Curator’s Corner: Iron Man
May 9th, 2008ITEM #1: First, let me get the negative stuff out of the way, because I have too many positive things I want to say about this past week’s Iron Man film debut (did I mention that it was brilliant yet? Well, I’ll get to that).
The mainstream media just never gets it. In advance of the opening of Iron Man, CNN.com and countless other newspapers ran a story in which it was proclaimed that – shock, horror! – you’re about to see a very different kind of superhero in this new film. He’s not squeaky clean, he’s not a boy scout. He has personal problems! Why, he has human flaws! How about that, what an amazing new innovation in comic hero storytelling! One that’s only been around for…oh, I don’t know…60-70 years or so? Even if you only date the notion of superheroes with real-world issues to the debut of Marvel, we’re talking 47 years of history. So yeah, CNN, it’s a brand-new ballgame in 2008…sheesh. (To be slightly fair, in the last couple weeks CNN has run articles promoting both the new book on the 1950s comic censorship scare and Mark Evanier’s bio tome on Jack Kirby, so it’s not all bad).
But never mind all these pea-brained reporters with a pop culture memory like a gnat. Let’s get to the invincible charm of Iron Man, which by extension brings us to Robert Downey Jr. I’ve always liked this guy – he’s managed to make the burnt-out, drugged and drunken persona work so well for him in just about everything, and now he gets to play the one superhero he was born to play – Tony Stark, the alcohol-swilling millionaire playboy that Fate decrees must see the error of his excessive ways. It’s like Stan Lee et al sat around in 1963 and said, “So let’s see. What kind of superhero can we create for Robert Downey Jr. to play in 45 years?” With every tossed-off line of dialogue he cements himself as one of the most likable and charismatic leading heroes in comic film history.
But to heap praise on Downey is to ignore the fact that the rest of the casting is also solid. Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane – you’ve never seen him quite like this – manages to make what could have been a very flat, one-note part into something with subtlety and even likeability. By the time you get to the pivotal moment in which Stane rips Tony’s heart out (not speaking metaphorically), the chill factor is that much higher because he’s not just another villain but a man with logical motivation and even some sympathy.
Gwyneth Paltrow is one of those actresses that have always mystified me as to the source of her apparently boundless popularity given what seems very limited talent. And yet here, with Downey to play off, Paltrow is superb as Pepper Potts, the aide-de-camp/smoldering love interest. She doesn’t have all that much to do, but what she does, she handles well. And her scenes with Downey have just the right romantic edge.
A few other honorable mentions: Paul Bettany as the voice of JARVIS, Stark’s computer (Avengers fans will smile at this), and…
…Samuel L. Jackson himself as Nick Fury, director of the newly renamed S.H.I.E.L.D. (the acronym stands for something different than it did in the old days, and it makes perfect sense), and bearer of the exceptionally exciting fan-pleasing news that Stark is invited to join the “Avenger Initiative.” Mark your movie-going calendars for July 2011, folks, but before that we’ll be seeing another Iron Man outing and big screen appearances by a Thunder God and a Star-Spangled Super Soldier.
This is also the first superhero film I can remember that managed to achieve such a level of real-world ambiance. Apart from the very predictable ending with the obligatory metal monsters smashing away at each other (thankfully kept to a minimum), this is at turns a character-driven piece, a corporate-political thriller, and a heavy gadget-laden movie that feels a bit fanciful but never so much that it doesn’t convince you that this could all be happening…assuming, of course, that you had a genius billionaire like Stark to devise all this cutting-edge tech.
One thing that did occur to me during the film, however, is the interesting ideology at work in the story. On one hand, you have a former arms developer that sees the light and now wants to devote himself to humanitarian causes, protecting those he once put in harm’s way. The basic thumbnail is that greedy corporate weapons builders are evil.
But once Stark builds his Iron Man armor, his first order of business is to head back to his former prison in Afghanistan, torch all the Stark technology the terrorists have on hand, and mete out a bit of justice (or revenge) on a few of these vicious outlaws. In one telling sequence, he literally torches people along with rockets and guns, and even deliberately leaves one of the villains to the obviously enraged villagers that he was terrorizing. So although Stark is now preaching peace, he clearly still thinks violent death-dealing is an acceptable part of the process, as is weapons-building. I guess it all just depends on who’s doing the dying, and whether he himself is the one wearing and using the weapons.
But never mind that – go see Iron Man. And get ready for a future filled with Avenging films.
ITEM #2: An item about the passing of a sci-fi pioneer.
But the one thing no one ever seems to connect is that not only is the Forbidden Planet soundtrack so groundbreaking and eerie, but it’s the rare occurrence of an ambient score that also directly serves and illuminates the plot. Late in the film, when Dr. Morbius plays a snippet of Krell music, we hear the same tonalities we’ve been hearing throughout the entire movie. It’s not just accompanying sound – it is literally the long-lost voice of the Krell soul, the music they made, and without realizing it, we’ve been listening to it all along. That gives the entire film an elegiac quality that is just mesmerizing.
