MANILA, Philippines?Move over, Bruce Wayne. Playboy billionaire Tony Stark, the engineering wunderkind from MIT, has arrived?and, despite some personal demons (both his parents perished in a violent accident), he doesn?t brood as much.
In fact, with the brilliantly quick-witted Robert Downey Jr. inside Iron Man?s gold-and-red titanium alloy-protected armor, Hollywood?s latest ?conflicted? superhero wears his heart on his ironclad sleeve?with a great sense of humor to boot!
In director Jon Favreau?s screen version of the comic-book hero, Stark Industries? easygoing heir finds himself hostaged in the Afghan desert for three months by terrorists who are eyeing world domination?with the help of the Jericho missile they order their brilliant captive to make!
Victimized by the very weapons he himself created, the irony isn?t lost on Tony?and something stirs in him: His conscience and his heart?which have literally become vulnerable to the unremovable shrapnel lodged in his body, sustained only by a chest plate that acts as a cardiac regulator.
However, instead of making the missile, Stark creates invincible armor that becomes key to his escape?and the inspiration for his rebirth, as the invincible Iron Man! But, bigger trouble awaits the new hero back home, and Tony is soon faced with the predicament of separating friends from foes among business partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and confidant Jim Rhodes. ?Not to mention the humongous villain, Iron Monger, who?s raring to make a dent in Iron Man?s metallic armor! Being a superhero is not a walk in the park!
Viewers will gobble up the rousing spectacle and screen magic Favreau conjures up on the screen?from the repulsor rays Iron Man fires from the palms of his gauntlets and the uni-beam projector on his chest to the flight technology he has developed. On point of performance, the production?s first-rate cast brings substance and intelligence to the characters they play. Moreover, they bring credibility and depth to the movie?s thematically relevant?but not heavy-handed?war-is-wrong advocacy.
Downey is brilliant as the gifted but flawed protagonist?a case of art imitating life??who grabs at his chance for redemption. It?s a tribute to the actor?s immense talent that he keeps moviegoers riveted even in scenes where he interacts only with the adorable robots who help fine-tune his cool gadgets.
Certainly, the next actor who will be tapped to wear Iron Man?s red-and-gold armor will have huge shoes to fill.
Adding more thespic prestige are the sassy Paltrow, the straitlaced Howard and the nefariously smooth Bridges. (A word of advice: Don?t leave until after the credits to see an epilogue cum sequel teaser that has Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury, who invites Stark to join the superhero group, The Avengers!)
It might have taken creator Stan Lee?s Howard Hughes-inspired superhero 45 years before he could finally make the big leap from the pages of Marvel?s popular comic book series to the silver screen, but Iron Man?s film debut couldn?t come at a better time?when the advances of modern technology have become prodigiously capable of bringing Stark?s scientific mumbo-jumbo to scorching life, giving the enigmatic hero an eye-popping cinematic rendering!
