“Today you get to witness a 3,000-year-old city rise from the dead.”

We’ve already established that I enjoy Iron Man. Not my favorite superhero, but he’s up there. And, after watching and enjoying Green Lantern: First Flight, I figured I’d take a look at the recent direct to video projects from Marvel. I figured The Invincible Iron Man would be a good start, seeing as it was released a year before the Robert Downey Jr. version. Results were…mixed.

Plot
A slightly different take on the whole origin of Iron Man, this one starts with Tony Stark funding a big dig in China to raise up an ancient city that was the capital of an emperor known only as the Mandarin. Now, the Mandarin was a bad dude back in the day and there’s a group of locals who aren’t too pleased with Stark’s efforts, who seems to be doing this project mostly for shits & giggles. This underground movement likes to voice their displeasure by blowing valuable equipment and people up with regularity, and eventually they critically injure Stark when they grab him on his arrival to China. He wakes up in an iron lung that’s keeping him alive, this gets upgraded to a portable version and the leader of the rebels tells Stark to find a way to fix the problem of raising the city above ground or else James Rhodes and Stark will die. He emphasizes this by shooting the random old mystic guy who helped heal Stark in the first place. Stark & Rhodes escape with the help of a Mk. I suit of Iron Man armor and Li Mei, one of the rebels who took a liking to him.

Stark finds himself a fugitive because somebody in the company was fudging paperwork and making it look like Tony was making illegal arms deals and he’s also got to try and stop four demonic elementals from gathering the Mandarin’s ten rings and reviving the bastard.

Characters
Tony Stark/Iron Man: Marc Worden voices our hero in this version. Here, Stark’s much less sympathetic than the live action version pre-accident. He’s not just negligent about his responsibilities, he’s also a callous bastard who doesn’t really give a damn about his employees being killed in regular raids on the dig site, and he’s too busy fooling around in hot tubs with hot women to even care. True, he eventually mans up to become a hero, but he never really makes amends for his previous douchbaggery, just kind of sweeps it under the rug quietly.

James “Rhodey” Rhodes: Rodney Saulsberry voices Stark’s stalwart buddy and the guy on-site supervising the dig. He’s much more likable than Tony throughout the film, frequently calling Tony out on his bullshit. He doesn’t get a set of armor in this film either. He’s way more likable than Stark in this and a much more sympathetic, grounded character.

Virginia “Pepper” Potts: Elisa Gabrielli voices Stark’s assistant, giving her an oddly British clip to her accent. Pepper’s fine in this, actually, being sassier and a little more sarcastic in her sparring matches with her boss, though when the chips are down she gets things done. Doesn’t hurt that the design of the character gives her a “hot librarian” look with the pinned up hair and glasses. My pick for badass of the movie.

Howard Stark: John McCook voices Tony’s dad, a man who’s really being leaned on by the board of directors to kind of clamp down on Tony and shut him out of the business. This is somehow seen as a bad thing, though I’m not really sure, since yeah, Tony’s being really wild with his spending, like the whole dig in China that I’m still not sure why he was funding. So…yeah.

Li Mei: Gwendoline Yeo voices one of the ranking members of the Jade Dragon group that is really unhappy about the raising of that city. She takes a liking to Stark and doesn’t want him to die when they capture him, but she’s marked by an ancient destiny that ties her inextricably to the Mandarin.

Wong Chu: James Sie voices the leader of the Jade Dragons, who are arguably a group of good guys who are trying to stop the catastrophe that raising a city would bring. I say arguably, since he’s also a really big asshole who murders people left and right, conducts terrorist raids and so on. Yeah. These are the guys trying to prevent a disaster. Sure...

The Mandarin: Fred Tatasciore (hey look, its Saren from Mass Effect) voices our Ancient Evil that Stark desperately tries to stop from coming back. Mandarin’s barely in the movie, only getting resurrected at the end for a rather strange fight scene, but his presence is found throughout the movie, particularly in his four Elemental henchmen that are going around the world looking for his rings. The Elementals are okay, I suppose, but they’re obviously just a bunch of minibosses for Stark to pound on, Megaman style before he fights Dr. Wily-- I mean, Mandarin. Also, they’re based on the 4 Western Elements (Earth, Air, Water, Fire) and not on the 5 Chinese Elements (Water, Earth, Fire, Wood, Metal) which, well, that’s a clear case of Did Not Do The Research.

Visuals/Effects
Directed by Patrick Archibald, Jay Oliva and Frank Paur, the animation quality is strikingly uneven. CGI is used heavily for things like the 4 Elementals and for the Iron Man Armor itself, but it never quite meshes with the traditional 2D art of the rest of the characters. There’s a slight disconnect, and a bit of the uncanny valley in the CGI movements as well. The 2D art has moments of goodness and then moments of incredible stiffness and “lack of expressiveness.” Like I said, uneven.

This isn’t to say that the movie doesn’t have great moments. Some of the fight scenes are handled really well and the Iron Man CGI does look pretty good overall. The fight with the Earth Elemental in a volcano was pretty inventive visually, and then the whole street fight in the raised city where Shellhead’s fighting off an army of Terra Cotta soldiers magically animated by the Mandarin’s power is actually pretty awesome, made more so by the fact that the only suit he’s got available to him at that moment is his cobbled together Mk. I. And then he has to fight a dragon. The final fight with the Mandarin is quite a bit stranger and less interesting, quite honestly.

Writing
All right, Stan Lee and Larry Lieber get credit for creating ol’ Shellhead (for the record, Buckethead is not an accepted nickname for Iron Man, it is both the stage name of an esoteric guitar virtuoso and the nickname for another Marvel Superhero named Nova) and Avi Arad, Greg Johnson and Craig Kyle worked on the story and script of the movie. This too is uneven, because there are lots of plotholes (like why the Hell does Stark care about raising this city above ground???) but it also throws some interesting nods and ideas into the mix. SHIELD makes a very clear presence in the movie, which is a nice continuity touch, and I rather like the idea of Stark having to go into the final battle with a completely outclassed suit that gives the Mk. I time to shine. But the overall movie feels unpolished, like they’re really just going through the motions. There’s a third act twist that, while it makes sense, also feels tacked on just to have a twist, and the ending itself is just pretty weak.

Sound
Original music by Guy Michelmore. Its fine, does the job nicely, but I can’t really remember anything from it.

Conclusion
Yeah….The Invincible Iron Man isn’t a very good movie. While it does bring a few interesting things to the table, it doesn’t have the panache of the superior live action film. Ultimately its an inoffensive if slightly underwhelming effort. I can’t really recommend it, unless you’re really jonesing for an Iron Man fix. Its not a complete waste of time though: it has Iron Man killing the hell out of an actual dragon. That’s one thing its got over the live action film.

“Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing.”

In the early summer of 2008, audiences were subjected to the first of a new wave of superhero films. While still delivering big action, it also opened the door for a unified setting that could bring hero franchises licensed to different studios together for the purposes of clever storytelling and making lots of money. Iron Man directed by Jon Favreau, seemingly came out of nowhere to knock mainstream audiences off their asses. I, of course, was closely following the quietly supportive buzz of the film and was not in the least surprised when it not only spawned a sequel, but also cluster of currently in-development Marvel Comics based films that all have the goal of dovetailing into a team movie. This makes the Avengers fan in me insanely happy.

Plot
Wealthy industrialist Anthony Stark is a brilliant but lazy and hedonistic heir to his father’s technology and weapons company. More interested in boozing and womanizing, Stark does eventually travel to Afghanistan to do a live product test of a new missile system for the Air Force. On his way back to base, he is critically injured and taken hostage during an ambush. His life saved by another captured scientist who implants an electromagnetic generator in his chest to keep the shrapnel in his body from reaching his heart (which would kill him) Stark and the scientist are told to build a missile, but instead build a means for Stark to escape; a suit of armor powered by the upgraded generator in Stark’s chest. And that’s all the flashback.

Stark escapes but his armor gets trashed. Back in the States, he convalesces and makes waves saying that he wants to take the company out of weapons sales until he can evaluate what went wrong (he found a lot of Stark weaponry in the terrorist camp). Holing up in his basement he refines his armor into a better form and then proceeds to take some matters into his own hands about getting his company’s weapons out of the hands of hostiles. That may prove tougher than it sounds.

Characters
Tony Stark/Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr. plays the playboy Stark to a tee in a fit of perfect casting. Stark is personable, brilliant and often bored by most of the less smart people around him. Tony Stark makes you feel he’s a cool exec with a heart of steel. You can tell how annoyed he gets when he has to explain something to someone that doesn’t get it the first time. Brilliant casting and acting combined with a character that always seeks refuge in audacity makes Tony Stark this movie’s badass.

Virginia “Pepper” Potts: Gwyneth Paltrow turns in a good performance as Stark’s patient personal assistant. Loyal to him, there’s also that strong hint of sexual tension between them, but also the realization that if they consummate their feelings, the friendship would fall apart because of who Stark is.

James Rhodes: Terrence Howard plays Stark’s Air Force buddy, a man with some clout in the service and a steadfast friend. Doesn’t really get to do a whole lot since its really more foreshadowing for the next movie (which replaces Howard with Don Cheadle)

Dr. Yinsen: Shaun Toub is the captured scientist who save Stark’s life and confronts him about finding a purpose in life.

Jarvis: Paul Bettany voices Stark’s personal computer system, a snarky, apparently sentient OS that gets uploaded to the Iron Man armor and tries to be the voice of reason for Stark’s more reckless decisions.

Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger: Jeff Bridges plays completely opposite the Dude as the guy who’s been running Stark Industries while Tony was out drinking martinis and bedding journalists. He doesn’t like Stark growing a conscience and taking tighter control of the company since (like it’s a spoiler) he’s the bad guy. Now if only he could fix that damn icing problem.

Raza: Faran Tahir (who was a Starfleet Captain in the Star Trek reboot) plays the shadowy, bald and later scarred leader of the Ten Rings, a multi-national terrorist organization bent on…well, their motives aren’t exactly clear, so he’s mostly there as foreshadowing of something that will eventually involve ten rings and has a connection to a certain Mongolian-connected super villain in the Iron Man mythos. Hopefully.

Agent Coulson: Clark Gregg plays a modest member of a government agency who’s full name is a mouthful (it gets abbreviated to S.H.I.E.L.D.). He has a very high interest in Stark’s activities and his new toy.

Visuals/Effects
You know, I didn’t originally associate Jon Favreau, the witty writer and star of Swingers to have a really good sense of action movie aesthetics. I’m glad I was wrong, because this movie is slick, not just in looks but in pacing. Shots are well laid out and the special effects, including a practical costume of each Iron Man suit (as well as really well done CGI versions) help flesh out a hefty feel for the movie. Fight scenes are fantastically done, and the movie has a great industrial feel to it. Also, after the credits there is the mother of all teases for this shared universe that Marvel Studios is working on.

Writing
Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway all worked on the screenplay, adapting the comics character originated by Stan “The Man” Lee, “Dazzlin’” Don Heck, Jack “King” Kirby and Larry “I don’t know his Mighty Marvel nickname” Lieber. As far as an origin story goes, the screenwriters did a great job of adapting a Cold War superhero to a modern setting while still keeping the core traits of Tony Stark and his supporting cast. They did a great job, and the dialog in particular is fantastic.

Sound
The original score by Ramin Djawadi (Blade Trinity) is a little bit on the generic side, but I think its more industrial cues were a great fit to the film and there are moments where the score just completely clicks with the visuals, like when Stark takes the Mk. II for a spin over the city. Of course, the movie wouldn’t be complete without Black Sabbath’s “Ironman” playing at the very end of the movie.

Conclusion
2008 was a great summer for movies, and I will defiantly proclaim Iron Man as my favorite of the bunch. Dark Knight had the best villain and Wall-E was the best damn movie of the year, but Iron Man is just a fantastic ride that merges crazy SCIENCE with fast paced ADVENTURE! that you wish you could be a part of. If you haven’t already seen it, amend this status right away.

Or I will find you.