Wednesday 16 July 2008

Iron Man


Not knowing much, well little about the superhero known as Iron Man (real name Tony Stark) I was pleasantly surprised with how the film adaptation of the comic turned out. Having read a couple of reviews in Empire Magazine and Total Film magazine I was concerned the film would be a let down. Both magazines tended to be quite negative towards the film.

However I began watching with an open mind and thought that the film’s director Jon Favreau managed to tell the story of Iron Man very, very well. The film takes a long time to build up to Tony Stark finally becoming the Iron Man which to begin with I wasn’t keen on but looking back it made the story a lot better. This helped with character development and for those who don’t know the details of Tony Stark helped fill in any missing gaps or information we would require to understand the plot and the film.

Tony Stark is a genius who can build destructive weapons and is owner of Stark Industries but whilst out on a business trip in Afghanistan he is kidnapped and made to build a powerful weapon however he does not. With the help of Dr. Yinsen (Shaun Toub) who has also been captured they build an armoured suit for Tony Stark to get the pair of them out. This becomes Iron Man.

Just before Tony was finally kidnapped he was wounded by one of his company’s own missiles and because of this has a car battery attached to his heart stopping the shrapnel from entering his heart. The two of them also build an “arc reactor” which enables Iron Man to regenerate energy when in battle. Iron Man manages to escape but Dr. Yinsen does not.

Back in America Tony Stark decides that his missiles and his company are wrong and decides to stop making anymore and to concentrate on saving people across the world in his new Iron Man suit which is making. However Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) who is also known as Iron Monger in the comics plots to stop Tony Stark and to kill him with his own Iron Man creation. Of course with all good super hero films the good protagonist in this case Iron Man prevails over Obadiah.

The film has a great cast with Robert Downey Jr the cream of the crop, his performance as the witty, arrogant, womanising Tony Stark is what makes the film so good. He plays the role of Tony Stark very well and from what I’ve read pretty close to the comic book version. Jeff Bridges plays the two faced villain perfectly with actors like Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow also playing their part in the film. There are already plans for Iron Man 2 with the end of this film left unsolved the sequel should equal if not better the original.

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