This is not to say that these other movies cannot be enjoyed by adults; the three Spiderman movies earned a total of almost $2,500,000,000 worldwide, and it is doubtful that all those ticket stubs were purchased by children and adolescents. Indeed, many of the superhero movies have been embraced by older audiences because of their nostalgia-factor. Older Americans who grew up in an era of comic books or campy television shows (Batman, anyone?) can see their childhood heroes reincarnated on the big screen.
But it cannot be denied that the candy-colored, good vs. evil world of most superhero movies is largely fashioned and for young audiences, complete with broad, none-too-subtle themes that these audiences can understand.
Iron Man is not exempt from this simplified, family-fare kind of feel, but it does involve more sophisticated themes and characters than some other superhero films. For one thing, its eponymous main character, played by Robert Downey Jr., is far more worldly and jaded than any fresh-faced Tobey Maguire-type. Downey nails Stark’s rakish, spoiled playboy façade and gently alludes to Stark’s bitter streak; his parents long dead, Stark is largely alone and utterly purposeless, having inherited a weapons manufacturing company that he seems to care little about, as long as it continues to make him richer. He experiences a “change of heart,” so to speak, when he is attacked by a rogue terrorist group while traveling abroad… only to find that the group’s weapons have been provided by his own company.
This is a turning point not only for Stark but for the movie, which takes on themes of corporate corruption, greed, and the casualties of warfare. While Stark’s newly-created alter ego, Iron Man, attempts to battle these problems with might, Tony Stark must reconcile himself with the fact he has been inadvertently helping to maim and kill innocent people all over the world.
The obligatory romance-plot is also surprisingly mature. This is not because it is particularly sexualized (if anything, it’s utterly chaste; the romantic leads don’t even kiss). The love between Stark and his only confidant, his assistant Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), is touching in its subtlety. Pepper cuts an old-fashioned, His Girl Friday kind of figure, and the couple shares a mutual, unspoken respect and affection; they smilingly refer to each other only as “Miss Potts” and “Mr. Stark.” Their chemistry (the kind of chemistry that most superhero movie romances completely lack) is palpable, and Paltrow brings a sense of mature charm to the role. (And on the subject of supportive casting, also keep an eye out for great turns by Terrence Howard as Colonel James Rhodes and Shaun Toub as imprisoned scientist Yinsen.)
Director John Favreau was undoubtedly taking a chance in casting Downey in the title role. The actor not only has a legendary drug problem, but at 43, he is much older than Spiderman’s Tobey Maguire, Superman’s Brandon Routh, or even Batman Begins’ Christian Bale. (And at 36 years old, Paltrow is not a blushing Mary Jane Watson-type anymore.) But Downey is now clean, and his flawless performance flies in the face of anyone who thought he was too unstable or simply too old to tackle the role. In fact, it is his maturity, both as an actor and a human being, is what helps Downey to bring so much to his performance in what is arguably the best superhero movie to come out of Hollywood in years.
