IRON MAN FACTS
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a billionaire industrialist whose forte is building weapons of mass destruction. When he’s severely injured while testing one of those weapons in Afghanistan, he’s kidnapped by insurgents and has to build a suit of iron armor to escape his captors. After returning to the U.S., Stark refines his iron creation and transforms himself into a flying metallic repulsor-ray-firing superhero. When his biggest business rival, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), gets his hands on Stark’s original plans, he creates an even bigger iron adversary to defeat Stark once and for all.
Status In theaters (wide)
Genre(s) Action/Adventure
Release Date May 2, 2008
Running Time 126 minutes
MPAA Rating PG-13 - for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content
by Dave White
Who’s in It: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard
The Basics: A conscience-free war profiteer (Mr. Downey Jr. — think a younger, hornier, more quick-witted Dick Cheney) realizes the error of his ways after getting a taste of his own brutality and develops a supersuit that will restore justice and peace to the world. Of course, there are people who want to stop him …
What’s the Deal? You probably know that, last summer, I was really into Transformers and how post-talented Michael Bay was and that it didn’t matter that nothing made sense and who cared anyway because it was about giant fighting robots. And I still feel that way. But this film, about a giant fighting guy dressed up in a superpowered robot suit, is better, faster and stronger than that other one because he’s someone you’re genuinely pulling for instead of just cheering on the destruction of it all. That probably marks me as sentimental and weak, but whatever.
Walking the Line: Superhero movies often seem to take place in eras that are out of their time or too much in their time. Some things will appear modern, some things won’t, Tobey Maguire will speak in this odd, gee-whiz manner, Jack Nicholson’s Joker will be very self-consciously ’80s-cool and wind up looking dated. This one’s modern and funny — “now” but not frozen-in-2008 hip. It gets its tone just right.
Casting Wins: Well first, the great news is that Downey Jr. is perfect and seems to be playing a version of himself (talented smartass gets his life pulverized only to rise from the ashes), and Bridges has the perfect shaved head for a bad guy. Only Paltrow continues to annoy. At first, she seems more steel-spined than you’ve ever seen her. And then she wilts. I want about 15 pounds more Barbara Stanwyck in that woman and soon.
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