5 Ways "Iron Man" Breaks the Mold

With superhero movies prevalent almost to a fault, with seemingly every season bringing a comic book (or two) to the silver screen, it's easy to become restless and consider the whole genre a dime-a-dozen wasteland. And indeed some comics-to-film translations haven't shown the world much in the way of originality. But "Iron Man" mines considerable value from taking a few interesting directions you just generally don't get in movies like this, and they are

(1) Taking advantage of an actor's private life to showcase the character. It's difficult to think of any casting more apt-from-the-word-go than Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, unless somewhere out there is a Hollywood star who moonlights as a superhero; we take so much of Tony just from what we know about Downey. This serves the film especially well when you consider that Iron Man is not as well-known as, say, Superman or Spider-Man; we don't have years of pop culture immersion to help us along.

(2) On the flip side, taking advantage of an actor's cipherous qualities: the perpetually underrated Jeff Bridges makes for a fine villain of whom we're not sure what to expect, precisely because Bridges himself is not an easy actor to pin down, vanishing as ably into one role as into any. (The only analogue I can dredge up here is Alfred Molina as Dr. Octopus, himself not a choice you would know what to think of on paper.)

(3) Not turning the love interest into a bargaining chit, a damsel in distress or even just a generic love interest, but a person fully integrated into the story with contributions as subject rather than only object. As Virginia "Pepper" Potts, Gwyneth Paltrow creates a woman who understands her boss and friend Tony for all that he is, for better or worse, and exists perpetually plunged in his world rather than on the periphery. (Recall Selma Blair's wonderful turn in "Hellboy".)

(4) Internalizing the story, or, if not keeping the playfield itself internal, than hiding most of the game behind closed doors. So much of the movie takes place on Stark Industries or on government/military turf, rather than taking it to the streets; no bank robberies or burning buildings to contend with, only the machinations of men you might not recognize on the street but who nonetheless shape your world as they deal with each other.

(5) The last, oh, five seconds before the credits. Suffice to say that whatever you thought you knew about how a superhero story had to be told, particularly with respect to the all-important 'secret identity' gets turned on its head with a knockout punch. "Can you DO that?" was my first thought upon seeing that ending. Apparently you can.

With a full "Iron Man" trilogy in the works, it will be interesting to see what other new directions and twists the filmmakers can apply to the tried-and-true superhero saga. In the meantime, keep watching the skies.