Iron Man

Iron Man ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Director: Jon Favreau. Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges

14 years after its original release, it’s easy to think of this just like another Marvel film and possibly forget just how pivotal this film is. If the cinema landscape of today looks like the way it does, for better or worse, we may have to thank Iron Man – or possibly blame it, depending on the point of views: this is a complex subject, but I’ll just say that if it weren’t for these big Marvel films, even more cinemas would be closed today… Food for thought.

I know I usually don’t put any “half stars” in my reviews, but this one really deserves to be placed above many of the others, even if it does lose a little bit of its steam towards the last twenty minutes as it becomes a rather too conventional good guy vs bad guy fist battle. But aside from that, this is as close to a perfect action movie as they come… Anyway, it’s my page, so I’ll do whatever I want

It made Iron Man an icon (as far as I’m concerned I could not care less about Iron Man before this film) and Robert Downey Jr. one of the most bankable actors in Hollywood. Let’s face it, this is really his show and today it’s impossible to see anyone playing Tony Stark, just as it is impossible to see Han Solo, without Harrison Ford or the Godfather without Brando…

His vibrant charm, his charisma and his witty sense of humour and are infectious and the main reason why this film works so well. Let’ s remember at the time, with Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four still fresh in people’s minds, this was really not a sure thing at all.

Watching it with my 9 years old at my side, I was a bit thrown back by how dark and scary the first half was (though highly effective), but once we’re back from Afghanistan and we are also back into “origin territory”, the real comic-fun begins: with some wonderfully humorous scenes and some great special effects which actually have not aged and raised the bar for not just all the comic- inspired movies that followed, but action movies in general.

This is the best mainstream popcorn action entertainment can be… and with it, history was made.

Belfast

BELFAST ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Director: Kenneth Branagh. CAST: Jude Hill, Lewis McAskie, Caitriona Balfe

Kenneth Branagh has got a real ‘eclectic’ filmography under his belt… From his Shakespearian masterpieces (Henry V, Hamlet), to superheroes (Thor), to pointless mediocrity (Murder on the Orient Express), as well as some real ‘stinkers’, like the infamous (and rather embarrassing) “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, or Sleugh (You’re probably asking yourself “What is that?”, to which I say “Exactly!”) and the recent terrible series Artemis Fowl, for Disney Plus. 

“Belfast” signals a real return to form for the director, possibly because you can clearly tell his heart this time is in it. 

In fact this a semi-autobiographical film about his own childhood in Northern Island, living through the violent clash between Protestants and Catholics.

But the film is not what you might expect. Branagh chooses a rather counter-intuitive approach right from the start when we are treated by a sleek montage sequence of modern Belfast drenched in sunshine, in all its beauty, cut to a song by Van Morrison (in fact his songs are playing throughout the whole film). It’s scene which seems to be produced by some council-driven tourist shop, but as unexpected as it is, it is also clearly meant to put us in the right frame of mind for the story we are about to watch. This is a love letter to the city: a film dedicated to “the ones who stayed, the ones who left…. And all the ones who got lost…”.

Even beyond the surprising start, once the film dips into black and white, Branagh maintains a lightness of touch throughout, deciding to give us the point of view of a child for most of the film: a rather sentimentalised and sanitised version (or recollection) which resembles more like a picture postcard than a historical piece. The streets are pristine clean, the people in it are looking beautiful and happy: poverty is something they talk about but it doesn’t seem to weight too much of the life of the boy who still gets his present from Santa at Christmas and he’s allowed to spend time playing in the streets and gets lost in the beauty of theatre plays and movies (in fact the only colours in the film are the ones seen through the TV screen or in the cinema). Knowing what’s going to become of Branagh, this makes perfect sense (as well as one brief shot of the kid reading a comic of Thor).

His alter-ego in the film, little ‘Buddy’ is surrounded by a whole series of characters whom he loves: the pretty (and almost unreachable) girl in school, the wise grandfather who helps him out with maths (a real scene-stealer Ciarán Hinds, charming as ever), the grandmother (Judy Dench who manages to give huge depth to a massively underwritten character) and of course mother, always depicted looking gorgeous and wearing perfect make-up and father, singing and dancing “like Fred Astair” (a line from the film). And yes, there are some violent clashes too and looting going on in shops, but most of those are either played almost for laughs or bare no weight to the life of the child. 

It is a charming film and even if rather predictable, a bit simplistic and way too flashy in a few places (like carefully constructed shots of people standing in impossible positions so that their silhouettes can look perfect against the moody sky, while other characters are talking to each other, but straight down the camera lens, for no apparent reasons), it’s still highly entertaining film, funny and heart-warming at the same time and beautifully filmed (a bit too beautiful some people have argued, missing the point). A real crowd-pleaser, and a very possible contender at the Oscars this year. 

Out this Friday (21st January)