The MCU Rewatch - Iron Man (2008)

Before speaking about the film, I need to explain what this and how it’s organised. It’s a chronological rewatch of the MCU films, with one exception. That exception is The Incredible Hulk. There’s a few reasons for it, one is that I don’t particularly care for it as a film (I’m not big on Hulk films in general, I find the character quite limited, although Thor: Ragnorak shows signs of making him far more interesting), secondly, while it does feature a cameo from Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Robert Downey Junior’s Tony Stark to recruit Bruce Banner/The Hulk into The Avengers, it doesn’t really fit into the rest of the universe comfortably, and a different actor played the character in the origin film and in The Avengers (Edward Norton was replaced by Mark Ruffalo, which is a change for the better I think), thirdly, and possibly most importantly, I can’t source a copy of the film.

Because this is a rewatch of the MCU films it won’t feature either of the Spiderman reboots, the Ghost Rider films or any of the X films, including Deadpool and Logan (although Logan is an excellent film). On with the rewatch.

When I first heard that Marvel were making an Iron Man film, I was kind of puzzled. I like most superhero films, so that didn’t bother me. I just found the choice of character kind of odd. Iron Man’s been around a long time, he was a founding member of The Avengers, and his solo book has always sold well enough to remain on the shelves. The idea of a millionaire industrialist moonlighting as a superhero, using the anonymity of a costume, although the costume is what makes him a superhero and is his weapon, isn’t new and it kind of made Tony Stark into Marvel’s version of Bruce Wayne. 

Iron Man is a good character, but he’s not someone anybody immediately thought when they heard Marvel comics movie. Another thing that made it an interesting choice was the amount of technology and CGI required to pull this off successfully. If it didn’t look good, it would just be crap. Back in 2008, Marvel Films hadn’t become popular and they weren’t owned by Disney so didn’t have access to the entertainment behemoth’s bottomless pit of money.

I do think they got everything right with casting, although people may not have thought it at the time. Robert Downey Junior was to my mind a good choice, but he came with some off-screen issues. Iron Man was a bit of a last chance saloon for RDJ. If he behaved himself and the film did well at the box office then his career would be rejuvenated, if not then he was probably on the Hollywood scrap heap. He seemed to base Tony on his own off-screen persona, too. Total and utterly self obessed brat, who expected everyone he came in contact with to ignore his appalling behaviour because of his undeniable talent.

The casting of Gwyneth Paltrow as Tony’s protective PA Pepper Potts was a smart move. She had an Oscar, a profile and the acting ability to make people invest in the character and forget the stupid name and her rather problematic relationship with Tony. Honestly, he’s such a knob that I don’t know why a smart lady like Pepper would continue to support him and want to be involved with him romantically. Pepper’s role had to be made more than a cameo, too, because without her the film is rather heavy on the testosterone.

Jeff Bridges also gave the film some cred. Another highly respected and decorated actor, and he had the looks and the talent to compel audiences to pay attention to his portrayal of the duplicitous and avaricious Obadiah Slane. He had a wonderful time chewing his way through the scenery, especially late in the film when he turns into a genuine super villain.

I’m possibly one of the few people who prefer Terence Howard’s James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes to Don Cheadle’s. Howard to me is more believable as an experienced and highly decorated pilot. I keep expecting Don Cheadle to crack a joke at an inappropriate moment. I also preferred the way Rhodey was written in the first film, since then he seems to have become quite literally a ‘weapon’ for the US military. If they want something to just blindly follow orders they can replace Rhodes with a robot.

Then there was the largely unknown Clark Gregg to play the shadowy, ultra-competent, super cool, but somehow scary Agent Phil Coulson (although at this stage I think his first name really was Agent)

Samuel L. Jackson’s involvement was known about, but it was only mooted that he would play Nick Fury.

Everyone knew Stan Lee would put in a cameo. He’d already done this in nearly every other movie that featured the characters he helped to create. This was a really tiny one, he was mistaken for Hugh Hefner at a gala awards night Tony turns up to.

The final bit of casting was to bring in the talents of British actor Paul Bettany to voice Tony’s very English AI butler Jarvis. Jarvis also helps Tony run and use the suit.

The director was a bit left field. Jon Favreau had done a few films, and knew what he was doing, but he hadn’t helmed an action flick before, and he was also better known as an actor at the time. I knew him as Monica’s eccentric, billionaire boyfriend in Friends. He did also get on screen in Iron Man as Tony’s chauffeur/bodyguard Harold ‘Happy’ Hogan. He wasn’t required to do a lot this time around, other than look and sound vaguely competent. He got larger roles in the subsequent films, and weirdly enough in Spiderman: Homecoming.

The story definitely brought things into the now quite successfully. The brash billionaire tech genius Tony Stark goes to Afghanistan to demo his new ‘shock and awe’ weapon to the US military on the ground there. His convoy is attacked, most of the soldiers are killed and he himself is fatally wounded.

The very same people who wounded him, instruct a brilliant captive to keep him alive, which he does by hooking Tony’s heart up to a car battery to keep it beating. They want to use him, not as a hostage, but to make them a version of the weapon he was trying to sell to the US. He ‘agrees’, but instead uses the time and equipment to fashion himself an arc reactor to replace the car battery that keeps him alive in implants it in his chest. He then makes a suit of armour, which he uses to help him escape. I did appreciate that Tony’s first fairly crude Iron Man suit resembled the one that he first wore in the ‘60’s when the comic and the character originally appeared, before being superceded by the slicker, more colourful, iconic red and gold Iron Man suit.

After freeing himself and being rescued, Tony goes back to the US and promptly announces that Stark Technology are out of the weapons business. This immediately puts him offside with Stane, who only exists to make money. Even without knowing what would happen, the astute viewer could work out that Stane had something to do with Tony’s original abduction.

Tony works secretly in his basement on the Iron Man suit and after some teething problems, takes it out for a test run, nearly killing himself in the process by taking it too high and freezing it, cutting out all the electrics. Of course this had to happen so that the audience realise what he’s doing to Stane’s suit later on. For someone so smart, though, Tony does make some incredibly stupid moves.

When he goes to Afghanistan to use the suit to save a village and take some measure of revenge on the people that kidnapped and imprisoned him, he gets himself on the air force’s radar, which is how Rhodey finds out that his long time friend is actually a superhero, and also when he first harbours thoughts of donning a super suit himself. Between them Pepper, Rhodes and Coulson work out that Tony is in danger from within and take steps to circumvent it.

It all comes down to a major league battle between Tony Stark’s Iron Man and Obadiah Stane in a bigger, more powerful, possibly better designed suit. I think what really wins the battle in the end is that Tony built his suit himself so knows how to work it better than Stane does, his was designed by company experts.

When the dust clears Tony predictably ignores everything Agent Coulson tells him to say and breaks one the major superhero rules, he outs himself as Iron Man.

There’s one of the now expected post credits sequence when Tony arrives at his Malibu mansion to find Nick Fury waiting for him and audiences first hear the words ‘Avengers Initiative’.

It was a good, strong start and audiences worldwide loved it. Thus was born the MCU.