By the end of his film Jon Favreau’s Iron Man is a light and fluffy character, a superhero colored in with bright bits of crayon, but he doesn’t start out that way. Ironically it’s early on in the story when Tony Stark, the man inside the bright red suit, is still a carefree playboy and globe-trotting arms merchant that he has the most edge.
It’s there that Favreau’s superhero movie works best, as Stark is captured by a group of terrorists known as the Ten Rings (nod to all you Mandarin fans), injured, and forced to work in a dank cave designing weapons.
Left with no choice Stark sets to work making killing machines as they demand, he just doesn’t make the killing machine his captors expect. Robert Downey Jr. is understated and complex as Stark, slaving away in the dust, working in secret for his own freedom under the threat of death, turning his grave injuries into triumph.
Favreau seems to know that this early origin story is indeed the best part of his script, since he lingers on it, spending nearly half of his unexpectedly lengthy film on this well staged and acted setup.
Iron Man is a lot of fun, especially for a superhero origin story, since they so often end up going awry. While I wasn’t blown away by the final battle between Iron Man and the film’s baddie, there are other great action sequences. Unlike most superheroes, Iron Man isn’t about stopping petty criminals or stalking city streets.
His mission is global, and his big coming out party happens in a dusty Afghanistan village, saving villagers and farmers… where absolutely no one is looking. It’s the best action sequence in the entire film, and the place where you’ll want to cheer, even though there’s no over muscled robot for Iron Man to face off against. – Read more, Iron Man Review
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Iron Man Box Office At $197.6 Million After Just Five Days
The comic book adaptation, directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges, earned $98.6 million from 4,105 theaters domestically during its opening weekend and has made $102.1 million since debuting Thursday night. It averaged an impressive $24,024 per theater.
Internationally, the film has also earned $95.5 million in 57 countries since it began opening Wednesday, putting its worldwide total at $197.6 million after just five days.
Despite the lower actual figures, Iron Man is still the 10th biggest opener of all-time and the eighth biggest debut for a movie in May. It is the fourth biggest opening for a superhero movie, trailing just X-Men: The Last Stand ($102.8 million), Spider-Man ($114.8 million) and Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million).
Financed by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount, the movie cost about $150 million to make and $75 million to market. – Box Office Mojo
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Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man!
Maybe the story of Robert Downey Jr. hasn’t been hailed as the Comeback of the Century just yet, but just wait until next Monday. By then, the entertainment biz will suddenly realize it’s one of the biggest stories to come out of Downey’s role as Tony Stark in Marvel Studios’ Iron Man. That and the fact that Downey and Jon Favreau may have given comic book fans the most accurate portrayal of a comic book character we’ve seen yet.
How much of this character was informed by the comics books and how much came from you, Jon and the screenwriters?
Robert Downey Jr.: It’s funny to me, because I have all this reference material and people will go, “Oh, we don’t need that.” I’m like, “Wait a minute. People have been tweaking this character for forty-five years. I think everything of value is probably right in there.” But I wasn’t entirely correct because we had to bring ourselves to bear.
If there are accomplishments in “Iron Man” we used in the same sentence that Jon and I really created this third thing, which was Tony Stark. We really talked about it and really treated it like it was wildly important. It was and it is. I don’t think you get a lot of shots like this where you get a chance to do a couple more. Everyone’s watching and I’m here talking to you people.
I was with friends at dinner with Tobey, Leo and Jon and all these guys last night… I’ve been on the other side of that where you’re doing press with people about a movie you hate and you know they hate and I’m like, “Why are we f**king here?” (laughter)
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