Invincible: A Look Back at Iron Man

Welcome back to the show, folks! I’m glad to see that you haven’t given up on me quite yet!

DAY 1:

Hey, do you guys remember Catwoman? What about Elektra? Ghost Rider? Well, what if I told you that these sad excuses for movies came out in the same four year period as both Fantastic Four films, X-Men: The Last Stand, Superman Returns, and Spider-Man 3? As far as quality is concerned, these films range from “It was okay” to “Kill it with fire.” 

Well... Fuck.

Not since 2004’s Spider-Man 2 had a movie truly transcended the many pitfalls that most superhero films pre-2008 were subject to: shoddy CGI, incoherent plots, dumb villains with no motive, no meaningful resolution with hopes of kick-starting a franchise... the list goes on and on.

Movies before 2008, and Green Lantern.

The moral of the story is that nerd cinema went through a bit of a dry spell there for a minute. Sure, we had Nolan’s Batman Begins in 2005, but that movie didn’t resonate with me the same way that Spider-Man did at the time.* Then Iron Man flew onto the scene in May of 2008, and pop culture as we know it was changed forever.

The build up to the release of Iron Man was, for lack of a better word, perfect. Like most mainstream America, I didn’t know much about the character or Iron Man. I learned what I could (everything) from Guru Maximus, and my excitement slowly began to grow. However, it wasn't until I saw this trailer that I was completely sold on the premise. The trailer exuded a level of coolness never before seen in a superhero movie. Every quip (“Good god, you’re a woman!”), every clip (Holy shit, he just broke the sound barrier!), and every piece of music (AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Audioslave) helped sell the idea that Iron Man wasn’t your typical, angst-riddled superhero. From the very beginning, Iron Man was special, and had an identity all its own. What's more, this flick was about to change everything I thought I knew about the comic book game.

What They Did Right

The Casting

Oscar nominated actor Robert Downey Jr. Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow. Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges. Oscar nominated actor Terrance Howard. The cast list for this film reads like an Oscar-bait movie about a blind/deaf man who teaches the world to love through the power finger painting. At the time, Marvel was an unproven studio, and thus couldn’t go after the huge, recognizable action stars that we would expect in a film like this. Rather, Marvel decided to fill the cast with pedigree actors who could bring these characters to life in a meaningful way. Almost seven years later, it’s hard to imagine any of these folks being replaced as their respective characters.

Well, most of them, anyway...

Clark Gregg

This man gets his own, separate section. Gregg (aka Agent Phil Coulson) has been the heart and the glue of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since his inception in this film. In his very brief scenes, Gregg is able to create a likable, earnest and endearing character that could flow freely from franchise to franchise. Plus he has the honor of introducing the audience to the agency of S.H.I.E.L.D.! Not bad for what was supposed to be a small role in this lone film.

Look at him! He's adorable! Like a toddler dressed in daddy's clothes!

The Man in the Suit

Tony only suits up 4 times in the entire movie. That’s it. For a movie called Iron Man, one would expect that he practically lives in the thing, yet I’ve never once heard anybody complain about the lack of Iron Man in Iron Man. There’s not a single point in the movie necessitating me to stare at my watch until the suit came back on the screen. Instead, the folks at Marvel, Jon Favreau and, most importantly, Robert Downey Jr. made Tony Stark the most lovable dick-bag on the planet. Instead of a crying Peter Parker or a brooding Bruce Wayne, we were treated to a smartly written, mostly hilarious, well-conceived character that I genuinely love spending time with. Marvel made a decision very early on that continues to serve them well to this day: these movies need to be as much about the character as it does about the spectacle.

"Ooooooh, that's where I'm going wrong."

The Treasure Hunt

This was back when the Easter Eggs of the MCU actually required people to, you know, look for them. Captain America’s shield. The reference to the 10 rings. The Roxxon Corporation. The reference to Iron Man being Tony Stark’s body guard. It was a lot more fun and rewarding to find these Easter Eggs on my own instead of being force-fed them by a studio trying desperately to expand their universe. *coughcoughStephenStrangeinWinterSoldiercoughcough*

The Tag

Marvel has used their post credit sequences in a number of different ways over the years. Some are used as brief teases for the next film, some are used as jokes, and one was even used an actual teaser trailer. But they all started here, with Sam Jackson wearing a trench coat and an eye-patch, coming to talk to Tony Stark about the Avenger Initiative. The notion of an interconnected cinematic universe was unheard of, but the utterance of that single line was enough to ignite the excitement of every nerd, geek, and dork around the world.

Grab your motherfuckin' super suit. We got work to do.

If I sat here and listed everything that was great about this movie, I would be here well into my Thor retrospective. Since time is a factor today, I’ll just move right along to the glaring flaws that piss me off about this flick.

What They Did Wrong

The Entire Climax

Oscar nominated actor Robert Downey Jr. Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow. Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges. Oscar nominated actor Terrance Howard. And not a single goddamn one of them decided to act during the apex of the film. Everything from the dialogue to the execution was pretty atrocious compared to the rest of the movie. You know how you would play with dolls/action figures as a kid and you would narrate everything you were doing and did stupid voices for each of your little people? That’s exactly what watching the final battle between Iron Man and Iron Monger is like.

Actual scene from the movie.

The Lame Villain

I have nothing against Jeff Bridges or his portrayal of Obadiah Stane. However, with Iron Monger, Marvel set a bad precedent of killing off villains after a single movie without developing them in any meaningful way. Stane’s motivation was muddled at best and a cliché at worst (“I wants all da monies!”). His suit was relatively impractical and inspired chuckles, rather than menace, with his launch sequence. And let’s not forget Raza! You remember Raza! He was the guy Marvel set up to be the Mandarin and ultimately did nothing with him.

That's okay. Even he barely remembers.

… And that’s pretty much it! Let’s face it, Iron Man is a really solid flick, and was the best introduction to the MCU that we could have hoped for.

Final Thoughts

I went to see the midnight showing of Iron Man with a small band of friends on May 2^nd, 2008, about a month before I graduated high school. This is one of the last movies my clan saw as a group before we went our separate ways. We got jobs, went to school, dated, “grew up.” We started to drift apart as the real world began encroaching on our youth. Ironically, this is the only MCU film I have seen with Guru Maximus. Watching Iron Man immediately transports me back to that night and that simpler time; a time when I wanted nothing more than to share the experience of watching movies the way that my elders shared their experiences with me. It is for this reason that Iron Man will always hold a special place in my heart.

So where does Iron Man rank on my list of MCU Films?

1.

2.

3.

4. Iron Man

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Surprised? I certainly was.

END OF DAY 1

Thank you to all of my readers!

Bear with me folks; I’m still trying to figure out how I want to format these things.

Do you agree with my ranking? Are there any great moments or errant flaws that I missed? Did I use ironically correctly? Did I use too many pictures? Let me know in the comments below!

Be kind to each other.

-James

*I meant absolutely no disrespect to Batman Begins. I love that movie and count it as one of the best comic book movies of all time. So please, don't yell at me in the comments for pissing on the flick or on the director. That was not my intention, You may now return to sucking off Christopher Nolan.