The Iron Man Cometh

The Iron Man shines a light ... -- Picture courtesy of Marvel Studios

by blogSpotter
This weekend, I had the occasion to see Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr. in the title role. Iron Man tells the story of Tony Stark, a multimillionaire playboy who heads up a high tech weapons company, Stark Industries. I won’t go into the whole synopsis, but suffice it to say that Stark gets caught up in fighting Middle East terrorists as well as corporate intrigue at home. He sustains a serious injury in one foray, with shrapnel to his heart; he’s also taken captive by the Afghan terrorists. The terrorists provide Stark a high tech lab in hopes of getting his Jericho missile secrets. A fellow captive named Yinsen is a medical and technical genius who fashions a super battery-powered magnet that holds Stark’s heart together. Together they also figure out how to hook the heart to a metal suit that gives Stark his Iron Man super powers. I won’t rehash the rest, Iron Man enthusiasts probably know what all to expect. I do have some observations about the genre which I find amusing.

The AMC Theater was filled to capacity for an 8PM showing; a greater percentage of the audience was male. In fact, this movie is the ultimate guy movie and seems to garner more interest than Spiderman, Batman and the Incredible Hulk combined. Where women fantasize about becoming princesses (Pretty Woman, My Fair Lady), men seem to fantasize about transforming into super tough fighting machines. I think what gives Tony Stark extra appeal is that he’s presented as an ordinary man. His powers could be exhibited by anyone who dons his rocket powered gold-titanium suit. (“Hey dude, it could really happen!”). Stark is loosely based on Howard Hughes, the legendary “Spruce Goose” millionaire. Stark is also shown as all too human in his suitless state – a womanizing alcoholic. He does have a faithful, leggy assistant named Pepper, played to perfection by Gwyneth Paltrow. They have a sexual tension all throughout, which finally is somewhat acknowledged.

TEETERING HIGH HEELS

Iron Man plays by the action movie rules, and admirably so. In a couple of scenes, Pepper is in a frantic hurry. In one scene, she’s running from the demonic Obadiah (played by Jeff Bridges). In another scene she’s rushing about the lab hoping to forestall a disaster. In all scenes, she is wearing six inch high heels that would almost be challenging for lesser girls to wear for a casual stroll. She’s a faithful blonde Girl Friday who stands by her genius man but doesn’t try to fathom his deep ideas.

DELL versus APPLE

Apparently Satan uses a Dell. In a couple of scenes, it’s made apparent that Stark uses Apple iMacs for his genius work. When Pepper sneaks into Obadiah’s office to investigate something, it’s made apparent that Obadiah, the evil villain uses a late model Dell with a Dell brand flat screen. All of this confirms what I already suspected from the Apple commercials – that the cool and the virtuous use Apple hardware. I do think it’s funny that in so many movies and TV shows, Apple computers are prominently displayed. Not complaining mind you – I the virtuous blog author am typing this on an iMac Mini.

CONCLUSION

This movie was thoroughly enjoyable, although with more of a wink and a smile from my particular perspective. I don’t see the Iron Man suit being perfected by military intelligence any time soon, and I don’t have any fantasies about increasing my powers with rocket legs and bazooka arms. If you had that suit available right now, I would not put it on – on my first test flight I’d probably smack into a wall at 400 mph. But for guys who like the aforementioned movie ingredients, Iron Man is a must see. There might even be some girls that come along for the ride, if only to get footwear ideas from Pepper, the sexy assistant.

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