The Score

The story of Iron Man was always going to be a slightly difficult one to bring to the silver screen. For starters, there’s the character of Tony Stark himself: a larger-than-life billionaire playboy with an eye for the ladies, ruthless charm and mercenary sensibilities. After undergoing a traumatic, life-changing experience, Stark’s world view is completely altered, his fundamental belief of who he is and the righteousness of what he does utterly reversed.

No easy thing to accomplish, especially for a modern audience that has little toleration for the (necessarily) slower-burning, more drawn-out nature of origin stories or franchise starters. Just look at the critical reception that Ang Lee’s Hulk and Brian Singer’s Superman Returns received from many quarters (not these, I hasten to add, I loved them both).

The entire film hangs on the shoulders of Stark; mess up the casting and it’s goodnight Vienna. Thank goodness, then, for the tenacity of director Jon Favreau and the bravery of Marvel in casting Robert Downey Jr., an actor many in Hollywood still see as a liability, in the central role.

Let’s not beat around the bush - Downey Jr. nails this part, and clearly had an absolute ball in doing so. Every cock-sure remark, ever sly look and deft verbal parry is perfect. Absolutely perfect. Yet he still manages to humanise a character that could so easily have been an unlikeable, two-dimensional jerk. Even before his ‘transformation’, you find yourself liking Stark, even though he’s, basically, almost completely amoral.

The supporting cast are all superb, Gwyneth Paltrow invests Pepper Potts with exactly the right blend of spice and sugar to make her a formidable counter-point for Stark’s brazen confidence; Jeff Bridges lurks, scowls and menaces as Obadiah Stane and Terrence Howard neatly holds his own as Stark’s best friend. Everyone plays their part and, unlike so many other big superhero franchises, no one is pushed out, no one acts from the fringes.

Tonally, Favreau has clearly worked hard to balance the film, giving the audience some wonderful comic moments (one moment with a fire-extinguishing robot is, in particular, laugh-out-loud funny) to balance what is, at times, quite a dark and violent film. I have heard some critics complain that the film contains too little action. Well… all I can say is perhaps they were watching a different film than I. We have our first explosion within about three minutes, and the action never lets up. Whether Stark is fighting terrorists in a hastily-concocted Mark 1 suit, gamely stretching the limits of his Mark 2 design or dogfighting with F-22s and scrapping with giant versions of himself - the action never lets up.

The special effects deserve almost no mention at all, because I never noticed them - which is the highest complement I can pay to an SFX team. Iron Man lives. He walks, leaps, fights and flies and you never doubt, not for a second, that it’s real, so engrossing and accomplished is the effects work.

I really should mention the score too, which is excellent. The Iron Man theme itself is a wonderful accompaniment for the film; a strutting, chugging riff of over-driven guitars and drums - the only way to express it is to say that if Downey’s Tony Stark was a piece of music, he’d sound like that.

Fans of the comic book will find much to love too - in-jokes and references abound. From sneaky little allusions to the War Machine storyline, explanations of Tony’s choice of suit colour and the introduction of S.H.I.E.L.D., there’s a lot in here for the fans. On which note - make sure you stay until the very end of the credits. I won’t say why, just make sure you do.

All in all simply, this film is a joy to watch, and I can’t wait for the already-announced (2010) sequel. Go see it, and revel in the best superhero movie since Batman Begins.

Jim