KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: * * *
Verdict: You'll believe Robert Downey Jr can fly. Just not quite high enough.
Now
this one's out of the way, can't wait for the Iron Man movie. Because
despite the title, this isn't really an Iron Man movie -
it's a Tony
Stark movie, one about the guy who through sheer technical bravura and
financial clout turns himself into a man of steel.
Well yes, so did Batman. But whereas that last Batman Begins reworked the superhero's origin story into something thrilling that
went beyond just how Bruce Wayne started working nights, this one makes
its inception of Iron Man nearly the whole point of the exercise.
Which,
for the most part, is fun enough, especially due to the unlikely
casting of Robert Downey Jr as Stark, the boozy engineering genius
arms-dealing playboy billionaire turned servo-powered robo-warrior.
Downey's manic wit is a special effect in itself and casting him as
that rare superhero alter-ego - one with an actual ego - proves
inspired.
So does the presence of Bridges as his duplicitous
partner in the Stark industrial empire and Paltrow, who brings some wry
dignity to the role of sexy secretary, despite being named Pepper Potts.
But
after Downey's Stark has got the hang of the flying suit thing, Iron
Man really doesn't have a lot to do. Sure there's some revenge to
wreak, the inevitable nemesis showdown and a springboard for the sequel
to bounce off.
But
Iron Man
is a movie of much set-up and hardly enough pay-off.
There
is, of course, an action sequence or two but most are over in a fairly
dull flash of CGI and panelbeating noises. Those start after Stark
heads to Afghanistan (in the original comic it was Vietnam) for a
weapons demonstration where he is captured by Talebanesque locals and
ordered to make them one of his new rocket systems despite having
acquired a dodgy ticker.
Despite his captors' video surveillance,
he knocks up a prototype Iron Man suit instead, uses it to escape and
has a change of heart about his place at the top of the military
industrial complex.
Bad move, as it turns out. Having swooped
back into Afghanistan's troubles in his finished outfit and done his
bit for the War on Terror, he returns to finds himself in a corporate
conflict with Bridges' treacherous Obidiah Stane, all of which
escalates to a clash of the robo-titans the likes of which haven't been
seen since ... well,
Transformers
last year, actually.
It's a lightweight story, but
Iron Man
still offers plenty to enjoy, especially as this particular Marvel
comics character hasn't already suffered through multiple screen
incarnations.
So it's a refreshing start to what is about to
become a very crowded superhero genre in 2008. But disappointingly, it
does only what's required of it - open the franchise - and not a lot
more.
Russell Bailie
Cast
: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terence Howard
Director
: Jon Favreau
Rating
: M (medium level violence)
Running time
: 126 mins
Screening
: SkyCity, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas