Iron Man (film)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Adaptational Attractiveness: Not that Sam Rockwell is necessarily a looker, but his Justin Hammer is certainly a step up from the comics' much older, wrinkly version of the character.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Almost everything in the first movie, it has probably the fewest Ruined FOREVER of a major adaptation ever.
    • Genndy freakin Tartakovsky storyboarded the sequel.
    • Not that it needed it, but the second trailer for IM2 ended with Tony putting on a collapsible, suitcase sized Iron Man suit. It says something that pretty every single blog post, everywhere, about said trailer used that shot as the illustration.
    • News of Shane Black directing the third movie made several fans happy campers.
  • Awesome Music: The movie has a traditional score soundtrack, it also has a licensed soundtrack that contains nothing but best of ACDC songs used in the film one way or another.
    • Actually, there are only two ACDC songs used in the movie.
  • Base Breaker: The brusque, collected Natasha Romanoff is easily the most understated major character in the either film when it comes to personality tics. Some fans liked this, finding her icy and enigmatic while others found her bland and lacking in personality. This is difficult to gauge considering Natasha spends the majority of her time undercover so she doesn't have much time to display her true personality.
    • An interview with the director revealed that the more flirtatious scenes between Natasha and Tony were cut to preserve the Tony/Pepper relationship. A scene from the first trailer even features Natasha smiling.
  • Complete Monster: Obadiah Stane in the first film, who is totally evil and he knows it, willing to sell out Tony, his company, and even his own country just so he could be in control of ultimate power. Both of the second film's villains avert this trope, with Vanko being an Anti-Villain and Justin Hammer being an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain. The Mandarin also known as Aldrich Killian in movie 3, on the other hand....
  • Crosses the Line Twice:
    • The scenes where Tony kept smacking into things while testing his suit was funny in all the wrong ways. "10% thrust." Splat!
    • In the sequel, the video footage of the Hammerdroid's test malfunction (twisting around in a spine-snapping way) evokes a That's Gotta Hurt gasp of sympathy from the audience. But Hammer's mealy-mouthed attempts to gloss over the failure by insisting that the pilot survived cross it back into a joke at his expense is quite funnier, as is his later statement that people are reluctant to volunteer to test them "for some reason".
    • Also in the sequel, Tony's birthday party. "Iron Man, how do you go to the bathroom in that suit? ...just like that." Not funny. Giving an actual technobabble answer about filtration and being able to drink that? Now it's funny.
  • Draco in Leather Pants / Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Judging by the internet, a significant portion of Russian viewers seems to be rooting for Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, despite his villainous status. Given that his behavior qualifies him as a Magnificent Bastard and he comes across as a much more credible and threatening villain than Justin Hammer, combined with some patriotism, this is no surprise.
  • Ear Worm: The Stark Expo theme, as played over the closing credits. Make way! Make way! Tomorrow's heading our way... And written by Richard Sherman, one of the masters of the earworm, having written "It's a Small World" and many other catchy Disney songs.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • "Dynalash" for Ivan Vanko, due to being a composite of the Crimson Dynamo and Whiplash.
    • A beam superweapon that spins around and destroys everything nearby? The only name for that is "Death Blossom".
    • "Iron Man Lite" for the Mark V suitcase armor.
    • The drones? Hammer 'roids.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: "Next time, baby."? Well, not so much for Terrence Howard.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: There is no reasonable way that Tony's quick whisper-chat with Rhodes (at the Senate meeting) wasn't scripted to reference a certain unpleasant dispute from the first film. "...Next time, baby."
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • The formal event in the middle of the first film takes place at the Disney Concert Hall (guess who owns Marvel now?). Also, the fighters pursuing Tony go by "Whiplash" One and Two (the Walt Disney Concert hall has nothing to do with the Disney company and was endowed by a private foundation in Walt's name, but it's still pretty funny).
    • Downey is also seen at the Disney Hall in The Soloist with Jamie Foxx a year later.
    • Played straighter in the sequel, where Howard Stark is literally an Expy of Walt Disney himself.
    • Tony to Rhodes: "That lovely lady you woke up with, what was his name? Ivan?"
    • This blogger speculated in jest that Oracle CEO Larri Ellison is Iron Man in Real Life. This was in March 2008. Two years later, Ellison makes a cameo at Tony Stark's birthday party in Iron Man 2.
    • Hongkong's Andy Lau may be in Iron Man 3. This [dead link] was from a role he did way before that.
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • Obadiah Stane, aka Iron Monger.
    • In the sequel, Ivan Vanko, the Genius Bruiser. Justin Hammer tries his damndest to be one, but is just an incompetent buffoon.
    • And last but not least, the Mandarin himself Aldrich Killian.
  • Marty Stu: Subverted. On the surface, Tony Stark is a textbook example: he is, at the same time, incredibly smart, handsome, muscular, and rich. He rides cool cars, gets lots of poon, and, when the times is right, can easily kick evildoer butt. However, unlike bona fide Marty Stus, he has huge personality flaws (like being a dick even to the closest friends) and health issues, which make him a much more believable and likeable character.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • TONY STARK WAS ABLE TO BUILD THIS IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!!
    • I am Iron Man!
    • IVAN VANKO BUILT HIS IN HIS BASEMENT! ...WITH A BURD!!!
    • I vant my burd!
    • Dhrone Bettuh.
    • Tony Stark created a new element.
    • Captain America (comics) is coming back to Earth.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Stane pushing the board to file the injunction against Tony. Weirdly, this is completely innocuous in the world of business (not exactly nice, but sometimes it's a very necessary move). However, the reason it is the Moral Event Horizon is because we learn that he did right after Tony confronts him about dealing on the black market.
  • Pandering to the Base: Some people accused the second movie of setting up the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe more than its own, despite the fact that Nick Fury doesn't appear until more than an hour in and even then his purpose is more to get Tony off of his ass and create the element that will eventually save his life than to convince him to join The Avengers. Heck, it's even more realistic for a government agency like S.H.I.E.L.D. to have more on its plate to deal with than simply Tony Stark.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Raza, the terrorist leader, is Captain Richard "Star Trek's Chuck Norris" Robau??
  • Sequelitis: Mostly averted. General consensus seems to be that the second movie is still a rousing film, if not exactly as fresh as the first one. It may help if you think of it as the second in a trilogy.
    • Those opinions might be because of the time the movies were made in, namely post-9/11 America. In the first movie, Tony kicks the crap out of terrorists and militia in the Middle East who live in caves and personally saves an Air Force pilot's life. In the second, he doesn't want the military to have the greatest weapon platform that world had ever seen, something that could go a long way to keeping more servicemen and women alive.
      • Except actually making something like the Iron Man suit in real life would be ridiculously expensive and would never actually be built let alone save lives.
      • And, Fridge Brilliance: The main powersource for the Iron Man armor...is TOXIC! He just doesn't want anyone to know, considering.
    • Though, after the third movie was released, while still considered enjoyable, is seen as not being able to live upto the previous two. Then again, there are those who consider it a better movie than the second one, especially on the basis that the audience gets to see more of Tony Stark withotu the armor, which itself is a point of contention among the fans
  • Special Effect Failure: A fairly minor one, but when Iron Monger AKA Obadiah Stane runs at Pepper after discovering her underground, Stane is very clearly not moving. Partially justified in the fact that Stane's suit, the Iron Monger, is less a suit a la Stark and the Iron Man, and more a walking, flying humanoid-shaped tank.
  • Squick: Pepper having to replace Tony's reactor core was more than a little gross for some. Made even worse with her comment about pus, even though there was none (it was just inorganic plasmic discharge, and it was from the device, not him).
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Political?: With Tony taking the fight to Middle-Eastern terrorists in the first film and refusing to hand his property over to the government in the second, there are some who see him as the ultimate conservative/Republican/Libertarian super hero.
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