Mini-Reviews: Iron Man & Speed Racer

• IRON MAN: Why has Iron Man become such satisfying phenomenon? The answer: Robert Downey, Jr. In a movie industry overpopulated with whiny, dour, heavy-laden superheroes, Downey's take on Tony Stark is a welcome relief. A womanizer with an abundance of confidence, style, and dry wit, Stark is one of the only superheroes whose alter ego is more interesting than his superpowers. Downey has always been an ace at oddball characters with a disinterested, insouciant verbal prowess and from the first frame of the movie, his line delivery is perfection. Whether he is bantering with reporters, facing off with terrorists or conversing freely with his computer, Stark is imbued with an intelligence, humor and warmth that infuses the entire film with life. The origins of his superhero status take place in the current day Middle Eastern war zone; in fact, Stark is kidnapped by Afghani terrorists. This development worried me at first, but the film manages to incorporate these current world events organically into this tale without exploiting the politics of the situation. In fact, it is what Stark learns while kidnapped that inspires his superhero's greatest motivation - to shut down his arms-manufacturing plant. As we learned so sentimentally in Spiderman, "With great power comes great responsibility," but here that principle is connected to real world concerns (weapons manufacture and theft) which grounds the story in a kind of reality. As Stark's confidante assistant Pepper Potts and best friend Rhodey, both Gwyneth Paltrow and Terrence Howard have an easy chemistry with Downey. Paltrow's Potts is skittish, but with a backbone that acts as an amusing foil to Downey's overconfidence. And Howard has an easy rapport that does suggest a long friendship between the two characters. Neither was given much opportunity to shine in this first installment, but I hope if the franchise continues, their fascinating dynamics with Stark are further explored. The construction of the iron suit and it's many tests provide great action sequences, highlighted with humor, and Jeff Bridges is very sly as Stark's corrupt business parter. The only real flaw in the film comes in the final showdown. Although the villain was well-established, the face-off with Iron Man came off as clunky and without enough dramatic build-up to support it emotionally. It also hurts that the superhero and his nemesis are not visible for most of the fight due to their iron suits. However, my quibbles with the final action sequence are minor as the overall film provides ample destruction of higher quality. And let me just say, those who may have doubted Downey's ability to take on the role of a superhero, well they were wrong.

• SPEED RACER: This visual spectacle from the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix) is high on the adrenaline and low on the character development. From it's engaging and masterful opening race sequence we are introduced to the Racer family through a series of colorful flashbacks and an energizing action rhythm. However, the rest of the film never fully pays off on that original promise. We are plunged into a familiar morality tale as the integrity-laden Racer family is plunged into the shady world of corporate greed and corruption. Speed (Emile Hirsch, not required to do much but act the dewey innocent) is recruited by the evil Royalton Industries to train as their new racer. He passes because selling out led to the death of his older brother Rex in a race, a tragedy which hangs over the entire family. When Mr. Royalton threatens to force him out of the sport forever, Speed teams up with the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox) to overcome the odds, expose the bad guys, and make it to the Grand Prix. While the Racer family is noble, the inherent conflict of big business vs. honest family seems redundant and the actors aren't given any meaty character growth to sink their teeth into (which is a shame as both John Goodman and Susan Sarandon would be up to the task). The PG romance between Speed and his girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) is too tame for anyone over 10, and the antics of little brother Sprittle and the family monkey, Chim Chim, while true to the anime' character's original roots, seem lifted from an entirely different movie. Without the benefit of interesting characters, the film does have an impressive array of visual tricks in it's bag. Somehow the Wachowskis have created a world that utilizes the intense color palette and static background of a video game and synthesized it with both the extreme movement of an anime' film and the physicality of real actors. The final result is a seamless blend of environments that feels like a real world despite it's obvious inauthenticity. The film has been accused of having too aggressive a visual style, but I found it to be the most original and enjoyable aspect of the film. (As someone who counts Moulin Rouge as her favorite film, of course I am thrilled by a visual assault to the senses.) I have never been a fan of auto-racing, but was riveted by the action in each of the racing sequences and the ingenious feats performed by the drivers and their cars. And when the final, exhilarating race came to an end, I was surprised by how involved I had become in the adrenaline of the competition and the (marginal) emotional payoff for the main characters. The movie is definitely too long, and the family conflict never comes off as more than an oversimplified fight from an episode of "Full House" but the well-crafted action sequences in their amazing visual style have a catchy energy and made this a movie worth seeing.