Jon Favreau says 'Iron Man' is the real family blockbuster
The Wachowskis attempt to craft a family-film blockbuster with Speed Racer and cram in so many digital gewgaws and effects they arrive at the aesthetic equivalent of a pile-up.
Jon Favreau in Iron Man strives to make a sophisticated superhero movie and does his job so well that with New Hollywood personnel he creates the sort of classy Old Hollywood entertainment that adults, teens and kids all enjoy, albeit at different levels.
In an interview a month ago, he said parenthood actually helped him arrive at his current accomplishment.
"As people become parents, it takes a lot of wind out of their sails, creatively or as far as their career goes, because it becomes your life work," says Favreau. "But for me, what’s fun is I get to make movies that help me parent. I can even share the experience with my 6-year-old – 'Here, come to work with Daddy, here’s what I do, here’s this, take a look at this one.' Making movies that make my son light up becomes part of the parenting experience. Elf, Zathura and this one are not geared for a 6-year-old, but they’re something me and my 6-year-old are bonding over. "
Favreau’s dual parent-child perspective has enabled him to take family-film forms and give them just the right amount of twist to please critics without alienating regular moviegoers.
"The last thing you want to do is punish your audience for buying the ticket. I remember [the Schwarzenegger movie] The Last Action Hero – they were marketing it as an action movie, but it made fun of action movies, and, as a result, of the people who were going to see the movie. With Elf I thought it had to be a Christmas movie first and foremost – it couldn’t make fun of being a Christmas movie. And with superhero movies, it’s very much a Joseph Campbell rise-of-the-hero mythic story you are telling."
Simultaneously, though, Favreau aims to make films that are authentic and of their time. "I know when I made Elf, having grown up in New York, and Christmas movies meaning New York to me, to be able not too long after 9/11 to show the Empire State Building and all these landmarks and have people think of them in a way other than just as a terrorist target, it felt like it was liberating, offering hope and simplicity. It was such a complicated, anxious time.
"And now that it’s six or seven years later, in Iron Man, I think you can let the times inform the backdrop even more and you don’t run the risk of pulling people out of the story. The big thing was to express these anxieties everyone is feeling. ... Tony Stark is a guy who is literally oblivious, fooling around, having drinks in a HumVee, then he wakes up to see himself in a hostage video. I think that’s how America feels."
(Photo by Zade Rosenthal)
Comments
I thought IRON MAN was outstanding! With the rise of super hero movies, this one is a real crowd pleaser... Well done like Thanksgiving turkey!
More and more movies are getting that Keanu Reeves
moviedownloadmatrix touch!
Posted by: DeWayne | May 9, 2008 11:56 PM
It's not that this film was intellectually offensive that ruined it for me, it was just plain boring. How can a film with no plot have had such success at the box office?
Favreau arrogantly pours scorn on McTiernan's Last Action Hero but Iron Man is a complete failure as a 'sophisticated superhero movie'. I suspect anyone over the age of 12 will struggle to enjoy this film.
I want those two hours back.
Posted by: Burchell Wilson | May 10, 2008 5:20 AM
Ironman was awesome! Critics have given it over 90% positive ratings on review aggregator sites Metacritic and RottenTomatoes.com.
Best movie of the summer so far. See it!
Posted by: Jack | May 10, 2008 3:06 PM