are all solid actors, and there are strong performances all around. Iron Man is also, despite its PG-13 rating, the kind of film that can stimulate productive discussion among families about big issues like war, foreign policy and the difficulty of making ethical choices in a complex world.

All initial superhero films are tasked with explicating the main character’s origin, and Iron Man is no exception. This is particularly essential when it comes to Iron Man, married as he is to events and places of significance from 40+ years ago. Iron Man deftly transplants into Afghanistan, and the “war on terror,” Tony Stark and his transformation into Iron Man. Dialogue is sharp and witty but some early sequences are extremely intense (hence that PG-13). The audience gets to know Tony Stark — a genius multimillionaire, but promiscuous, indulgent and even childish — through Downey, Jr.’s spot-on portrayal. A lesser actor would make hash of moments that require performance and not just muscles, but Downey, Jr. gives his character a palpable inner life, which is essential as events force Stark to confront his “laundry list of character flaws” and become a hero.

After sleepwalking through her last few film appearances, Gwyneth Paltrow returns to Seven form as Stark’s long-suffering assistant, while an earnest (but underused) Terrance Howard plays Stark’s best friend and positive counterweight to the surprisingly menacing Jeff Bridges. The screenplay had at least five hands involved, but doesn’t feel like it. All the characters get enough screen time and good lines to flesh them out while never letting the story flag. Watch Ang Lee’s insufferable Hulk to see how much better Iron Man handles itself.

The movie does not disappointment on the action front, either. While the performers give Iron Man a firm foundation, there’s no holding back when Tony Stark’s powered armor takes center stage. It’s genuinely fascinating how Iron Man makes electrical and mechanical engineering look compelling and even cool. Audiences get an impression of Iron Man’s armor as a working machine, and not just an effect. Stan Winston and company do a nice job of creating practical versions of the armor that look solid, and not just like CGI, because they’re actually real, and can be interacted with.

When stuff blows up in Iron Man, it blows up good. A sequence set somewhere along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan has emotional punch to go with the repulsor rays and exploding munitions. At the same time, Iron Man’s real heft comes from those times when the armor isn’t in action, rather when people are allowed to engage with one another as people. When the audience cares about the man inside the armor and his actions have consequences we can see, it makes the rest that much more effective.

Iron Man is a terrific film that more than deserves its success at the box office. Moreover, it’s demonstrated that good acting, good writing and respectful direction aren’t just happy accidents, but an essential part of what makes a film worth watching again and again.