Iron Man (2008)

Let’s talk about a great recent trailer. Let’s talk Iron Man.

(For shiny QuickTime version, go here.)

As readers of current Marvel comics know, Tony Stark is a prick. A rich, arrogant prick with no qualms about using his vast knowledge and wealth to create instruments of death. Robert Downey Jr. nails this aspect dead center. If you didn’t know going in what the movie was, you’d think this was a Lord of War retread, but a much wittier one, with Downey Jr. getting lots of crowd-pleasing lines.

Then we flip into Tony’s capture and captivity, with deft, ominous use of “Hey Man Nice Shot.” We see him building…something…and then, boo-yah!, we get the crude first suit, with the blaring accompaniment of… “Iron Man.” Yes. How obvious. How cheesy. And yet it works.

After that, we get glimpses of the rest of the cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, a bearded and bald Jeff Bridges, and Terrence Howard. Then, oh then, we get the familiar red and yellow suit in action, racing a couple of jets.

The trailer puts across the humanity as well as the comic-book grandeur of a film everyone is hoping will be as good as the trailer. Paramount put this out waaay early, but it has already stoked anticipation, which is what a trailer is there for.

~ by Rob Gonsalves on September 17, 2007.