Like the very much anti-imperialist slant Iron Man is somewhat going for, but I do find it a bit confused. Tony Stark realizing his weapons are just propagating the terrorism from home and how the US generates the war effort from weapon manufacturers, but it still has a messy lens from Bush-era politics of intervening still because "it's personal", where it seeps in somewhat as a creator mad at its misuse because it's on his conscience (Gulmira is a personal attachment from Yinsen and his weapons are still being misused), rather than a climb to sanity towards the tools of destruction, although it does go a few steps forwards on this, and it's one person rather than the military. Still an imperialist justification innit?

I like how Stark is confronted character wise on his arrogance, but it doesn't get rid of his smarminess and it makes him mostly unlikable for me even with scenes with Pepper that are heartfelt. At least he's called out for it, dumbly trying to right himself and the film exposits it as a messy road with consequences despite his well-intentions (he almost gives Obadiah tools of even bigger destruction if he wasn't there to intervene in the end).

Pepper really showcasing the weird, awkward, and slightly yikes power gap in the relationship of an employer and their employee. I get that the movie lampshades this by having Pepper literally point it out, even trying to close the power gap a bit with how he "wouldn't even be able to tie his shoes" without her, giving her quitting more possible weight to the other firing her, but it's still weird!

The few soundtrack choices are excellent (Suicidal Tendencies... perfection), but the score itself is weak as hell. I don't know a single musical score for a film from Ramin Djawadi that was ever any good, the closest being Pacific Rim and that wasn't even all him (Tom Morello helped out on a few notable songs)! Only good stuff is for TV a la Prison Break, Game of Thrones, or Westworld, and the last one is mostly orchestral covers even if they're used well. Maybe it's because he doesn't put up much of a fight with directors like Favreau when it comes to temp tracks in film? Not sure. Still very weak, impossible to note. Even for the scenes' use it's very disappointing, barely adding anything save for the strings coming through in the mix at very predictable times for something "epic".

It's so nice to see a film that isn't grey as fuck color grading, but also the nighttime itself isn't that pretty. I don't need CG lens flares but it's too muted for the most part. There are pretty shots like the "Jericho" presentation and Iron Man falling down from a tank shot, and the IMAX Enhanced version does add a bit more depth to some shots like the mountains. Not that huge of an improvement, but noticeable! CG is also great for the most part save for some spotty parts in the end (bobbing head with Obadiah), but the Iron Man suit... master class.

I think the film is mostly well shot for action pieces, but other than the last fight and the mass explosions of the weapons at the end of the first act, I wasn't super impressed. Felt like the action was just underbaked in terms of how it's showcased and written, or maybe my bar is too high. It's neat though to see gadget-y things like the targeting in the hostage situation. At least it's not CUT CUT CUT.

For a film that's clearly trying to stay away from an R rating, laughing really hard at the... "interesting" POV from the bus in the last fight to look visually stimulating. Iron Man gets hit into the bus, and the cut into the view from the bus gives visual information that somebody is looking outside AT him, implying there are people in there... and then the bus is blown up with no bodies. The explanation comes earlier, there's a scene with people mass evacuating from the bus, but I think it's interesting visual confusion.

Top tier performance from Jeff Bridges. The meme of a box of scraps is probably because it's such a killer performance of the line. I also like RDJ, Paltrow, and Howard, really funny in particular to hear Howard say "humanitarian" so loudly, a parallel to Bridges calling the peaceful people "hippies", performances really hammering in that point. Bridges is so good in a villainous role.

Breath of fresh air to have a MCU film that isn't wall to wall in quips. My sister pointed out that the quips are mostly from RDJ, while the rest are mostly visual gags like harsh cuts, which is my fav humor in the film tbh. I love the setup-punchline of it ("No I won't be drinking...." 1 harsh cut later and he's completely drunk), wonder if that's what Favreau is known for. The quips are also characterized, where RDJ is more of reactionary quipping as he's clearly not in full control ever (constantly missing timelines, emotionally wrecked internally, etc.). I don't think quips on their own are bad. Think facing adversity with humor is just a very human thing in general (a la Rhodes with "how was the Fun-vee?"), but I also think it's better that it's rare instead of all the time.

Frankly would've edited that entire scene of Iron Man saving the military guy with his parachute out of the film. It's tonally confused in the concept of him trying to run away from the military/going rogue by himself, and it barely gets any weight so the payoff is worthless. I'm totally up for superheroes saving the common guy, there's a funny moment after saving the people in Gulmira with leaving the person responsible for gunning them up without his gun, in the middle of a crowd that's absolutely going to do some avenging (hehe), but you can't make the military trying to shoot him and then "help save me" the next second.

To sum it up, messy anti-imperialism theming but mostly decent film with a good character direction for Tony Stark.

Rewatched on Disney+, IMAX Enhanced Edition