Thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, nearly every one in the world knows the Marvel heroes. Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Thor are household names now. However, while the characters origins may be simple, the origin of the MCU is not. Today we'll go back, and see the events that lead to one of the most successful film series of all time, while also giving time for reviews for each of the Phase One films.
In 1990, Universal Studios bought the film rights to Iron Man, and began plans to release the gold-plated hero to the silver screen. However, due to lackluster scripts, changes in rights ownership, and budget concerns, the movie never seemed to get off the ground. Eventually the new owners of New Line Cinema caved in and relinquished the rights back to Marvel. By this point, Marvel had already found a way to self produce their own movies, using Marvel Studios. It was at this point where they started not only looking for scripts for the Iron Man movie, but also to gain back the film rights to characters like Thor and the Hulk.
After a long process, Jon Favreau was brought on to direct, and the film was rushed into production. With the script being incomplete, and without time to be finished before the release date, they needed a main actor who could improvise extremely well. Enter Robert Downy Jr., who was selected through a massive screening process, in part because of his checkered past. Then add Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrance Howard, and Jeff Bridges, and the main cast was complete. After an intense production and lots of post-filming work, the movie managed to make it May 2 release, with plenty of press coverage. And what was the result? A massive hit. The film made back more than four times its budget, and RDJ's career took a major upswing. But how do I view the start of Phase 1?
Iron Man was a major step forward for superhero movies. This was one of the first where it felt like the man behind the suit was more important than the guy who went out punching. Tony's growth as a person is a great thing to see, and RDJ does a magnificent job of portraying Tony Stark as both a snide, sarcastic genius, and a human who realizes his entire world-view is wrong. Terrance Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow are great to, and you can really feel their exasperation with Tony, but also their happiness that he's on the right path, and doing something for more than just money or a good time. However, the villains were fairly weak. The leader of the Ten Rings movement (a possible [I haven't seen Iron Man 3 yet, so please, no spoilers!] hint at The Mandarin) has no real presence or effect on the plot, and Stane? Well, all I can say is they tried, but something just didn't click. Part of it may have been that Bridges was just a little TOO good at pretending to be Tony's friend, that it made it hard to accept it when he goes completely villainous. Bridges does a good job what he's given, but it's his character that really shows the parts where the script was incomplete. Conversely, a lot of Tony's lines definitely seem improvised, but in a way that feels natural to the character. It's not a knock on Bridges, it's really the script's fault. Clark Gregg, Agent Coulson, also is great, and really pops in what little screen time he's given. You can really see why he's the guy that ties everything together. So the cast was pretty good, how about the visual effects? In a word, breath-taking. You can never really tell where the CGI starts and where the practical parts stop, they're integrated so seamlessly. I never once found myself thinking 'This is so unrealistic', I could seriously buy that this suit existed. A big help to that was the sound editing as well, with the servos constantly moving and adjusting. The effects on both the Iron Man suit and the Iron Monger were just fantastic, and everything worked perfectly. Overall, it was a great movie. It may have had a few bumps in the road, but it was a definite game changer for superhero movies. Heck, one could almost say 2008 was the year of the superhero movie, with successes like Hellboy 2 and The Dark Knight also coming out. But we can't forget that one last one, and the next step in Phase One, The Incredible Hulk.
Trivia:
Stan Lee cameos as a man Tony believes to be Hugh Hefner.
One person in the running for director before Jon Favreau was selected was Joss Whedon, who would go on to direct The Avengers.
Tom Cruise and Nicholas Cage both expressed interest in playing the role of Tony in the 1990 film, and Quentin Terrintino was approached to write and direct.
After the credits, Samuel L. Jackson appears as Nick Fury, director of S.H.E.I.L.D. Another reference to the Avengers was Tony having a prototype of Captain America's shield.
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