Iron Man

Saddled with an absurdly overlong running time, Iron Man suffers from an uneven and increasingly oppressive structure that ultimately negates the film’s few positive attributes (eg star Robert Downey Jr’s expectedly fantastic performance). Director Jon Favreau, working from Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway’s screenplay, has infused the proceedings with a refreshingly down-to-earth sensibility that admittedly suits the material quite well, yet there’s little doubt that the continued emphasis on superfluous sequences ensures that the whole thing hardly moves at the brisk pace one justifiably might’ve anticipated. And while the movie, which follows billionaire playboy Tony Stark (Downey Jr) as he drops his narcissistic persona to become crime-fighting superhero Iron Man after a near-death experience at the hands of terrorists, is undoubtedly a cut above such egregiously underwhelming summer fare as Transformers and Live Free or Die Hard, it does become increasingly difficult to recall a more disappointing big-budget extravaganza given the effectiveness of the cast and premise. That the film primarily possesses the feel of a first cut surely stands out as its most glaring deficiency, as Favreau includes an almost unconscionable number of sequences in which Downey Jr works on (and tweaks) the his character’s super-powered suit. There’s only so much one can take before such moments start to become repetitive and (eventually) interminable, and it does seem clear that the movie would’ve benefited from some seriously judicious bouts of editing (ie the entire opening hour could’ve easily been compressed into a blisteringly-paced fifteen minutes). There are highlights, of course, including the uniformly strong performances and a marvelous sequence detailing Iron Man’s initial foray as a global crime-stopper, but it’s inevitably impossible to view Iron Man as anything more than a missed opportunity (and that final battle is as overblown and tedious as one might’ve feared).

** out of ****

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