2008 is quite possibly the most important year for superhero movies. This is mainly due to two films that came out that year. It was the year both The Dark Knight and Iron Man were released. The Dark Knight helped usher in more mature and thematically significant superhero films. At the same Iron Man began the phenomenon that would become known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite the many films and streaming series that have come out since then, Iron Man still remains one of the strongest MCU entries.
In this film, Tony Stark, the billionaire head of the weapon manufacturing company Stark Industries, rethinks everything when he is kidnapped and held in an Afghan cave. There he finds that terrorists have a hold of his weapons. He creates a weaponized suit of armor to help fight evil himself becoming the superhero Iron Man.
This still stands as one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. Its not-so-secret weapon is Robert Downey Jr. as the main character. He is utterly fantastic here and makes you easily believe every second. He is charismatic in a way that you can completely understand how so many falls so easily under his character's charm. He delivers the comedic moments with an expertly handled sarcastic wit. Yet he can also truly make you feel the emotions in the more serious moments. While this movie works heavily due to him, the supporting cast is also great including his love interest (Gwyneth Paltrow) and his best buddy (Terrence Howard). Both of these co-stars not only are excellent in their roles, but they have great chemistry with Robert Downey Jr. Much of the film's success is also due to Jeff Bridges as the villain. He is perfectly cast as a villain that you simply love to hate. Many of the later MCU films would suffer from weak villains making it quite extraordinary that the first MCU villain is actually a complete success.
Another important factor for this film's success is the balance of tone. This movie perfectly knows when to be dead serious and when to be silly comic book style fun. The filmmakers and cast were able to capture both the serious moments and the fun moments completely perfectly. Unlike in some later MCU movies, the sillier moments and the more serious moments never get in the way of each other. This is because both come so naturally out of the story and characters that you don't even think about the tonal shift. Instead, both aspects just feel like a natural progression of the story. The serious scenes also hold a surprising amount of weight reflecting on the time it was made in and the political turmoil present. Yet it always has enough humor and comic book fun to keep the movie from becoming too serious. The humor and action here are both excellent. There are multiple times watching this movie that I laughed out loud. The action set pieces are fantastic being both a lot of fun and full of a real sense of tenseness. The final battle still remains one of the action highlights of the MCU.
One of the most important parts of this film is its after credits scene, where Nick Fury shows up to tell our hero about the Avengers initiative. Not only did this start the trend of superhero films having a post credit scene (which would eventually become true of most franchise films), but it also hinted at this movie being a part of a much bigger universe, something that had never been done previously. Originally there were hints in this scene about the X-Men and Spider-Man, both of which at the time had their movie rights owned by other studios. Spider-Man wouldn't join the MCU until Captain America: Civil War (2016) and the first MCU X-Men movie is yet to be released. About casting Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, director Jon Favreau stated, "We wanted something for the fans.... Nick Fury from the Ultimates — which is a new series of books that sort of reconceives the tradition of Marvel characters — he was always depicted to resemble Samuel L. Jackson. And so I turned to [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige and said, 'You know what would blow their minds? Should we so this?' Kevin was like, 'Let's try.' And then we actually pulled it together. It was just a little scene, just a little tip of the hat for the fans that we were paying attention to what had been established, and a way to sort of tee up the Avengers. We brought [Jackson] in on a secret day of shooting, we had a skeleton crew so that the secret wouldn't get out — and then, like, not even a week later, it got out. Sam was trying to deny it. It became a big deal. People were sure and they knew about it and they knew it was real. I don't know how they knew. Somehow it slipped.... It was Kevin's idea to cut [the scene] off all preview prints. And so the fan boys who would interview me [before the movie opened] would be like, 'What happened? Did you cut it out? Is it going to be on the DVD?' I was like, 'Look, it's only fun if it's a surprise.' Then we slapped it right back on the print for the premiere, so the first people to see it in theaters actually got to see it for the first time. I think that was a very, very clever way to keep the dialogue going with the fans, because if you don't have any tricks up your sleeve, they feel like they've already seen the whole movie before they did."
As well as directing the film, Jon Favreau also acted in the movie playing Tony's bodyguard and chauffer, Happy. He would return to this role in plenty of the future MCU movies. Favreau had been acting in films since the 1990's appearing in such movies as Rudy (1993), Batman Forever (1995), Deep Impact (1998), The Replacements (2000) and Daredevil (2003). His pre-Iron Man directorial efforts include Elf (2003) and Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005). Though he would go on to act in more MCU films, Favreau would only direct one more, Iron Man 2 (2010). His most famous post-Iron Man directorial efforts were the "live action" Disney remakes, The Jungle Book (2016) and The Lion King (2019).
The credited writers on this film are Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. This is the only MCU movie for any of these writers. However, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway would work on two non-MCU Marvel movies, Punisher: War Zone (2008) and Kraven the Hunter (2024). Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby would work on another Jon Favreau movie, Cowboys and Aliens (2011).
The movie was a major hit grossing $585.8 million worldwide. It had the eleventh biggest opening weekend at the time. Not only did audiences enjoy this movie but critics praised it as well. Roger Ebert gave the movie four out of four stars. He especially praised Robert Downy Jr.'s performance stating, "At the end of the day it's Robert Downey Jr. who powers the lift-off separating this from most other superhero movies." A.O. Scott of The New York Times called this, "an unusually good superhero picture. Or at least – since it certainly has its problems – a superhero movie that's good in unusual ways." Leonard Maltin had a contrary opinion. In his famous movie guide he states, "Not-bad adaption of the Marvel comic book ... but there are too many misfired ideas (like the Middle Eastern setting, uncomfortably real for a piece of escapist entertainment) and a retro heroine in Paltrow's lovesick Girl Friday." After the box office and critical success David Maisel (who was Marvel Studio's chairman) stated, “I couldn’t imagine a better blast off for our new Marvel Studios than this. The Marvel brand is beloved. People know it stands for a summer, family-friendly action movie. And we had fantastic casting.”
Resources Used
Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide: The Modern Era by Leonard Maltin.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/iron-man-2008
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/movies/02iron.html
https://ew.com/movies/2019/09/14/deleted-iron-man-post-credits-scene-kevin-feige/
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