Favorite Characters: Col. James Rhodes a.ka. War Machine (The Avengers)

I debated over whether to do a Favorite Characters or a Character Highlight here.  In the end, a) with Marvel, there’s always room in my heart for more, and b) I really do love Rhodey.  Took the MCU a while to get him there for me, but now, I always enjoy him (Rhodey-related spoilers.)

I feel a little bad, because I seem to bag on Terrence Howard every time I bring up Rhodey, but it’s true:  Rhodey 2.0 works for me so much more than Rhodey 1.0.  I like Howard fine as an actor (although I definitely prefer Don Cheadle overall,) but he just didn’t click for me in the role the way Cheadle does.  And to be fair, sometimes that just happens – while I’d generally pick Edward Norton over Mark Ruffalo, Ruffalo is easily the better Bruce for me.  And to be even fairer, some of it is the acting, but some of it is the writing, too.  In the first Iron Man, the phrase that continually comes to mind re:  Rhodey is “butt monkey.”  He’s Tony’s uptight friend who’s always on the receiving end of Tony’s ribbing, who’s forever thwarted in his attempts to keep Tony in some sort of line.  I can practically hear the sad trombone music following him around.

And in Iron Man 2 and beyond, that’s not who Rhodey is.  I’m not even quite sure how to describe it, because superficially, the two versions of the character aren’t hugely different.  There’s still a lot of comic relief at Rhodey’s expense – like his Hammer weaponry fizzling out during the final fight in Iron Man 2, the insurgents he’s holding at gunfight snickering at him when he admits his password (“warmachinerox”) to Tony in Iron Man 3, the Avengers not being impressed with his tank story in Age of Ultron – but it feels different.  For whatever reason, Cheadle’s Rhodey has more of a backbone than Howard’s, and he’s more likely to roll his eyes and go, “Are you kidding me?” than anything else when this stuff happens.  The humor around Cheadle’s Rhodey usually makes me laugh, while Howard’s often makes me cringe on his behalf, and a lot of that is down to how the two version of Rhodey react to what’s going on.

But enough of all that.  What else do I want to say about Rhodey?  I like that he’s a purely non-super hero, and not even a nonpowered person with incredible genius like Tony or an insane, dark, spy-training backstory like Natasha.  I mean, he’s an army colonel, and he got where he is for a reason, but he’s still an ordinary, if very competent, person stepping into this comic-book world.  As a result, he’s not at the same level as Tony or Cap or Thor.  He’s very much a man in a suit, but he’s a brave one, and he often holds his own even when the odds are a lot bigger than he is.  I like that, despite the War Machine suit getting hijacked in Iron Man 2, he still does everything he possibly can to help Tony, keeping radio contact and warning him of impending attack.  I love his save of President Ellis in Iron Man 3, jumping into all that chaos without a suit and just doing what needs to be done.  In the midst of all that’s going on with Tony, Pepper, Killian, and the zillion Iron Man suits in that fight, it’s a terrific moment that’s all about Rhodey.

Interested to see what’s going to happen with Rhodey moving forward, how successful Tony’s robotics will be in helping him combat his paralysis and what place he’ll have in fighting the good fight.  I don’t know that he has enough tech savvy to take on an eye-in-the-sky sort of role (not a knock, just that whatever tech the Avengers would use for monitoring missions from the outside is likely to be crazy advanced,) but maybe some sort of liaison?  Given the Accords, they’re going to need someone like that, and Rhodey’s close relationship with the U.S. government (not to mention diplomatic skills that greatly outweight Tony’s) could be useful.

Favorite Characters: Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man (The Avengers)

Even if we’re only counting the six Avengers from the first movie, Tony is probably my fourth or fifth favorite.  However, that’s a testament to how much I love Cap, Black Widow, and Thor, not any knock against Tony.  He’s a highly-entertaining, integral part of the team, and the MCU might not have the huge franchise it does today if the first Iron Man hadn’t been so good (Tony-related spoilers.)

Tony made a great jumping-off character for the franchise, and not just because Marvel was able to cast Robert Downey Jr.  He’s an engaging character with a strong origin story that’s more of a personal journey than an acquisition of powers.  Seeing the beginnings of non-powered heroes can be interesting because, while superhuman abilities are often acquired unintentionally (like Spider-Man or Daredevil) or differently than expected (like the Hulk,) someone without powers who sets out to do the work of a superhero makes a clear choice that they really don’t have to make.  (Yes, powered people obviously have a choice as well, but with superpowers, you kind of have to address what you’re going to do with them.  The rest of us have no such necessity.)  As such, Iron Man’s origins are about how Tony becomes the man who makes the choice he does.

Granted, that choice initially comes about because of something unexpectedly thrust upon him:  being struck by the shrapnel of one of his own bombs and held captive by terrorists.  Tony’s injuries lead him to make the arc reactor, and making the first prototype of the suit allows him to escape his captors, but that’s not precisely what leads the self-absorbed genius inventor/playboy billionaire to put his life on the line for others.  He’s horrified to learn that his weapons have wound up in the wrong hands – among returning home, he shuts down Stark Industries’ arms division, and his first mission in the revamped suit is a plan to take out the terrorists who’ve benefited from his company’s dirty dealings.  Even though he himself wasn’t involved in selling weapons to terrorists, the fact that he designed them makes him feel responsible, and he can’t let it stand without trying to make it right.

Tony can come off as cavalier and flippant – and to be sure, he has refined his sarcasm to an art – but really, so many of his major decisions are fueled by emotional reactions to what happens to him.  Facing up to his own mortality has, at different points in the franchise, sent him on self-destructive spirals and led him to obsessively make better and badder suits in an unending quest for invulnerability.  In Age of Ultron, all the Avengers are affected by the Scarlet Witch’s mental manipulation, but the fears she reveals within Tony lead him to create Ultron, a misguided attempt to keep the whole world safe that backfires spectacularly.  And in turn, it’s the Ultron disaster that causes Tony to support the Sokovia Accords in Captain America:  Civil War, almost a complete 180 from his typical “it’s up to me to fix everything” MO (although he’s still convinced that he’s the one in the right – Tony will be Tony.)  In this way, he can feel inconsistent, because his reactions are often so extreme and can contradict each other from movie to movie, but I see why he does the things he does.  Tony is a guy who’s so driven to help and so sure that he can that he never does anything by half measures.  He always throws everything into a plan or an invention, which means he frequently takes it too far, and each course correction leaves him a little further off the mark.  It’s hard to know if he’ll ever get the balance just right; personally, I hope not, because that would probably mean his journey was over.

Iron Man 3 (2013, PG-13)

As a comic book movie, Iron Man 3 is pretty great, and as a Marvel film, it’s pretty good.  Compared to its other Phase 2 siblings, I’d say it’s not as excellent as Captain America:  The Winter Soldier or Guardians of the Galaxy, but it’s more solid than Thor:  The Dark World.  The villains are a mixed bag, the action is terrific, and the personal stuff strikes a good balance, staying in the forefront without dragging the proceedings down with lots of manufactured drama.

After the events of The Avengers, Tony is, by and large, trying to avoid dealing with his post-traumatic stress.  He stays awake for days on end, designing and constructing an ever-increasing number of Iron Man suits, he’s been having panic attacks and intrusive flashbacks, and he can’t admit any of his struggles to Pepper.  As he scrambles for something solid to hang onto, some assurance that he’s as strong and in-control as he was before The Avengers, he throws himself into a clash with the latest public menace:  a cryptic figure known as the Mandarin, an international terrorist with an old-testament sense of justice and a flair for the theatrical.  Along the way, Tony’s recklessness and desperation gets him in trouble, and he winds up having to enter the fray without much of his usual protection.

It’s a nice film for Tony.  His PTSD issues feel much more organic than the stuff he deals with in Iron Man 2, and while he still spends a lot of time running from his problems, you can tell that he really is maturing.  I love the DIY Tony scenes, where he’s stuck in the field with limited resources and has to rely on his brains to MacGyver together some pretty impressive gadgets out of household objects.  There’s a subplot with an adorable moppet that gets a bit cheesy at times, but for the most part, Tony keeps just enough bite that it doesn’t feel cloying.

I’d say this film has my favorite Iron Man antagonists so far, although the baddies and their plans are still the movie’s weakest element.  The Mandarin is used in an interesting way, the final battle is pretty sweet, and one throwaway scene with a random security grunt eager to escape with his life might contain my favorite one-liner from a nameless character in any Marvel movie ever.  On the other hand, the villains’ “sci” gets too “fi” in places – I know Iron Man movies are all about their insane technology, but this is a bit much – and it generally feels like they go way too far to preserve what they’re trying to do.

I’m still loving Don Cheadle as Rhodey, by the way.  Some of it is definitely improved writing from his characterization in the first movie, but some of it is Cheadle’s acting, too.  Rhodey’s repartee with Tony is a ton of fun, and while Tony still takes advantage of their friendship and Rhodey has to play second fiddle a lot, he never feels like the franchise butt-monkey.  Instead, he gives nearly as good as he gets with Tony, and he pulls off some impressive fighting in the climax.  As for new actors in this film, Ben Kingsley does quite a bit with the Mandarin, Guy Pearce (though I’ve seen him in a lot of things, I always think of him first as Mondego in The Count of Monte Cristo) is effective as a former-geek-turned-think-tank-mogul, and Rebecca Hall (Sylvia from Parade’s End!) does a nice job in a relatively thankless role as a visionary scientist.

Warnings

Comic book violence (including some grisly images,) sexual references, and language.

Iron Man 2 (2010, PG-13)

Okay, so Iron Man 2 is my least favorite Avengersverse film to date.  Not an original stance, I know, but there we are.  It’s not without some merits, but overall, it features a lackluster villain and some needless Complications for Teh Drama, and it doesn’t have the same spark as Iron Man’s first outing.  (Some spoilers.)

Six months after Tony announces himself to the world as Iron Man, his life isn’t quite the superhero playboy billionaire’s dream he’d like it to be.  Sure, he’s kicking butt, taking names, and keeping the world safe, which has him swimming in adulation and sexually-adventurous admirers, but it’s not all roses.  Chiefly, there’s the palladium core of the arc reactor that powers the Iron Man suit; the cores are burning out as fast as he can replace them, and they’re slowly poisoning his blood.  His large-looming mortality is the foremost problem on his mind, but he also has the military on his back (they think his suit should be turned over to them) and a buffed-up, tech-savvy foe with a mysterious vendetta against him. 

The whole “Tony is dying” subplot is poorly handled.  Mainly, it just makes Tony act extra immature and dickish, keep secrets from everyone, and take death-wish risks without explaining why.  Plus, the show mixes in a few daddy issues just for the heck of it, and both hindrances feel half-baked.  Maybe they’re thrown in to distract from the Big Bad, the not-so-bad Ivan Vanko (with an additional quasi-nemesis in the form of arms-dealing rival Justin Hammer.)  Admittedly, not many of Marvel’s films have really well-done villains, but Vanko definitely doesn’t cut it for me.  I like his tear-up-the-joint Whiplash persona, mostly because the CGI on his electrified whips is pretty cool and his first big fight with Tony is nicely executed.  On the whole, though, he’s nothing to write home about.

This film also marks a pretty inauspicious beginning for Black Widow.  Now, I love me some Natasha, but her role here largely requires her to pose as an uninteresting personal assistant.  Except for the few occasions in which she gets to throw down, she basically there for Tony to ogle, and that’s just wrong.  And even when she drops the pretense and joins the action, there’s almost no sense of her as a character, as a person.  Simply unacceptable.

When I reviewed Iron Man, I mentioned my lukewarm feelings on Terrence Howard’s Rhodey and tried to remember if it was the writing or the Don Cheadle recast that made me enjoy Cheadle’s Rhodey better.  Having now rewatched the first of Cheadle’s appearance as Rhodey, I’d say it’s probably both.  Though Tony still has no qualms about walking all over Rhodey, the character doesn’t have the same long-suffering feel he had in his first outing.  This Rhodey takes Tony’s antics more in stride and snarks back pretty well, and with Cheadle at the helm, he comes across as Tony’s exasperated friend rather than his eternally-outsmarted babysitter.  Also, Rhodey takes a greater part in the proceedings here, largely thanks to the arrival of War Machine.  Is his first rodeo a success?  No – he gets way in over his head (only partially his fault,) but even when he’s on the ropes, he does whatever he can to back Tony.  I like that.

Warnings

Comic book violence, sexual references, language, and some drinking.

Iron Man (2008, PG-13)

This was the only Phase One Marvel film I saw prior to being blown away by The Avengers – everything else came afterwards in a catch-up frenzy – and while it wasn’t the Best Comic Book Movie Evah, I found it to be cool, entertaining, and well-made.  Now, watching it again, I can see that the Marvel movieverse has come a long way, but it certainly started on the right foot with this film.

Just from a personal standpoint, I’ve enjoyed the Thor and Captain America franchises more than the Iron Man films, largely because of how they play around more with other, non-superhero genres and make for more original viewing.  Iron Man, while an excellent example of a comic book film, is a bit more typical, so it doesn’t stand out as much.  Still, preferences aside, this movie is fantastically fun to watch, and I love Tony Stark’s journey from a devil-may-care playboy to a cocky but dedicated hero.

Any discussion of Iron Man has to start with the man himself, and Robert Downey Jr.’s performance deserves plenty of credit for the franchise’s success.  He superbly marries the different parts of Tony’s personality and makes them all feel internally consistent.  He’s a partying womanizer, he’s a wildcard billionaire, he’s an incurable smart-aleck, and he’s a workaholic tech genius.  I like that he doesn’t start out as a “good guy,” that he’s self-centered and a little callous.  His character’s transformation is probably the most unique thing about the film.  His experiences – being kidnapped by insurgents in Afghanistan and nearly killed by the shrapnel from one of his own bombs – change him, shake him out of his complacency, and he can’t help but be moved to action.

Tied in with Tony’s complex characterization is the creation of the Iron Man suit itself.  I love that, for all his shallowness and frivolity, he’s also utterly creatively brilliant and can do things that no one else can.  Starting with his imprisonment, where he designs and builds the chest plate that keeps him alive after the bombing, along with his first iteration of the suit, it’s a blast to watch him at work.  I like his innovations, his screw-ups, his fractious relationship with his robotic assistants, and his complete elation when he succeeds.  And of course, I love that, while the suit obviously allows him to do superhuman stuff, his real superpower is his brain.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts is no Black Widow or Peggy Carter, but I enjoy her as a relatively capable comic-book love interest.  Generally speaking, she’s pretty unflappable, she shows both guts and initiative, and she doesn’t let Tony walk all over her.  I’ll have more to say on Rhodey after I rewatch installments 2 and 3 – as of right now, though, I’m not quite feeling Terrence Howard’s performance.  I don’t know if I’m just used to Don Cheadle now or if the writing for the character has changed, but I didn’t enjoy him as much here as I do in later films.

Warnings

Comic book violence (along with more realistic combat scenes,) some drinking, and sexual content.