Think Wink.

Yesterday (05/01/2008) has to be a day for the ages. First of all, I was able to see a friend that I hadn’t talked to (in person) for about three years! You really don’t realize how much you miss that person until a gap of that span is in place. It was truly a great delight. Second, I saw Iron Man the movie! The following is my review of the movie. Be warned, there will be spoilers.

The movie opens up with Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., in a military convoy in Afghanistan. The convoy is attacked and Tony Stark is taken capture. During the attack and capture, Stark was injured by a mortar which lodged shrapnel into his chest, slowly inching their way toward Stark’s heart. This scene does a great job of setting up the character of Tony Stark. He is a funny, witty guy with alcoholic beverage in hand. He exudes confidence and a likability about himself. RDJ does this all through out the movie and in my opinion really nails the character.

From there the movie flashes back 36 hours and we are exposed to who Tony Stark is in full. He is a guy who doesn’t take anything seriously but himself, even missing an award ceremony presented by his friend James Rhodes. He is a womanizer, taking a reporter home to be with him and then dropping her the next day. When he is supposed to be on a plane to fly to Afghanistan, he delays the flight by 3 hours to work on a car (a beautiful car at that!). Then to make Rhodes forget about it, Stark gets the man drunk and watches his flight attendants pole-dance! Tony Stark is not the kind of guy I would like to be friends with, just a benefactor of his billions!

The flashback concludes with a demonstration of an amazing missile called the Jericho, it delivers multiple little bomblets that do lots of damage. In captivity, fellow captive, inserts a magnet into Stark’s chest to keep the shrapnel from piercing the vital organ and killing Stark. In return for allowing Yinsen (the captive) to save Stark’s life, Stark is to build the terrorists, Raza and Abu Bakaar and troops, the Jericho missile system. After torturing Stark, they showing their stock pile of weapons that Stark’s company, a weapons manufacturing company, produced (the mortar that injured Stark was built by Stark Industries). Stark feigned to agree but begins to work on a power source for his magnet, which is currently attached to a car battery. But Stark has bigger plans for the small chest piece. This will also power the Mk. 1 gray armor!

Stark dons the gray armor and destroys the camp and its weapons. Stark’s “savior” and friend Yinsen is killed in trying to buy Stark time to complete the armor. This scene is hilarious and full of action. The Mk. 1 armor is both ominous and goofy looking–I love it!

When Stark is rescued and returns to the US, he changes the direction of Stark Industries from weapons tech to something else, the device powering his magnet. But he is wanting to use it to provide power for the poor and such, not as a weapon. Also, he decides to remake the armor that he built. Thus providing us with the Mk. 2 armor, a sleeker, faster version of Mk. 1. It is silver, not gray. This sequence in the movie is really funny and also begins to move the plot along as we find out that Stark is loosing control of his company after he unilaterally decided to shift Stark Industries’ direction. The plot thickens.

After running his tests on Mk. 2, Stark produces his polished, red and gold Mk. 3. He also learns that his partner in running the company, Obadiah Stane (played by Jeff Bridges), is behind Stark loosing his company. Stane, contra Stark’s desires, is selling weapons to the terrorists under the table. Suddenly, Stark’s mission falls into place for this armor: fight to bring piece to the world, and one part of that is to destroy his own weapons that the terrorists are using. When he learns that the same group who captured him is attacking a small village, Stark dons the Mk. 3 and takes off. He flies to Afghanistan and destroys the terrorists and their weapons. Then he has a brief run-in with the US Air Force. RDJ really shines in this scene because the anger at Stane and what Stane is doing really shows.

At the same time Stark is going around the world to destroy his own weapons, Raza, the guy who captured Stark, shows Obadiah Stane the remnants of the Mk. 1 armor and its specs. We also find out that Stane is in league with this guy and Stane was the one who told the terrorists where to find Stark. Stane has the camp wiped out, Raza included (or may be not!) and takes the Mk. 1 back to the US and begins building his own version.

Stark, after having to convincer her of his new-found mission, sends his lovely assistant “Pepper” Pots to find out where Stane is shipping the weapons to so that he can go and destroy them as Iron Man. During her inquiry into the shipping records she finds Stane’s involvement in Stark’s abduction. Stane walks into her office and nearly catches her sneaking around. After finding out what she was looking at and also that the scientists working on his version of Mk.1 can find out how Stark built the power source for the armor, Stane takes the new chest device from Stark, which not only powers Mk. 3 but also keeps him from dying, and uses it to power his Iron Monger armor. This piece was more powerful than the one Stark used in Afghanistan for Mk. 1; it was built that way because Stark wanted to use it for Mk. 2 and 3. Luckily, Pepper hadn’t discarded the piece from Mk. 1. Stark uses this weaker power piece to power Mk. 3 and goes to confront Stane. At this point in the movie, the pace and intensity of the movie pick up. Obadiah really shows his evil side, especially when he is in the office with Pepper as she is snooping around.

She found several SHIELD agents, who wanted to speak to Stark about Afghanistan, and brought them to arrest Stane but found the Iron Monger armor fully functional. Monger and Iron Man go at it in a very intense fight sequence that I really must say was well done. When the fight was over, we see Stark with his chest piece no longer glowing, its energy was used up during the fight. That bit I loved because having enough power is always a problem for Iron Man in the comics.

At this point in the movie, the lights came on and the screen went back to the little random images that are on the screen between movies. No credits, nothing. My friend and I thought, “Wow. What happens? Can they do that in a movie?” Then immediately, we see Stark getting gussied up for a press conference by Pepper and being prepped by one of the SHIELD agents who tried to arrest Stane with Pepper Pots. Stark goes out there to try to deny him being the Iron Man and that it is a body guard–the classic story from the comics. However, not wanting to loose this limelight, Stark comes clean and the movie ends.

To me, this movie was a good as Transformers from last summer. It blows away the Spider-Man trilogy as well as the X-Men trilogy. It is better than Superman Returns and may be even Batman Begins. I was at the edge of my seat the whole time. The acting was superb, especially RBJ and Jeff Bridges. The effects shots were amazing and the plot was very good. I was very pleased at how well the Stane story was stuck too even though it was PTS and not booze that cost Stark the company. How they do the booze story in the future I don’t know. But this story was well done. The locations and sets were amazing. Jon Favreau did an amazing job. My hat is off to Marvel Studios for their first full-length, big budget production. I am more encouraged about seeing The Incredible Hulk later this summer.

In the next post, I want to look at the movie from a Christian perspective as I think some points in the movie make great analogies to biblical truths.

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