Review of Iron Man (2008) by Jasav J — 11 Jun 2017

Well, it's definitely the best Iron Man movie at this point. To be more specific, I think this is the only good Iron Man movie at this point. If this movie is like the original Star Wars, the sequels are equivalent to Star Wars prequels. All though, this is a great comic book movie, I still think that Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 is a little bit better. Partly because it had a better villain and more drama. But that's more of a personal preference. (Spider-Man 2 is what Iron Man 2 should have been.).

What made this movie so great, is that it had what neither of sequels had. It was well-written, well-acted, cohesive, entertaining, and, for the most part, faithful towards its source material, which both sequels ignored completely. Sorry to break it for those MCU movie fans that think that all those Marvel movies are made only for them, but comic book movies are made with an intention to pleas the fans of the comics as well. If you think otherwise, then you're an idiot. You think Marvel puts all those comic book references in movies for you? You think end credit scene with Thanos at the end of The Avengers was for you? Don't be delusional.

Anyway, back to the movie. Iron Man is not as dark, deep, and cerebral as some of Iron Man's comic book stories, but it's still fun to watch, and it has its fair amount of dark and deep moments. Iron Man was always a very dark, gloomy character in the comics. At one point, Tony Stark was so damaged by his alcoholic addiction that he started to have suicidal thoughts. After all, he was created as a response to industrial complex and political environment of Cold War. This movie doesn't make Tony Stark a dark character which he was in the comics. But I was fine with that. His arc in this movie was very interesting and thematically very similar to some of his old arcs in comics. Whole point of him being ashamed of being part of industrial complex reminded me of an old story by Bill Mantlo, called "Vengeance in Vietnam". In that story, Tony Stark started for the first time in comics to question his morals and his actions when he was making weapons for war. I thought that aspect was handled very well in the movie.

My main gripe with this movie will be the villain, which seems like a biggest shortcoming of all Iron Man films, and maybe MCU films in general. I know, it would have been very difficult to make a comic book accurate Obadiah Stane in a movie that is solely focused on Tony Stark's character, but there were possibilities to make him far more interesting. Obadiah Stane in the comics was a very complex, very twisted character with a very dark attitude and dark origin. He was traumatized since he was a child when he witnessed unintentional suicide of his father. After that tragedy, Stane started to show sadistic tendencies in school. He murdered a dog of his opponent in a chess play in order to win. He became manipulative and psychotic. He saw his life as a chess play in which he can't loose. He was a very subtle character with dark philosophical outlook. Well, in the movie... He's not like that. He's just a greedy businessman that wants money and power. That's about it... Again, not very deep, but I think it's works fine in a movie. And, common, it's miles better than any "villain" from sequels.

And, the main reason why I think this is the best Iron Man movie, is because this is the movie that has the best portrayal of Tony Stark. I know I'm in minority on this, but I'm not a big fan of the way Downey Jr portrays this character (in sequels and Avengers movies). As I said, movie Tony Stark is not like comic book Tony Stark. Tony Stark in this movie wasn't exactly like comic book Tony Stark, but there were characteristics of a comic book Tony Stark in it. The scene when Stark says ''There is nothing except this. There's no art opening, no charity, nothing to sign. There's the next mission, and nothing else.'' is my favorite scene in this movie. Not only because it's deep and dramatic, but also because it's pure Tony Stark from the comics. People may not know, but main aspect of Tony Stark as a character was not his wittiness (which he didn't really had in comics). It's his humanity and empathy. And that scene showcased it perfectly... Too bad that the future movies butchered his character completely and made that line completely worthless, because, as we know from the future movies, Tony Stark didn't became a better person after this... He became worse and worse. And that's why I hated sequels so much. Those movies have forgotten who Tony Stark really is. They portrayed him as a some kind of a self-obsessed, narcissist douche that loves only himself and cares only for himself. Seems like filmmakers didn't get the point of what this movie was establishing. After this movie, Tony Stark was supposed to become a better person, because he finally learned what it means to be a hero. Instead, sequels completely ignored that and they made him to look even worse than he was in the beginning of this film...

All in all, great comic book film, best Iron Man movie, and so on...