{🚨SPOILERS🚨}: Directed by Jon Favreau, Iron Man follows a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), who conducts weapons tests overseas until terrorists kidnap him to force him to build one of his most devastating weapons. Instead, he builds an armored suit and upends his captors. Returning to America, Stark refines the suit and uses it to combat crime and terrorism.
So this is where it all began. The film that started a decade-long story that would soar to unimaginable heights that I think no one could have ever predicted back in 2008. After 13 years does the first entry of the MCU still hold up? Yes, yes it does.
Iron Man remains a solid solo film on its own and gave us a hero’s journey that we have seen before, but did it in a really interesting way. Iron Man also stands out as one of the most mature films of the early MCU, having tones and themes that we are more accustomed to now in comic book films, but this was one of the earliest.
This was also the film that showed that Marvel didn’t just have to be geared towards kids or people who like corny films, that it can be geared toward everyone. This film showed that it could be taken seriously and have a story and characters that are relevant and people can latch on to.
Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. together brought to life one of the most interesting and iconic characters in all of Marvel and gave us a classic origin story. Tony Stark is a fascinating character that starts his journey as a selfish egotistical billionaire that upon first glance you’d never think would ever be a hero. And at the time there wasn’t really any superhero film that had the protagonist not be a pure individual from the get-go or at least start not start out being morally good. There have certainly been heroes that started out with flaws but not to the degree that Tony Stark had.
Robert Downey Jr. perfectly nails the early traits of the character in comics as he is introduced in such a big way, and we get our first looks at the other characters in the film like James Rhodes (Terrence Howard) an Air Force officer and best friend to Tony, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) Stark’s personal assistant and budding love interest, and Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) Stark’s business second-in-command, mentor, and friend until later on in the film.
We get a good look into his life and the people in it before things take a dark turn, when Tony changes after being captured by the terrorist group the Ten Rings and witnesses his own weapons in the hands of these terrorists being used on young American soldiers and innocent civilians in Afghanistan. He really sees his own personal faults because of this, as well as having to be constantly on death’s door after being severely wounded in the attack that got him captured.
He meets Yinsen (Shaun Tobb), a fellow captive doctor, who implants an electromagnet into Stark’s chest to keep the shrapnel shards that wounded him from reaching his heart and killing him. Together the two are forced by the group lead by Raza al-Wazar (Faran Tahir) to recreate one of Stark’s deadliest creations but instead the two work to make a powerful electric generator called an arc reactor to power Stark’s electromagnet and a prototype to aid in their escape.
When they are building this they get to bond with each other and here we get to see two really great performances from Robert Downey Jr. and Shaun Tobb. Their interactions with each other are honestly one of the most overlooked and underrated of the MCU and I really don’t get why people don’t often talk about them.
Also in these sequences, we get to see how truly smart and inventive he is as he creates the arc reactor and the suit using a box of scraps. We’d see more of his genius later in the film but this is where I feel Tony really showed what he was capable of with so little to work with.
During their eventual escape, Yinsen sadly ends up sacrificing himself to divert the Ten Rings who discover what they are doing while Stark’s prototype suit powers up. The armored Stark battles his way out of the cave to find the dying Yinsen, then burns the Ten Rings’ weapons in anger and flies away, crashing in the desert and destroying the suit.
This was a truly satisfying action sequence that was fueled by emotion from both the character and the audience watching. You love seeing him kick ass in this suit and bring hell to his captors before his eventual escape and rescue by Rhodes.
When he returns to the states we see him begin his great change as a person, as he shuts down manufacturing weapons despite protests from Obadiah Stane, who advises Stark that this may ruin Stark Industries and his father’s legacy. Little does Tony know that it was Stane who was giving Stark Industries weapons to the Ten Rings and was staging a coup to replace Stark as Stark Industries’ CEO by hiring the Ten Rings to kill him.
In his home workshop, Stark builds a sleeker, more powerful version of his improvised armor suit as well as a more powerful arc reactor for it and his chest, one he has Pepper Potts assist with, allowing the two to bond several times throughout the film.
In comics Pepper Potts was never really a character I felt at all invested in, but the way she is written in this film along with Gwyneth Paltrow’s dedicated performance made me feel invested in her as a character and a person. You see that she is someone who really cares for Tony even when Tony doesn’t realize it yet and I like how their relationship felt natural and mature. Before them in most comic book films we pretty much had childhood friends becoming romantically involved or love at first sight so this was a great changeup.
Tony of course begins testing out his new designs under wraps and I have to say I love these sequences especially for the visuals and how it is all shown to us rather than told. It really shows the ingenuity and genius of Tony as well as sometimes offer some funny scenes when things don’t go as he expected.
Helping him along is his AI JARVIS (Paul Bettany) who has excellent chemistry with Tony as they bounce off each other perfectly. My favorite of all the sequences would definitely have to be his first test flight, which is enjoyable and exciting as it gets closer to the Iron Man armor we know from comics. All the sequences looked great visually, featuring effects and cinematography that holds up really well for 2008.
And once again I have to praise Robert Downey Jr.’s performance in this part of the film as he really plays the part of genius perfectly but also shows that he has fun while doing it.
At a charity event held by Stark Industries, Tony is informed that his company’s weapons were recently delivered to the Ten Rings and are being used to attack Yinsen’s home village, Gulmira. Stark dons his new armor with the red and gold and flies to Afghanistan, where he saves the villagers and gets further payback on his captors. This is perhaps the best action scene in the entire film as we get to see Tony kick ass in the suit and use a number of gadgets to dispatch the terrorists, including his iconic repulsors. It is both visually and emotionally satisfying, giving us some exhilarating action and really great effects that again hold up really well.
Also, the music by Ramin Djawadi is at its best here. Overall the entire score is great but it’s definitely this scene in particular that I think it’s the best.
This action sequence is followed by an exhilarating chase sequence involving Tony and two F-22 Raptors. It’s during this that Rhodes finds out Tony’s secret, and an intense sequence full of tension occurs that ends with a bit of a funny punch line. Terrence Howard as James Rhodes would later be replaced by Don Cheadle (who I personally think is better) but I will say he did do a great job in this film performance-wise and shares great chemistry with Robert Downey Jr. all the way through the film.
Pepper also learns Tony’s secret, and we see Tony has finally accepted his new path in wanting to redeem his selfish nature and dedicate his life to a higher purpose. The way his growth is written in this film is so good and honestly the narrative overall is really well done, being driven by great performances and direction of Jon Favreau.
However, I will say things do dip in quality when we get to the third act. Jeff Bridges for the most part has a great performance in the film and gives off some great charisma even when he is revealed as the villain. While his motives are simple I do think he is decent as a first villain for the MCU, but the problem is what they end up doing with him in the third act along with the Ten Rings group. Stane ends up subduing the group, treating them as a means to an end when they were set to be great antagonists for Tony to face off against for most of the film. This definitely felt like a waste and I wish they had more of a role in the third act rather than be shoved aside.
Stane goes on to create his own armor and become the Iron Monger (like in the comics) and while that is not necessarily a bad thing it feels rather rushed and his personality ends up changing dramatically, becoming more of a generic video game villain by the end of the film. This is the same problem that Ares had in Wonder Woman, although the difference here is that the Iron Monger look and effects hold up really well.
Stark and Stane have their face-off, and while the effects are good and the action looks good too, I feel the setting of the final fight wasn’t good. It’s dark for most of it and they end up fighting in what felt like isolated areas that made the fight feel restricted and not going all out. The dialogue also ends up being rather poor except from Tony, which again may be due to how rushed this whole sequence is.
He does end up defeating Stane but it never feels like much was accomplished in terms of Tony’s journey. What I feel would have been better is that, rather than Stane being the one to wear the armor and fight Tony, it should have been Raza, who felt more like a stronger villain and would have invoked stronger emotions for the final fight. Even though that doesn’t happen in comics I feel that would have made more sense and added more emotional weight to the final fight.
The finale definitely saves the film from ending on a disappointing note, as Tony reveals to the world that he is Iron Man, a moment that apparently was improvised by Robert himself but would forever change the MCU going forward.
We also get our first end credits scene where, after being subtly teased about SHIELD by an agent named Phil Coulson, we then meet SHIELD’s director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who privately meets with Tony to discuss the “Avengers Initiative”. This was something no one had ever seen before and probably confused a lot of people in 2008 if they actually saw the end credits, but this was the beginning of something grand to come that Marvel had planned years in advance.
So despite a weak third act, Iron Man does remain a strong film in other areas, having a great cast, great action, really good effects and cinematography that holds up well, and of course some great music. It may have issues but the film still stands tall as a great solo film and one that showed the world that Marvel was ready to be taken more seriously as they adapted new characters to the big screen. I’m going to give Iron Man an A-.
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