[REVIEW] Iron Man
May. 21st, 2008 03:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI caught Iron Man, the new Tony Stark biopic, with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lemurbouy recently and found myself decidedly impressed. It's not just a matter of production values. The casting is convincing (Robert Downey Jr. passes almost uncannily well for Stark, and Gwyneth Paltrow's portrayal near-love interest Pepper Potts is eye-catchingly interesting), Jon Favreau's direction is decidedly impressive, the special effects are top-notch, and I've been told on good authority that Iron Man's linguistic chops are astonishingly well-developed (not only do characters speak Arabic, but they speak the situationally right dialects of said and other languages). It's the plot that's truly remarkable.
Everyone who reads this blog knows that I'm quite skeptical of the good sense of licensing superpowered individuals to go off and fight supervillains as free agents responsible only to themselves. The Iron Man's Tony Stark is one of those superpowered individuals that I'm most suspicious about, on account of his publicized associations with right-wing American nationalism. That said, the film did a remarkable job of humanizing Stark, showing his road to Damascus conversion into someone who actually cared about the good of his fellow human beings. The reproduction of that famous press conference where he announced Stark Industries' conversion away from military production was powerful. I'm still surprised that I left the theatre thinking that Stark was a pretty good guy.
So, go see it. My only complaint about this film is that we'll have to wait years for the next installments. Here's to hoping that these next recreations will be as wonderful as this one.
lemurbouy recently and found myself decidedly impressed. It's not just a matter of production values. The casting is convincing (Robert Downey Jr. passes almost uncannily well for Stark, and Gwyneth Paltrow's portrayal near-love interest Pepper Potts is eye-catchingly interesting), Jon Favreau's direction is decidedly impressive, the special effects are top-notch, and I've been told on good authority that Iron Man's linguistic chops are astonishingly well-developed (not only do characters speak Arabic, but they speak the situationally right dialects of said and other languages). It's the plot that's truly remarkable. Everyone who reads this blog knows that I'm quite skeptical of the good sense of licensing superpowered individuals to go off and fight supervillains as free agents responsible only to themselves. The Iron Man's Tony Stark is one of those superpowered individuals that I'm most suspicious about, on account of his publicized associations with right-wing American nationalism. That said, the film did a remarkable job of humanizing Stark, showing his road to Damascus conversion into someone who actually cared about the good of his fellow human beings. The reproduction of that famous press conference where he announced Stark Industries' conversion away from military production was powerful. I'm still surprised that I left the theatre thinking that Stark was a pretty good guy.
So, go see it. My only complaint about this film is that we'll have to wait years for the next installments. Here's to hoping that these next recreations will be as wonderful as this one.
