CON: Iron Man 1/2

Paramount moved the IRON MAN panel from its originally scheduled time during their studio slot to the Marvel Studios panel on Saturday with THE INCREDIBLE HULK. But Paramount and director Jon Favreau couldn’t resist doing a little something for IRON MAN during their time in Hall H.

A video clip came on with Favreau inside his office saying he was sorry he wouldn’t be able to be in attendance at the Con but that he still wanted to show us some footage from the film. He warned the crowd that it was really early and that the footage was complete yet. But he knew we’d understand so he showed us anyway. Being the jokester that he is though, the clip was actually from a 70s “Iron Man” cartoon that was so terribly cheesy. While the crowd was getting a good chuckle out of the fake clip, out comes Favreau on the Con stage to rapturous applause.

Favs (looking like he dropped a ton of weight) was here after all and was sporting his own video camera to tape the reaction from the Comic-Con crowd (“I’m putting you guys on YouTube!”). He explained that filming has been going so well that they’re ahead of schedule and he had some time to get to San Diego a little early. He said that real IRON MAN panel would be on Saturday and we’d have to wait until then to see the real footage form IRON MAN. But, of course, that was just Favs pulling our leg once again. You want the clip now, San Diego? Of course the fanboys were rabid. Roll clip!

VIDEO OF
FAVREAU FROM THE PANEL!

While nothing shown at the Con so far has matched the enthusiasm the crowd had for 300 last year, IRON MAN is the only thing that has even come close. It was some pretty amazing stuff, especially considering (as Favreau would later explain) that they haven’t even started any of the digital FX work. It was 95% practical FX in what was shown. It starts out with Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark making a speech to a number of military men. He talks about the choice between being respected and being feared. “My question is, why can’t you be both?” One thing I was surprised with was the level of comedy in the trailer. Downey, Jr. is a naturally funny guy and a lot of that carries across into the trailer.

We continue with Stark as he’s moving with the military men (one of which is Terence Howard) as they ride in a convoy. Stark continues to make jokes as an Army grunt asks for a picture with him (“I don’t want to see this on your MySpace page.”) and it’s at this point their ambushed and explosions galore. Stark wakes up wounded and heavily bandaged. He rips off the gauze to reveal the chestpiece stuck right in his breastplate. He starts to freak out a little before it’s explained that the piece is actually keeping him alive. Then we get some shots of Stark building the Iron Man armor while in custody of those baddies. Welding, molten metal, etc. and that’s when we get the first money shot: vintage Iron Man busting out of his prison. He’s big, bulky and bad-ass just picking guys up and throwing them around. At one point he swings to knock a rock wall out of his way. His giant arm gets stuck as a bad guy comes right up to him with a gun. We think Stark is in deep crap but the bad guy opens fire, the bullet ricochets right off the armor and kills the dude dead.

From here we get a lot of quick cuts of action and only really get glimpses of Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges. The clip ends with our first look at red and golf Iron Man as he rockets up in the air in between two stealth bombers. It looks as if they’re chasing him and making ground until Iron Man turns on the turbo boosters and blasts off into the sky. Quick shot of the IRON MAN logo with Black Sabbath in the background. FIN.

After a standing ovation, Favreau had his camera trained back on the crowd and said he’d see us again on Saturday with some more surprises in store. It’ll be a tough wait but I already can’t wait to see the footage again!