Marvel's Avengers films are a very unique case as it's not a traditional movie franchise, it's almost a Frankenstein franchise. We have a series of films from different companies (Paramount, Universal, Disney), with a uniform continuity designed to lead up to the upcoming Avengers film, which will team up all of these superheroes to fight some unknown threat. It's made all the more complicated as most of these lead-up films are franchises onto themselves. It's not that dissimmilar to how Marvel's continuity works in the comics. Superheroes can appear in each others comics and team up, however, there's a difference between writing/drawing it and doing it in a film. The difference is $150-220 million per film.
This is a risky plan. If any one film where to flop, it could endanger the whole project, and, with the exception of The Hulk, all of these characters lack the pervasive non-geek awareness that Batman, Spider-Man, or the X-Men enjoy. The unenviable job of launching this grand experiment in corporate and artistic synergy ultimately fell on the shoulders of director John Favreau (Elf, Zathura) and his 2008 film Iron Man. A fun, functional film that follows formula a little stiffly at times, but has strong characterization and humor on it's side.
For the five people who haven't seen Iron Man, the film tells the story of brilliant scientist/CEO playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as he changes from a selfish, womanizing jerk into a slightly less selfish, womanizing jerk. His father was Howard Stark who was the Howard Hughes of the Marvel Universe and helped create the atomic bomb. It's a bit of a shadow for anyone, but Tony is a genius in his own right. The film starts off strong with Tony joking around with some soldiers in a Humvee somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan before being taken captive by terrorists. This in media res opening does a great job dolling out character information. After awakening, he learns that the terrorist group, known as The Ten Rings, are using weapons made by Stark's company to commit atrocities. Stark manages to escape by building a makeshift battle-suit. His escape is the best action beat in the film, possibly because it has the most immediate stakes, but we'll talk more about the action scenes in a minute. After Tony returns, he vows that his company will no longer make weapons. A move that angers his vice-president Obidaih Stane (Jeff Bridges) and his companies military liaison Col. Rhodes (Terrence Howard). And that's about 80% of the plot. Most of what follows is about how Stark want's to reshape his company and redeem his family legacy.
Most origin story films treat the actual "origin" as something of a burden to be gotten through as quickly as possible, but Iron Man turns it into a bit of an asset. Watching Tony building his Iron Man suits is a lot of fun, there's a Michael Crichton-esque fascination to it. It doesn't have the well-researched "realism" of a Crichton novel (I don't believe for a second that he can really fit into his later suits without carving out large parts of his calves, and back mussels and he'd burn off his feet too), but there is a boyish fascination in the testing and construction of the suits.
The real fascination is Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. He's funny and quippy where a lot of superhero's are brooding and, frankly, a little dull. Tony Stark would be right at home in a screwball comedy. This is especially evident in his relationship with his "girl friday" Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Their back and forth quip battle is easily the most enjoyable element in the film. What does it say when the best part of an action movie isn't the action?
In fact the actions scenes feel slightly sidetracked, as if Favreau and his screenwriters forgot that Iron Man is supposed to be a action film. But the chemistry of the ensemble is so strong that I'd actually be just fine if the film never had an action scene after Tony's escape form The Ten Rings. The greatest strength of the action sequences is that they are well conceived and well integrated into the plot. This is not a case of a film where beats are dropped in every 10 minutes to the detriment of the story. But the scenes themselves never rise above competent. Favreau's action style is a bit old fashioned in the best possible way - easy to follow and devoid of shaky-cam or Chaos Cinema editing. There are some nice monster movie touches in the climactic showdown, but none of it deserves iconic status.
As far as Iron Man planting seeds for the Avengers movie, Favreau keeps it light. After Tony returns from his captivity, he is pestered by Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) of S.H.I.E.L.D. for a debriefing. S.H.I.E.L.D. being the government agency that will ultimately create the Avengers team. Coulson also shows up at the end a bit. There is also a post-credit stinger introducing us to S.H.I.E.L.D. commander Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). The set-ups are there but Favreau never lets his synergistic obligations get in the way of the movie and finds a way to make it all fun.
Iron Man is a wildly entertaining movie but lacks the ambition to really enter into the top tier of superhero movies. There are some nice ideas about a son reshaping his father's legacy and corporate responsibility, but these ideas feel more like window dressing then something the film is interested in exploring. It does have a lot of charm though, and that goes a long way.
Grade: B+
AVENGERS RECAP DIRECTORY:
Iron Man
Hulk/The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Captain America
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