Iron Man
The first Iron Man was certainly going to be “The Gamble Movie” of 2008.
I’ve given it that title because it was a film directed by Jon Favreau, who had
previously helmed such family-friendly films as “Zathura” and “Elf” starring
Will Ferrel. The actor chosen to play Iron Man had never starred in or
headlined a summer blockbuster before, and with his fair share of hits and
misses over the years (as well as widely-publicized personal problems) Robert
Downey Jnr didn’t look like the safest bet to carry a “Summer Superhero
Blockbuster”. And on top of all that… who was Iron Man? The majority of
movie goers had not heard of this comic book character prior to the film and
his image and concept were somewhat different from the likes of Spiderman,
Batman or the X-Men.
However, the film went ahead and Iron Man was a huge surprise in more
ways than one. It was a great film; thrilling, action-packed, intelligent and
funny. Robert Downey Jnr fueled his brilliant performance with imagination and
wit, launching a resurgence for himself as an actor not seen since the likes of
Johnny Depp in “Pirates…” or John Travolta in “Pulp Fiction”.
Downey Jnr plays the multi-faceted Tony Stark; billionaire businessman,
doting playboy, brilliant engineer and asshole. He designs weapons for the
military, inheriting the legacy and continuing the tradition started years ago
by his father, an enterprising inventor. Stark is ridiculed and attacked by the
press for his support of the US military’s presence in Afghanistan, but despite
this he travels there to personally demonstrate the power of one of his
weapons.
While being transported via convoy, Stark and his host soldiers are
attacked by militants. The troops are all killed, but Stark survives and is
taken prisoner. As he awakens, finding himself in a cave, Stark discovers he’s
being held by a group of “freedom-fighters” who have been victims of the
weapons he designed. Instead of killing him, they want to tap into his genius
and force him to build a powerful weapon for them... but Stark has other plans.
He starts constructing a suit, fueled by a power cell he created to keep his
heart beating, as it was almost destroyed in the convoy attack. Once his suit
is made, Stark escapes and returns to the US. Due to his brush with death,
Stark comes back a changed man and makes a radical decision to stop making
weapons completely. Several times, he is approached by a man who calls himself
Agent Phil Coulson from the ‘Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and
Logistics Division’. He wants to debrief Stark on his escape, but the
billionaire keeps avoiding him.
To get away from all the attention he would have previously lapped up,
Stark goes into exile and decides to refine the suit he created while held
captive. Slowly and unsurely, Stark constructs his suit and becomes Iron
Man. He can fly, shoot weapons from his hands and has a direct link to his home
computer system inside his helmet. His suit is once again made possible by the
power cell keeping him alive, but that has its limits.
New enemies emerge from the shadows to take on Iron Man, but of course
he smashes them all to smithereens! At the end of the film Tony Stark confesses
to the world that he is Iron Man
* Post-Credit Scene – at this point, “The Avengers” had not been
green lit as a movie, but the studio behind Iron Man was certainly hoping it
would happen…one day. The first tie-in hinting at a possible Avengers movie
happens at the end of the credits for Iron Man; a tactic which would be added
onto the end of the four following films. In this scene, Stark returns to his
huge mansion after confessing to the press he was Iron Man. But he’s not alone
in his home. A man dressed in black steps out of the shadows, unknown to Stark
and asks “You think you’re the only superhero in the world?” Stark asks the man
to identify himself, so he announces he is Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
which we assume is the acronym they finally came up with for the Strategic
Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. Fury speaks again
““I’m here to talk to you about The Avenger Initiative”. END OF SCENE *
Comments
Post a Comment