I sometimes have to stretch things a little to work my love of movies (especially sci-fi) into an addiction and recovery themed blog, but this is not the case at all with what may be the blockbuster to beat this summer, Ironman.
Robert Downey Jr. plays the iron clad superhero of Marvel Comics fame and Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Terrence Howard play supporting roles… all seemed exceptionally cast for their specific roles. This is especially true in Mr. Downey’s case, as a real life recovering alcoholic/addict he can draw upon personal experience when relating to Ironman’s Achilles’ heel, alcoholism. This of course is the reason this movie has been on my radar since its inception.
The movie keeps things simple which is a good thing considered it was spawned from a comic book, however it makes it almost impossible to tell much about the story without spoiling the entire movie. Here is your 10 second synopsis: Man builds super cool combat armor. Man waxes floor with terrorists. Betrayal. Bad guy armors up and almost prevails. Super cool armor and changed man inside triumph.
There really is not much else to the story, but the characters are believable and developed in an extremely small amount of time. The special effects are so good that you don’t even realize that they are there. It’s fast, fun, and even though it is chocked full of partisan topics including the government, arms dealers, and terrorism- the film stays refreshingly apolitical.
One of the first frames of the movie is a close up of a glass of scotch and throughout the movie it becomes obvious that Tony Stark, Ironman’s inventor and public persona, is a hard drinker but this does not become a large part of the story. (See 1979 "Demon in a Bottle" comic book edition of Iron Man to the left)
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