Best. Comicbook Movie. Ever.

[elspethdixon]

Iron Man is made of awesome. The armor rocked; the soundtrack rocked; RDJ, Terrance Howard, Jeff Bridges, and Gwyneth Paltrow rocked; the entire movie was more than worth driving four hours up to NYC to see it at midnight instead of waiting for tomorrow. For one thing, it meant that the entire theater was filled with comics fans. When the Stan Lee cameo occurred, it got a cheer almost as loud as the first appearance of the armor. I second everything puritybrown said here, but I'm also going to launch into some squee of my own.


The armor is awesome. It makes mechanized whirring sounds when it moves, it's shiney, it's sleek, it's straight from Adi Granov's designs and is probably the sexiest thing in the whole movie. I love that they used practical effects for some of it -- there's a real weight to it when Tony walks around in pieces of partially assembled jet-boots; you can tell he's actually got big, heavy things on his feet.

Robert Downey Jr as Tony is a little bit more hyper than Tony really should be, but I can't blame him for that; I've seen him in interviews, and I'm pretty sure "hyper" is his default state in or out of character. Otherwise, he's perfect for origin-story Tony - snarky and cocky, yet woobie-eyed and capable of projecting inner vulnerability, trying way too hard to be charming, talks to machine like they're people... Ideally, of course, he ought to be about 23, instead of late-30s/early-40s/whatever age RDJ is, but you can't have everything. I fixed that easily enough by mentally taking about ten-to-fifteen years off all the characters' ages while I watched.

Tony's self-destructiveness and his tech/engineer side are very much in evidence ("Hi, I talk to my lab equipment!"); for one thing, from the moment he appears on screen, he's drinking, first alcohol, and then later, when he's building and testing the armor, continous mugs of coffee (which filled me with pure RR&R-verse glee, since we pretty much made up the coffee addiction for that based on a single throw-away line from the Extremis arc, and now it's been validated by kind-of-canon).

Tony and Rhodey are very slashy, though the slash vibes are more on Tony's part than on Rhodey's (as in volume 1 canon, I got the impression that Rhodey considers Tony a close friend, while Tony has a serious crush on Rhodey). At one point, Tony ask both a piece of female arm-candy and Rhodey to blow on his dice in a casino before throwing them, and at another point, he and Rhodey are drinking together and talking, and Tony is completely draped over an oblivious-seeming Rhodey as if he's a piece of furniture.

Obediah Stane, on the other hand, sends out serious creep-factor vibes whene he's around Tony -- invading his personal space, continually draping an arm over his shoulders in a way that just serves to emphasize that Jeff Bridge is considerably larger than Robert Downey, Jr., continually manipulating Tony by capitalizing on his desperate need for affection/approval. So, really, when he paralyses Tony with a nasty little temporary-paralysis-causing gadget and literally rips the little power device that's the equivalent of Tony's old chest plate out of his chest so that he can use it to power the Iron Monger suit, it's only to be expected that he practically feels Tony up at the same time. Seriously, he sits there talking cheerfully to paralysed Tony while Tony is choking and bleeding out the ears and about to go into cardiac arrest.

And Tony and Pepper... I'm slightly relieved to say that, while acknowledging the subtext from the comics, the film doesn't set the two of them up together (which would have made the Pepper/Happy shipper in me cringe - and by the way, John Favreau's cameo as Happy is also very nice, right down to the glum expression).

I would have preferred real Jarvis to Jarvis-as-computer, but one thing having Jarvis be an AI does for the movie is further drive home how isolated and lonely Tony is; he has no family, no friends beyond a handful of co-workers, and the only person he can trust to help him test the Iron Man armor is a talking computer system - one that he's programmed to have a personality, probably just so that he has someone else to talk to.

Also, I would be willing to bet money that the mercenary character who masterminded the kidnap-Tony-Stark-and-make-him-build-weapons plot shows up in the next film as he Mandarin. One of the first lines out of his mouth is admiring prasie of Genghis Khan, and he later states that a man could use the technology in Tony's armor to "take over all of Asia." I can't wait. Another "we promise a sequel" moment: when Rhodey, seeing the inside of Tony's workshop for the first time, watches Tony take off, and then turns to the older model of Tony's suit, which is grey like the War Machine armor, and says, "Next time, baby." *cue entire theater cheering*


Also, there is an extra scene at the end of the credits that is more than worth sitting through the entire credits for; much more substantial than your average easter-egg end-credits scene, Nick Fury cameo with Samuel L. Jackson! Seriously, it got more gleefull screams than the entire rest of the movie combined. The final line is Fury infoming Tony that he wants to talk to him about somehting called "The Avengers Initiative." *cue even more screams of glee from the entire theater than Fury's initial appearance got*

Comments

[harmonyangel.livejournal.com]

The mercenary guy was also twirling a ring on his hand. :) And Obadiah had another ring on his finger, so they might play with that, too.

(I agree with pretty much everything here - I saw it last night at 8, and I was bouncing and giggling the entire time. And I'm glad the Fury scene was after the credits, because the scream I let out when Fury said the word "Avenger" probably broke eardrums.)

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

Rhodey, seeing the inside of Tony's workshop for the first time, watches Tony take off, and then turns to the older model of Tony's suit, which is grey like the War Machine armor, and says, "Next time, baby." *cue entire theater cheering*

I went to a non-fen showing and still the whole audience was all over that part. There was much love for Rhodey, as well there should be.

Also, you said all of the things I wanted to say in my post-op - I'll have to let it percolate over night, so I can pull out some new details. ;)

[lazaefair.livejournal.com]

Hey - arrived here from trawling through LJ Iron Man communities, and I couldn't resist chiming in with further admiration of the awesomeness that is the movie. Apparently Marvel taking over producing its own movies was a very good thing.

I just wanted to point out that Robert Downey Jr. is in his late 40s, but thanks to the power of being amazingly fit, he definitely looks at least 10-15 years younger. He still pulled off the empty-shell-of-a-playboy schtick marvelously and I'm not sure it would have stuck if they'd cast someone who actually was younger - would have been too smooth-faced to be plausible.

Also, apparently the concept for the interactive holographic drafting table was completely ad-libbed by Downey Jr. - he came up with the idea on set (originally it was just going to be the light pen controlling the graphics) and the special effects guys did the rest.

I can't agree with you about Stark/Pepper - being a relatively unfamiliar with the comic book canon, I didn't come to the movie with previous ship preferences, so I really enjoyed the sparks Robert and Gwyneth struck off each other. I am exceedingly curious as to how things will turn out once the Avengers movie comes out and Cap is introduced, though...apparently Downey Jr. is slated to reprise his role in that movie too (thank goodness).

[pineapplechild.livejournal.com]

I really like your point about Rhodey and Tony; it fits really well with the version of Tony that the movie is building (I'm getting bi and plain old lonely on Tony's part).
Now I'll have lots of nifty things to see the next time I go see it.