Iron Man (2008)
★★½ — Iron Man (2008)
There are films that arrive quietly and change everything, and there are films that arrive loudly and change everything. Iron Man, released in the summer of 2008, belongs firmly to the second category. It was the first film produced directly by Marvel Studios under their own banner, a considerable gamble given that the company had mortgaged a significant portion of its character library to finance the venture. The source material dates back to 1963, when writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Don Heck introduced Tony Stark in the pages of Tales of Suspense. Lee has spoken about wanting to create a hero that readers might instinctively dislike (a weapons manufacturer, a man of enormous privilege) and then make them like him anyway. That tension between charm and moral ambiguity sits at the heart of the character, and it is the tension the film either exploits brilliantly or squanders, depending on your point of view. The basic premise is this: after a near-fatal incident leaves Stark a captive in a remote cave, he engineers his way out using little more than salvaged parts, and returns to America with both a new chest piece keeping him alive and a rather different outlook on the family business.
Director Jon Favreau was, at this point, best known for smaller, more character-driven work, and his appointment raised a few eyebrows in Hollywood circles. He has since built a reputation for large-scale production, as you can see in his later work including The Jungle Book (2016) and The Lion King (2019). Back in 2008, however, this was a significant step up in budget and expectation. Favreau reportedly pushed hard for Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role when the studio was uncertain, a decision that turned out to be rather important. Downey Jr. brings a rattling, improvisational energy to Stark, much of the dialogue having been developed on set rather than locked down in the script. The supporting cast around him is polished but unremarkable in terms of screen time: Gwyneth Paltrow as the reliably composed Pepper Potts, Terrence Howard as military liaison Rhodey, and Jeff Bridges as the broad-shouldered, shaven-headed Obadiah Stane, an antagonist who perhaps deserved a little more complexity than he receives.
The film runs to 126 minutes and carries the weight of its franchise ambitions throughout. It is, by any reasonable measure, a confident and technically accomplished piece of mainstream cinema, with the suit-construction sequences in particular showing genuine inventiveness in their production design. Whether that confidence translates into something worth returning to, beyond its historical significance as the foundation stone of what became the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a rather different question. It is, after all, an origin story, a genre with its own well-worn grooves, and one that has been revisited in the MCU many times since, including in Iron Man 2 (2010) and Iron Man 3 (2013).
A Billionaire in a Tin Can Honestly? Iron Man is just a bit dull. Yes, it kickstarted the MCU, yes, Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark, and yes, the suit-building montages are cool… but strip away the flashy CGI and the quippy dialogue, and what’s left is a fairly by-the-numbers origin story that drags in places. When you compare it to The Dark Knight Rises for example... another film about a billionaire tech genius reinventing himself, the difference in depth is staggering. One is a gritty, layered character study. The other is, well… an extended advert for a shared universe. I know Marvel films aren’t really my thing, but even setting that aside, this feels like a functional but uninspired start. Good in hindsight for what it built, but on its own? Just alright.
I find myself somewhere in that same neighbourhood of mild frustration with this one. There is a version of this film that really commits to the darker implications of Stark's backstory, and it keeps flickering at the edges without ever quite arriving. For all Downey Jr.'s evident charisma, the film seems more interested in setting the table for future instalments than in making this particular meal satisfying on its own terms. As a historical artefact, fascinating. As a film to sit down with on a Tuesday night? Less so. Sometimes the most consequential films are not the most enjoyable ones, and Iron Man might be the clearest example of that particular truth.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2008 | Watched: 2012-03-02
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Iron Man (2008) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Sky Store
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Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Jon Favreau: The Jungle Book (2016) · The Lion King (2019) · Iron Man 2 (2010)
More with Robert Downey Jr.: Captain America: Civil War (2016) · Iron Man 3 (2013) · Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) · Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More science fiction: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Fantastic Planet (1973) · Nightmare City (1980) · The Long Walk (2025)
