Iron Man
The more I think about Iron Man the more I find it disappointing in its unwillingness to play things anything but safe. My biggest problem comes in Tony Stark’s change of heart regarding his company’s business model. After being ambushed and captured in a military convoy in Afghanistan while promoting a new missile system, he witnesses terrorists using his companies arms. Upon escaping and returning to Los Angeles, he decides that he wants Stark Enterprises to give up weapons manufacturing and focus on more peaceful and productive technologies. That’s all well and good, until the screenplay absolves Stark of involvement and true responsibility for those weapons falling into the enemy’s hands. Instead, it turns out to be a completely secret operation run by his partner, Obadiah Stane. The movie drops Stark’s examination of his life since the issue is presented less as an inherent issue of his chosen profession as one bad apple conducting secret and sinister weapons deals.
Rather than take a risk by giving the film’s protagonist culpability for more than basic executive negligence, he becomes an unwitting pawn. Perhaps worse, we only see Stark pay lip service to his plan to shift his company’s operations to peaceful productions. Stark follows his shocking declaration not by finding a way to mass produce the miniaturized Arc energy source that he quickly crafted in a terrorist cave, but by building a series of weaponized mechanical suits. Hmm, I’m not convinced Stark learned a damned thing at all. It seems he still believes that weapons are great as long as he can control them. And since Iron Man generally absolves him of any responsibility regarding Stark Enterprises technology reaching terrorists’ hands, the whole humanitarian angle is pretty much dropped by the end. Of course, none of that is to insinuate that the movie shouldn’t find a way to get Stark into the Iron Man suit, but rather to dare to touch on some of the character’s contradictions. It’s hard for me not to point to Batman Begins and the manner in which it delves into Bruce Wayne choosing to go after criminals by subverting the very legal structures he ultimately hopes to rebuild. In many ways, he has to become what he hates and fears most, and the film doesn’t shy away from these contradictions. Iron Man completely glosses over themes that can’t be generally reduced to black-and-white situations. It’s good light-hearted summer fun, but it could have been more. It could have actually said something.
I’d hope that the already announced sequel could deign to go a little darker with Tony Stark and examine the conflict between his company’s operations, what he claims to care about and what he actually does. Perhaps that could lead into the inevitable alcoholism plot.
