DVD Review: Iron Man 2-Disc Edition
Marvel Studios' First Independent Outing Hits DVD Shelves
Sep 28, 2008
Iron Man Synopsis
As playboy billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) travels to Afghanistan to present his company's latest cluster missile design and demonstration, a terrorist organization ironically equipped with his company's weapons abducts the brilliant genius, forcing him to design new weapons for them. Little do they know that while in captivity, with the help of a fellow scientist (Shaun Toub), Stark designs a primitive and crude, yet efficient battle armor, design to help them escape their captors.
Upon his return to America, having been feared dead and missing in action, Stark attempts to change the face of his company's future, with the help of his loyal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). All the while, Stark must contend with his mentor/friend Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), who has motives and plans of his own for Stark Enterprises.
Tony decides to turn the tables on both the company he helped build, as well as his former assailants, by refining the design of his battle armor, to turn it into an unstoppable fighting unit -- Iron Man -- with himself wearing the suit.
This results into an absolute non-stop action packed film, which is mostly faithful to the original Marvel characters, albeit with some details updated to avoid obvious anachronisms.
Overall Analysis of Iron Man
Director Jon Favreau (Elf, Zathura, Swingers), himself an avowed hardcore fan of the Marvel Comics' character, jumped at the chance to helm this ambitious project, the first to be fully produced by Marvel Studios. Spearheaded by Avi Arad, Marvel Studios is a production company all its own, which secured a little over 500 million dollars in financing, in order to start putting out its own properties (which also include Hulk, Thor, and the Avengers, amongst many others), in the hope that the well established cachet of its repertoire will carry enough momentum to earn its money back in spades, whith Paramount as a main distributor.
Iron Man being the first of these projects (The Incredible Hulk followed in June), Marvel Studios took a major gamble in spending almost half of its financed studio budget, in releasing its movie. Thankfully, the movie was a roaring opener for this past summer film season, and the studio's future seems secure...for now.
Robert Downey Jr. is an absolute delight as Tony Stark, providing his trademark wit to fit this character, known in the comic books for his promiscuity, driven sense of duty and patriotism, and a taste for booze -- lots of it. Some would say that Downey's past problems may reflect the character he portrays, while others would say he was born to play this role.
In this writer's opinion, Downey Jr. is a perfect fit as Stark, and provides the best interpretation of the original comic book character brought to the big screen, out of all the Marvel titles currently in film form (with Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier from the X-Men series a very close second.)
Oscar winner Terrence Howard provides some support to Downey's character, as James "Rhodey" Rhodes, an army colonel whose friendship with Stark saves his life a few times during the course of the movie, and acts as a sounding board to Stark's genius.
(Note: In Iron Man comics, Rhodey goes on to become the second Iron Man, War Machine)
Gwyneth Paltrow does a fair job in this film, which is a refreshing turn from her usual portrayals of period ladies, or historical romantic characters. She has several funny moments in the film, and her comic timing makes you look forward to the sequel, which at this point is simply unavoidable.
As for Jeff Bridges, his role as friend-turned-nemesis could have used more pow. By the end of the movie, he only comes off as a business executive who happened to find the keys to daddy's car, yet doesn't know what to do with his newfound power. By the time the movie's villain meets his typical untimely demise, the audience has already yawned repeatedly, if it wasn't already bored with the character to begin with. Unfortunately, the usual villain from the comics, The Mandarin, would have dated the story, as it originally reflected Cold War tension, this no longer being the case.
The film's visual effects, provided by no less than three different F/X houses (ILM chief among them), take precedence in this movie, which makes the overall package quite appealing, as it provides the wow effect most summer audiences flock to in this day and age.
Iron Man Bonus Features
This two-disc DVD set is a treat for any hardcore fan of Iron Man comics; some of the features provide an in-depth look into the history of the character, with interviews with the creme de la creme of Marvel Comics' roster of writers and artists (notably current names such as Warren Ellis, Adi Granov, and editor in chief Joe Quesada). Along with many other interviewees, they help bring into context the elements which helped make the movie a reality.
Also included is a very well produced segment entitled "I Am Iron Man", which takes director Jon Favreau through the steps of pre-production, into filming, then into the tedious and labour intensive process of post-production, a Herculean task in this case, given the sheer amount of visual effects involved in the film.
This movie is recommended for all fans of the comic book, but also for any action film enthusiast, who happens to be itching for a bit of quality acting, albeit in the humor/tongue-in-cheek vein.
