Seven years after kicking off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man is still considered by many as not just a great Marvel project, but one of the best superhero films ever. Even with the heaps of critical praise this movie earned, it’s still not safe from the folks at Honest Trailers, who have made the 2008 film their latest target of ridicule. Take a look!
Citing Marvel selling their more popular properties like Spider-Man and the X-Men to other studios, the Screen Junkies crew starts off their trailer calling Iron Man the "equivalent of scrap metal," saying that this proves they can build a franchise around anybody…except The Hulk. From there they go into how the film cemented Marvel’s formula for printing money for their lesser known heroes. Several of those steps include casting an unknown or forgotten B-list actor as the lead, pit the hero against a generic villain that will only last one movie (Loki and Thanos notwithstanding), throw in plenty of quips and science ,and, perhaps most notably, attaching those post-credits scenes. Oh, and let’s not forget the Stan Lee cameos.
The trailer wastes no time poking fun at Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, comparing him to the proverbial "cool guy" that reduces Batman and Spider-Man to nerds. Of course, any of you who have seen Downey interviewed know that his real personality isn’t that much different from Tony Stark’s. Throw in him pretending to look at screens and a little voiceover work, and he has one of the easiest gigs ever that’s made him a fortune. Well played, Downey. Still, as badass as Iron Man is, he’s by no means perfect. Let’s not forget that his technology was used against him by the film’s big bad Obadiah Stane, a trend that would continue into Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. The trailer brings up a good point: if Tony just stopped tinkering, wouldn’t the world be a safer place?
Nitpicking aside, Iron Man remains one of the most influential superhero movies ever, since without it, we wouldn't have Thor, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, or any of the other successful MCU projects. Depending on your outlook, Marvel’s formulaic approach (which is also being used by Warner Bros. and Fox) may be tiresome since it doesn’t provide as much room for originality, but even if Iron Man is taken by itself without accounting for everything that followed, it remains a damn good film.
Although there aren’t any Iron Man movies are on the horizon, Tony Stark isn’t going anywhere. You can still see him in theaters fight alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and he will return next year for Captain America: Civil War.
