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Let’s talk about the new Iron Man movie.

This isn’t gonna be a summary of every detail of the movie, compared with appropriate aspects of the comics, to show just how different the two were–because it’s not important. This is a good movie. No. This is a great movie. Robert Downey Jr. is amazing and I couldn’t have asked for anyone else to play Tony Stark. Everything about him just felt like it. The man felt human. It didn’t have the over-the-top epic drama that was filled through nook and cranny that some of the lesser (yet not campy) comic book movies had. This movie clearly wasn’t taking itself THAT seriously, and that helped with some of the charm.

I find it comparable, in quality, to Batman Begins, which is probably one of the best comic book movies that have ever existed. It’s not the most faithful to what it’s derived from–but that’s just it, it’s derived from sources. But I’m not going to talk about that movie, I’m going to talk about this one.

Everyone who knows about Iron Man is probably vaguely familiar with his origin. I’m not entirely familiar with it, because I never read the fellow, but I do know¹ is that he got caught in an explosion, and got a piece of shrapnel lodged really close to his heart, etc. etc. etc.–the basics. Anyway, so this movie gives the origin, and him making the first big hulking metal suit and all that after being kidnapped by terrorists and being forced to make a missile (called “The Jericho”) for them with all of the supplies that they have on hand. All of which are Stark Industries, and there are a surprisingly large number of them.

This bothers Tony. A lot. Mostly because of the whole “hostage” thing, but also because it causes him to seriously reconsider his station in life, and a bunch of other things. It’s a pretty nifty shift.

But, Tony breaks out, and he’s eventually found and he holds a press conference saying that he’s gonna shut down the weapons area. Which doesn’t go over well. After that, the first armor gets found, and a new version is made. Which, because I want to, I’m going to call it X-Box. Because it is hueg.

While this is all going on, Tony is seen building and tweaking and breaking and tweaking his suit before finally deciding to take matters in his own hands and blowing shit up. Which wasn’t nearly as much as I would have liked, but there’s gonna be a sequel so maybe they’ll have more there.

It all culminates between Tony and X-Box, ending with the demise of the X-Box.

There’s also the obligatory romance subplot that exists between Pepper and Tony, but I’m not gonna bother with that, because you can basically look at any superhero movie and get that.

This is the part of this post where I start telling you what I actually liked and didn’t like about the movie.

What I Liked

They actually show Tony building his suit. I was worried about that. But they also showed a lot, in the previews, of Tony making the suit. He’s constantly tweaking, and upgrading it. They also show that he doesn’t get it right on the first go-round, that he has to fix odd little problems (that become plot points). You see every nook and cranny of the armor. Every little twitch and motion he does serves a purpose, you see little fins and pieces of metal slide into position to do a job. Even the way they show him trying to fly at first, is just amazing.

Tony is also a really human, and likable character. Even if he a shallow jackass in the beginning, he’s still really funny. All the little quirks about him, and the personality he keeps is just such…fun. I can’t really put it any other way. His indifference to thinks, the jokes he cracks, he’s total blatant assholery. I spent entirely too much time laughing at Tony during this movie.

The movie felt like a comic. It wasn’t, like I said, faithful to the comic, but the absurdly high level of technology within Tony’s house felt like Marvel. It was kind of nice. They didn’t try to make Tony confined within modern technology. Tony was so infinitely beyond modern technology that it would be impossible. Like I said. It really felt like Marvel, and that made it great.

Tony drank a lot. That just made me smile.

The music. Starting the movie with AC/DC, played by the people in the trucks, was fine. But then hearing Suicidal Tendencies’ Institutionalized in Tony’s shop made me just want to hug the man and share a drink with him. The non-band music was also pretty great too. Especially how it would cut out because the suit wasn’t working right. More laughter. It was a pretty funny movie, in general.

What I Didn’t Like

I didn’t have many problems with this movie, mostly because I’m not that familiar with the character, but there were a few things that bugged me.

Mainly, I was bugged by the fact that Jarvis became an AI system. I recall that Jarvis is the butler of Stark. However, they turned him into a British butler…AI. He has the qualities one might expected from a snarky British butler. I suppose arguments could be made for the change, and I’m more than willing to hear them, but I didn’t like it.

I’m also increasingly tired of romance subplots in a movie. Though this one was done in a much better way than Begins and some others, I’m just tired of seeing them pop up in movies.

Overall

I loved the movie. It made me all the more anxious for The Dark Knight especially since the newest preview for it for the…10th? time.

It also made me want to read Iron Man comics. Which I suppose is a good thing. That may have been the goal, to an extent. Because, man. I hate the Silver Age, but I really want to read EVERYTHING. Not just read Extremis again.

1. That is, from having read Iron Man: Extremis [↩]