5/2/08: Iron Man (2008)It’s interesting that Iron Man and The Hulk both have big-screen adventures coming out this summer. The two represent the greatest gulfs in the comic universe, with Iron Man—being military industrialist Tony Stark—often confronting The Hulk in pragmatic and logical ways. There are other writers who’d do a better job of discussing all that. The important thing is that now we have
Iron Man, and it lives up to all those teaser trailers that were littering the internet.
It was nerve-wracking to see how good the film was looking.
Iron Man seemed set to embrace Tony Stark as the anti-Commie hero of his early ’60s origins. The opening of the film—a long sequence before the title card—certainly sets up Stark as our kind of warlord. He’s palling around in Afghanistan with American soldiers who clearly admire the millionaire. That fun comes to an abrupt end, though. His convoy is attacked by terrorists who take Stark into custody.
That’s when we get the aforementioned title card, and a flashback that makes us like Stark even more. He’s in Vegas for some kind of honor, and banters with a typically vapid journalist who asks Stark how he enjoys being known as the “Merchant of Death.” He thinks that’s a pretty nifty nickname. Maybe it’s a little much when Stark is shown to keep a private plane full of stripping stewardesses, but that’s how he rolls to Afghanistan—where Stark demonstrates some new weaponry. His best lines there are also in the trailers:
“They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I prefer the weapon you only need to fire once.”
“Is it better to be feared or respected? I say—is it too much to ask for both?
No wonder those soldiers are so happy to be hanging out with Stark. The products of Stark Industries will be keeping them alive. The guy deserves all the stewardess/strippers he can get. But then we begin the superhero part of the movie, with Stark building his Iron Man armor while being held hostage by the dopey Islamic terrorists. This long sequence reminds us why Muslim nations haven’t contributed anything to modern technology outside of the suicide belt. (We stole that line, but that makes it no less true.)
From there,
Iron Man is a celebration of killing terrorists and traitors. Some film critics might try to tell you different. After all, the last thing Stark sees before the terrorists capture him is that they’re using his company’s technology. It’s still a stretch to say that
Iron Man is about the evil of American capitalism arming our enemies. Stark wants to get out of the munitions business after he escapes. That doesn’t mean he’s becoming the new George Soros.
As Stark declares, “I want to protect the people I put in harm’s way.” This involves Iron Man returning to Afghanistan and blowing up more terrorists. Really, the only disappointing thing about
Iron Man is a scene where our hero calmly walks away from an exploding enemy tank. That’s a bad cliché—but at least the camera lingers on the marvelous mayhem.
To the great disappointment of many critics, the film’s main villain—and this is hardly a SPOILER—isn’t presented as a typical capitalist. Tony’s business partner is simply a traitor. He’s the guy who sold the weapons to the terrorists. There wasn’t anything business-as-usual about that transaction. In a similar spirit,
Iron Man isn’t business-as-usual for Hollywood.
Make it your own: In
theaters now—and you won’t even mind that blatant Burger King product placement. It’s kind of patriotic, and the toys in the Burger King Kid’s Meals are really cool. The last line in the film is pretty awful, though.
