Movie Review: Iron Man - Grandparents.com

After he survives a life-threatening incident, a wealthy industrialist builds an armored suit and devotes himself to using technology to fight evil.

GENRE: Action-adventure fantasy

RELEASE DATE: May 2, 2008

RUNNING TIME: 126 minutes

VIOLENCE FACTOR: There's science fiction and military violence throughout, but it's the kind of stylized comic-book violence that shouldn't bother any but the youngest and most impressionable grandchildren, who aren’t really the audience for this film anyway.

BAD WORDS: One or two, hardly noticeable amid all the action

RACY? Some mild suggestiveness, but handled mindfully for the young audience

OTHER THINGS TO KNOW: Get ready for the onslaught: there are hundreds of toys based on the title character and many other merchandise promotions. Will some grandchildren want them? Is iron heavy?

CRITIQUE:
Your grandchildren have made believe they could fly like Superman, soar like Spider-Man, steer the Batmobile like Batman, and try out various cool superpowers like the X-Men. Next up for their active superheroic fantasy lives: pretending to don armor like Iron Man, a Marvel Comics-inspired fantasy-adventure and the summer's first big popcorn movie.

Robert Downey, Jr. — in an electrifyingly charming performance — stars as arms industrialist, inventor, and billionaire Tony Stark, who is kidnapped by terrorists and forced to build a high-powered bodysuit of armor, which he then uses to escape. Upon his return home, he reevaluates his life and decides to make a radical change in his values: He'll no longer be an enabler and create instruments of death. Instead, he'll see what he can do to help curtail the violence.

So he pledges to devote his company, Stark Industries, to protecting the world as Iron Man, clad in his bulletproof suit and now able to stop evildoers in their psychopathic tracks.

For kids, this is wish fulfillment of a high order, and there will almost certainly be more problems for them to watch Stark iron out in forthcoming sequels. That's not an unpleasant proposition, given that the charismatic and witty Downey has created a charming-in-spite-of-his-actions protagonist, and although the supporting cast is top-drawer — Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, and Terrence Howard — this is the Downey Show all the way.

Director Jon Favreau keeps the pacing brisk, but he refuses to let the admittedly impressive special effects overwhelm the anything-but-mindless narrative or its thematic concerns: Warfare and military power.

This is a fun ride, but it's also an action flick with something on its mind.

You may well find the Transformers-resembling climax a letdown after the funny and thoughtful lead-up to it. Yet it's likely to be your grandkids' favorite sequence. Perhaps a better name would’ve been Irony Man.

GP Rating System:
Three Grands = Bravo, don't miss it.
Two Grands = Good enough, don't dismiss it.
One Grand = Okay, even if we dis it.