Starring: Robert Downey Jnr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges
Director: Jon Favreau
Category IIA
In one of the final scenes in Iron Man, Tony Stark - the boozing, womanising weapons manufacturer who has reinvented himself as a saviour of mankind from warmongers and the military-industrial complex - is seen reading a newspaper, with a front-page spread proclaiming the deeds of his armoured superhero alter-ego and a headline that would give birth to his moniker.
And he's not totally happy with it: 'It's actually Titanium-Alloy Man,' he deadpans, in the same tone he demands a cheeseburger as he arrives home from three months of captivity in a cave in Afghanistan.
Iron Man is filled with such offhand humour, and it proves to be the film's saving grace: although the picture is somewhat redeeming for Marvel Comics' superheroes after last year's tepid adaptations of the Silver Surfer and Ghost Rider, it's at its most entertaining when audiences are permitted a glimpse of the flawed human behind all the gravity-defying, tech-heavy antics. So it's the self-satire in Iron Man that's its highlight - and director Jon Favreau (best known for writing Swingers and playing laddish types) and Robert Downey Jnr (above) have it in spades.
It's especially true during the film's scene-setting first reel, when Stark is introduced. The film begins with the man - a cynical playboy utterly indifferent to the consequences of his business, revelling in being called 'a merchant of death'.