MCU Revisited #1: Iron Man (2008)

In a different universe, Iron Man exists not as a tentpole of the biggest series ever, but as another forgotten superhero movie — maybe good, maybe bad — shot by an uninspired action director and starring the latest pretty boy twenty-something who Hollywood desperately wants to make a thing. The movie probably does well at the box office, spawns a sequel or two, then fades into oblivion despite a third film which clearly ends on a cliffhanger for a fourth movie which will never happen.

On paper, this was the film’s logical story arc. Nothing about the movie was necessarily working in its favor. Although the titular character was relatively popular for comic fans and kids who knew him from a series of fighting video games, he wasn’t a big-time name with mainstream audiences like Spider-Man or Batman. Although Jon Favreau had seen success directing Elf, he was better-known as a comedic side character in a handful of comedies big and small, as well as being the screenwriter of Swingers. Even Robert Downey Jr., who certainly had the chops, the accolades, and the name-recognition to carry a big movie such as this, had not yet had his renaissance, having up until very recently made more headlines for his life off-camera than on it. Everything about Iron Man was unconventional and risky, and this is perhaps the greatest thing that it had going for it.

After more than twenty movies which have come out over the course of the last decade plus, the MCU is ingrained into our culture. It’s become A part of our cultural language. It’s our generation’s biblical epic, its western, its musical, its slasher movie, its Reagan-era action movie, and its year-round summer blockbuster. It’s molded into our culture like James Bond and Star Wars, and looks to have a shot at similar longevity. It took an established genre which already had established hits, and gave it a sensibility more akin to episodic television.

It’s undergone stylistic shifts, casting changes, and even a change in ownership — and in many ways it has grown into something completely different than it initially set out out to be. Every movie adds something to the mythology established by the previous film in ways both big and subtle. With all of this in mind, it’s easy to forget that just a decade ago, it wasn’t a Disney cash cow, but a strange combination of lesser-known superhero, comedic-actor turned director, and a star who, up until recently, had made more headlines for his problems off-camera than on.

During the post-credit scene in Iron Man — one that I initially missed in theaters because the world-building post-credit scene was not yet ingrained into the genre — Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury tells Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, “Mr. Stark, you’ve become a part of a bigger universe. You just don’t know it yet.” Whether ambitiously prophetic, or coincidentally meaningful, this line sets the stage for what Iron Man, and in turn the entire MCU, was about to become.

Looking back at Iron Man in 2019, some things stick out right away. The first major one is the world building. While there is zero doubt that Iron Man was meant to spearhead a whole universe of movies, the movies which it spawned in hindsight clearly weren’t in mind. Like Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Iron Man is trying out a more grounded approach to superhero movies. Sure, there’s tech which could never exist, but it is all presented in a way which seems plausible, even if it requires a certain suspension of disbelief.

It is clear that back in 2008, Iron Man was not meant to take place in the same universe as Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Thor, and The Guardians of the Galaxy — not in the way those characters exist, at least. Clearly, some of these characters and series were in the back of Marvel’s (and specifically Kevin Feige’s) mind as he laid the blueprint for the future, but one has to think that Black Panther released in 2009 would look and feel quite different than the one we got in 2018. It is a testament to the dynamic nature of the MCU. We could go back and nitpick tonal shifts, plot holes, and missteps in the timeline of the MCU, but the ability to adapt with times, technology, and the movies themselves is a great strength of the series which others have not come close to accomplishing (stares judgmentally at DC and Warner Brothers).

The Iron Man of 2008 is very much a product of its time. It has a rock-heavy soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi which, while quite good at times, feels dated by today’s standards. ThIts initial setting, a generically Middle Eastern setting where Tony Stark will transition into Iron Man, both continues and lampoons certain tropes which have been common in a post-9/11 world. On one hand, its depiction of the terrorist organization called Ten Rings (no relation to Phil Jackson) offers very little past some typical Hollywood stereotypes in its representation of the setting and the people. On the other hand, however, the film isn’t necessarily a jingoistic love-fest of the Middle-Eastern war, but a look at the Military Industrial Complex. Tony Stark isn’t fighting Thanos or Ultron, he’s fighting the consequences of his own company. The terrorists are using his own weaponry, and Obadiah Stane fights him using his own tech against him. Although the film doesn’t beat its audience over the head with this not-so-subtle messaging, it is going further than many other films within the genre would dare to do, and while there are valid questions regarding the representation of these ideas, there is some good messaging in there.

Technically, this movie has aged wonderfully. Although it would be impossible to create this story without lots of CGI, Favreau and his crew have done a wonderful job of making nearly every shot seem plausible. Iron Man does not move around like a gravity-defying CG stunt double, but as a man with his powers may move around if such technology existed. Because of this, the effects often look better than the ones we are getting a decade later, when many of the films are plagued with lifeless 3D models who never appear to carry much weight on screen. Between the use of shaky, almost documentary-like camera work, diagetic cameras of various sorts, and practical effects that blend seamlessly with the computer ones, nearly everything on screen makes visual sense inside the movie.

If there were one thing I wish the current crop would look back on from the beginning, it would be this. There’s a shot in Tony’s final battle with Obadiah where Obadiah’s mask is removed and we see him standing inside a CGI suit. It is an almost identical shot to one from Infinity War, where Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner has the Hulkbuster’s mask off. Despite 10 years of advancements, Iron Man’s version of this shot looks crisp and polished, while the shot of Ruffalo looks out of place and fake. It goes to show that while technology is always moving forward, sometimes it is best to look at the past and see why things worked well before we tried to modernize it. It’s what makes Jurassic Park a classic film, while the rest of the movies in the series are just sequels to Jurassic Park. Favreau clearly took great care in his work, and the crew did as well. While parts of the movie seem so quintessentially 2008, the special effects have aged remarkably well.

Perhaps the greatest driving force of Iron Man lies in Robert Downey Jr.’s hands. Like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Downey has taken ownership of this role in a way that makes me wonder how he could ever be replaced. As much as he may have needed Iron Man to save his career, the movie needed someone with his gravitas in order to work as well as it did. Downey captures the privileged arrogance of Tony Stark perfectly, but beneath all the snark and antics, he also captures a humanity. Stark is not Bruce Wayne. He isn’t a mopy millionaire who spends all his time outside the mask lamenting the death of his parents. He is a three-dimensional character who is equally entertaining inside and outside the suit. We almost believe that this billionaire playboy could also be this stunning engineer and vigilante crime-fighter. I firmly believe that Downey’s Stark is the pinnacle of superhero acting, and Downey deserves all the praise for the life he’s given the character.

The supporting cast, while not nearly on Downey’s level, do fill out the cast quite nicely. Terrence Howard is fun to watch as Rhodes, but I am so forever marred by Jamie Foxx’s impression of him that I am not sure I cannot ever truly enjoy a Terrence Howard role again. That said, I still believe Don Cheadle is the far superior Rhodes. Behind Stark, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts (said together, this 100% sounds like something she’d sell on Goop for $800), probably gets the most shine. We get the awkward will they, won’t they of every couple in these movies, but Potts does have a little more to do than most of the similar characters in other superhero movie. Potts has power and agency, and while there are some ways she fills the archetype, she is a necessary piece to the puzzle that these movies layout, and the romance subplot is actually quite small compared to other superhero films. Aside from those two characters (as well as early MCU staple Clark Gregg), Obadiah is the only signifiantly-featured character. Bridges brings his typical Jeff Bridginess to the role in a way that both invokes charm at the beginning, and conveys menace later on. While not one of the stronger Marvel villains, Bridges does great with what he is presented, and though his character’s arc seems underdeveloped, it does work from the standpoint of the plot.

Iron Man is a fascinating watch through the 2019 lens. On some levels, we can see just why it helped the MCU become what it is today. It is well-shot, well-acted, and visually stunning. On other levels, it seems so simple for a movie that, despite the many shifts in tone and world, still fits into what they are doing with the MCU today. When looking back on Iron Man, we can easily forgive the faults that it displays, because without those faults we may have never gotten some of the wonderful films we got as a correction. It is a fun, entertaining, hilarious, and endearing take on a genre, at the time of its release, appeared to largely be on the way out. Marvel has made better films since Iron Man, but few can boast the impact, originality, and overall importance of the first film in the series.

9/10

MCU Power Rankings (Thus Far):

1. Iron Man

(This list will be updated as I review each film)