Iron Man (2008)
Recently, I learned that my mom had never really seen any of the Marvel movies. Most people who are huge into cinema will generally scoff at the idea of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: after all, Martin Scorsese famously dismissed them as “not cinema”, and if there’s anything that self-described movie buffs love, it’s agreeing with famous people. I wonder if Martin remembers that he once voiced a meek, doormat of a puffer fish in Shark Tale? Do you think he considers that movie to be cinema? The world may never know.
Regardless, it should come as no surprise to any of you that I disagree with that notion, vocally. Anything that required writers, directors, actors, and crew members to put their heart and soul into deserves its place in the halls of cinema. I think very few cinematic endeavors can claim to do what Marvel movies do regularly - sell like gangbusters and inspire millions of people of all ages around the world to forget about life for a while and watch a cool guy or gal in a suit beat up some bad guys.
Like every powerhouse, though, you had to start somewhere, and for the MCU, Iron Man was the start of it all.
It may seem wild to think about now, but there was a time where Iron Man was a B-tier hero at best. While there were beloved runs like Devil In A Bottle, which ran in 1979, Iron Man was really only liked by the diehard comics crowd. The problem is, you can’t make a blockbuster with just that. However, much of the biggest names, like Spidey and the X-Men, had had their movie rights sold off for pretty damn cheap not long ago, in a desperate bid to keep the lights on at Marvel.
That’s why most of the Avengers, while now beyond household names, were almost entirely B-tier or lower. I mean, Guardians of the Galaxy, while Phase Two, was Marvel really digging deep to see what they could do with the universe they were building. Iron Man was obviously less of a hard sell than a talking raccoon and a kinda-talking tree, but it was up to Jon Favreau and Robert Downey, Jr. to make this movie a big hit.
What’s funny to think about now is that Marvel’s other movie at the time, the much more famous Incredible Hulk, ended up floundering. IT’s not even on Disney+, it’s such a dark spot in the history. I obviously think the movie is fine, and I LOVE Edward Norton, but it didn’t blow up like Feige and crew had hoped, while Iron Man launched into orbit at breakneck speed.
As for the movie itself, it’s an origin story. I’ll admit that I don’t know how faithful it is to the original origin, though I doubt it was the Taliban-esque Ten Rings that had Tony in captivity if it is. The original runs were more about the Cold War era, so I imagine we were more looking at scary red Soviets as villains. Who know? Not me. Either way, Tony gets kidnapped while showing off some military tech in the Middle East, and gets some shrapnel in his aorta for his troubles. He builds a device to hold off the shrapnel, then builds a big ol’ metal suit to escape.
The coolest thing about this first dip into the pond for Marvel is how grounded much of the tech is. It’s obviously a decent amount ahead of us, but every facet and face of the Iron Man suit looks believable. I found myself just adoring the suit up scenes, because it would show rivets being put in place, components locking together, and more. It made you feel like you could really wear one some day. Obviously, we’re not there yet, but still, the movie gives you that escapism. I don’t know if we have Favreau to thank for that or just the effects team, but either way, it totally sells our hero’s armor.
The villain is also a fun one, as the obvious villain, the leader of the Ten Rings, isn’t the real threat. I know the movie is 15 years old at this point, and half of the planet has seen it by now, but I still will maintain my lock on spoilers. I mean, I’m watching them right now because my mom hadn’t seen them, so those people still are out there!
What I will say is, even the villain is more of a grounded reality, especially in our modern era of megacorps and billionaire idiots. It’s almost as if the movie is acknowledging that the Ten Rings leader, Raza, is very much an old school villain, but the future is NOW, old man! We’re looking at the real villains, people who will happily stab people in the back for an extra bit of scratch.
In that way, Marvel launched its cinema empire by subverting the genre of comics right from the jump. Yes, there’s characters like Lex Luthor, but villains like that are few and far between compared to ones like the Green Goblin, Ronan the Accuser, and Thanos. It’s nice to know that the absolute monolith that is Marvel, while now under the watchful eye of one of those very megacorps, at least kicked off that winning streak with a down-to-earth villain and a flawed, believable hero.
Iron Man has the special distinction of being the genesis of modern comic book cinema (though technically, Blade should be getting that honor, but oh well), and proving that a comic book movie could do more than just draw in the hardcore crowd…
It could become a powerful legacy.
