The Avengers Movie Project Part 1: Iron Man

    I feel like I don't have to tell you all about the huge cultural impact that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has had on the landscape of the world as well as the film industry as a whole. This franchise has truly created a genre of superhero film that other studios dreamed of in years past. We've definitely seen many superhero franchises from the early 2000s have a big opening and then fizzle out in the second or third installment, but for slightly more than ten years now, Marvel has cranked out blockbuster after blockbuster. Once this series got going, we sometimes saw two movies cranked out in a year thanks to the several different teams working on the films, and while some have fallen a bit flat due to inopportune pacing, lame villains, or similar storylines, some of these movies have been real gems, being contenders not just in terms of Marvel movies, but genuinely good films overall. I know what you're thinking. Why am I talking about Marvel movies? Avengers Endgame came out in 2019, 2 years ago, when we were actually allowed to watch movies in theaters! Well, in the past few weeks, I've taken it upon myself to introduce my dad to the MCU, as he hasn't seen most of those movies, and I feel like he may enjoy them! Our goal has been to watch one movie every weekend, and we've been successful in that goal so far! More than that, he's really enjoyed the ones that we've watched. We're almost done with "Phase one," so the next post may be about all of those movies (except for The Incredible Hulk because I never saw that one and it isn't on Disney Plus), but for the first post I want to touch on the movie that started it all, Iron Man.

"I am Iron Man"

    This movie is weird to go back to more than 10 years after the original MCU blockbuster. Thinking back on all the movies and storylines that Iron Man has been given, it's kind of bizarre to see Tony Stark in his earliest outing, but there's a lot in this movie that is already pointing towards the future of his character, as well as the franchise. We all know the story now, but back whenever Iron Man came out, it seemed like every other blockbuster action movie. The main character was going to come out in a robot suit and take out the bad guys no problem, but Iron Man touched on deeper issues. Tony Stark begins the movie as the self-centered head of a weapons manufacturing company, Stark Industries, but slowly transitions into the hero that we see by the end of the movie, and eventually the leading man for the entire MCU. He starts out the movie living the high life, having more money than he knows what to do with, and an almost James Bond-esque magnetic quality with women. Everything changes, however, when he's in Afghanistan, giving a weapons demonstration to the troops, and is suddenly attacked and kidnapped by a terrorist organization that has somehow gotten its hands onto Stark's weapons. He's hit with shrapnel from a bomb that would have hit his heart without the intervention of another scientist that has also been captured by the terrorist group. The man sets up an electromagnet in Tony's chest to keep him safe, which Tony perfects further with his own prowess. The terrorists have kidnapped Tony in order for him to build a weapon for them, specifically the weapon that he showed off to the military, but Stark decides that they have so many weapons of his already, he needs to find a way to get back at them, and creates a suit with all kinds of weapon systems. The model he makes in the cave is extremely rudimentary, but it gets the job done and he's able to escape the prison compound with its assistance, and he's rescued. Upon arriving back in the United States, he holds a press conference, shutting down the weapons manufacturing program, making his company seemingly defunct. This is really just the set up of the story, but the fact that all this takes place within the first third of the movie is crazy. It does a great job of showing why Stark has a change of heart, and invites the viewers into the horrors of what he went through and the tortures of being held there. This is a redemption arc, as Marvel movies often are, and we see the self-obsessed billionaire become obsessed with a different mission, one of protecting his legacy and doing the right thing, even when he's not sure exactly what that would be.

    Tony realizes that the suit that he created in order to escape the terrorists could be used to solve threats, first viewing it as his responsibility to undo the damage that his weapons have caused the world when being handled by people will bad intentions. He works constantly on perfecting the suit and slowly makes a name for himself, though at first appears more as a menace based on how the news reports it. Eventually the VP of the company catches on and goes nuts trying to work on a suit of his own, turning to the terrorist organization that captured Stark at the beginning of the movie. Turns out that Obediah Stane, Tony's surrogate father and VP of Stark Industries was actually the one responsible for Stark being kidnapped in the first place, and it's revealed that they were supposed to kill him instead of making him work on a weapon. Obediah ran the company after Tony's father died up until Tony came of age, so it was in his best interest for the true successor to disappear. Stane finally succeeds and builds a giant suit based on the original, but with lots of fancy additions and with the full financial backing of the company. Tony is able to best his former role model and friend due to some fancy maneuvering and ends the movie by announcing that he was Iron Man all along. In the post credits scene, Nick Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up and tells Tony about the "Avengers Initiative," thus planting the first seed for The Avengers firmly in place.

The pieces are falling into place

    The cast of this movie is stellar and it begins the trend of getting big names for these movies, even with some actors sometimes being completely wasted for their roles. Robert Downey Jr. of course is Tony, quickly becoming the golden boy of the MCU, as he starts the whole thing here, and does a great job the whole way through. Gwyneth Paltrow is here as Pepper Potts, the supportive and loving caretaker of Stark, as well as his love interest. Terrence Howard appears as Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes or "Rhodey" for his first and only time, as Don Cheadle would replace him in Iron Man 2 as well as other following films. Though he did a great job as Rhodey, rumor has it that he requested too much money for the studio to agree to future films, leading to his replacement. Jeff Bridges is great, as always, bringing the conniving Obediah Stane to life as a seemingly kind, well meaning father figure for Tony, who is secretly much more nefarious than he lets on early in the film. The voice of Paul Bettany is Jarvis, the robotic butler that Tony creates. He is a sort of living AI that becomes more and more interesting as the MCU gets more complicated. Jon Favreau is working double duty as Happy Hogan, Tony's bodyguard, as well as the director of the movie, which is not super uncommon for him as he also directed Elf and showed up, though in a much smaller role than in this one. Clark Gregg appears for the first time as Agent Coulson, a character who is much more important in future films than he is here, but it's cool looking back at his almost cameo appearances at the beginning of this franchise. Samuel L. Jackson is in this movie for maybe 30 seconds for the first post-credit scene in the MCU, and he completely steals the show without even having to try. Speaking of cameos, however, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Stan Lee, the constant Cameo in all of these films, and one of the biggest creative minds involved in Marvel Comics. Stan Lee appears in this movie as Hugh Heffner on the red carpet in one scene, and begins the long running game of "Where's Waldo" with this franchise. It's always fun to see where he's going to show up next, and that kind of goes for all of the characters in the franchise as we continue on.

    Iron Man is a great movie, very entertaining to watch, and it's no wonder that it was the launching point of something much bigger than anyone realized at the time. It's honestly hard to think of anything I could say about this movie that hasn't already been said by a bigger critic at its original time of release, but when viewed after also seeing where the stories have taken these characters, it's remarkable to see how much the stakes have changed. The interesting thing about going back over 10 years later is that it seems like this movie was really made before the people in charge decided how far they wanted to go in terms of the violence. We see a much edgier and more bloody Marvel universe in this movie, one that probably wouldn't fly as much today, though I could definitely be wrong about that. I just don't remember anyone having to do surgery on themselves in a cave. I will say, the involvement of Phase 1 in terms of the MCU as a whole are mostly just showing how these heroes came to be, allowing them to have more interesting stories later on, but they're still a lot of fun, and just as enjoyable now as they were when first released.

    Thanks so much for reading this, friends! As you know, normally I write about amusement parks and video games, but I couldn't really think of a topic about that to write about, so I thought I'd begin a journal of these Marvel movies here. I've never really reviewed movies before, so this post may be a bit rough, but I hope you like it. Hopefully I'll get better at reviewing them as I go along! I hope you're all doing well, and I'll talk to you next Friday!