Iron Man Redux

Took in Iron Man last night. For the ADD afflicted of you out there: go see it. It gives you exactly what you want.

For everyone else: Iron Man succeeds where so many other superhero movies fail. I expect the action sequences of any superhero movie to kick ass, and they do in Iron Man, what I worry about is that 1/3rd of the movie where they build the character and show how the superhero gains his powers, and that's one of the two things that makes Iron Man so strong.

There's really no Iron Man "persona" which is awesome. Iron Man is Tony Stark is Iron Man. He puts on his suit, and kicks ass, but he's still Tony. The transformation of the character IS the transformation of Tony Stark. Therein lies the second part of Iron Man that I loved so much.

At the beginning of the movie, Tony Stark isn't a hero, he's not even an anti-hero. He's a brilliant, rich guy who likes pussy, booze and the spotlight, all while holding onto his self-appointed moral ambiguity for dear life. By the end of the movie, Tony's got the Iron Man suit, he's helping to save the world, but he still loves pussy, booze and the spotlight! He just shifts his moral compass.
Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark is a badass to begin with. He's not Toby Hall's Peter Parker, whose portrayal is seriously lacking the sharp wit and biting sarcasm the character deserves, leaving one with the impression that Spider Man is a boy scout. If you're over the age of... you know... twelve, you should appreciate that.

There's so many little touches to Iron Man that are so well done. I love the way the US military is portrayed as a bunch of guys with rifles mounted onto their eighteen-foot erections. I love the fact that the Stark Industries logo is basically the Lockheed-Martin logo. The "how Stark's empire was built" media montage at the awards ceremony was put together so well. Stan Lee's cameo got a chuckle out of everyone in the audience who knew who Stan Lee was. Even the little scene with Jim Cramer (professional douchebag) was charming in context.

Two complaints:

First, Gwyneth Paltrow... eww. If you're going to craft the Chloe character, then just cast Chloe.

That's a nitpick. My second problem is not.

There's two groups of bad guys, or, maybe more accurately, a bad guy and a group of bad guys. Your group of bad guys is "ambiguous mass of brown people" who may be the LEAST convincing group of bad guys ever. I KNOW it's a comic book, but come on. I'm not going to be scared just cause they're sorta-Arab, and sorta-Eastern European, but based on how much these guys emulate the Keystone Cops you'd almost think that's what the producers were banking on. Who knows, given American sentiments, maybe that works for the majority of the people that are going to see this movie, but for fucks sakes THEY LET TONY BUILD THE SUIT IN THEIR CAVE!

White-corporate bad guy plays his role almost to perfection, but I wish they'd have made him just a bit more evil. Still, I understand why it was done to better fit the comic book theme.

So, yeah, go. Unless Narnia or Indiana Jones pulls a shocker it will be the best "summer blockbuster" until Dark Knight.