(3.5 out of 5 stars)

Iron Man starts out like all recent comic book superhero movies. It is the story of a man who through a set of circumstances rises above himself and becomes a hero hidden behind a mask. The origin story is the best way to launch a franchise. It allows the viewer to understand the tortured version of the base character and lets us know why he has become the hero he has created. Spiderman, Batman Begins and The Fantastic Four are great origin movies and Iron Man follows that great string of superhero movies. Let’s just hope that the upcoming sequels do not follow the path that Spiderman and The Fantastic Four took. For those curious about the sequels, in the coming years, you will be seeing Captain America, as well as an Avengers movie, which will incorporate the two superheroes into the group that becomes the Avengers.

Robert Downey Jr. plays our rich playboy (Tony Stark) who has inherited his father’s weapon manufacturing company. He uses his riches for booze and babes, and does not really care what his weapons are used for. As he does a test of his newest weapon, he quickly finds that his weapons have landed in the wrong hands, and his morality kicks in which makes him become Iron Man. It is humorous to think Downey himself was a drugged up boozing womanizer who appears to have changed his ways to become the great actor he can be and now is playing the part in a  movie. Maybe Downey himself has become a sort of Iron Man himself. Anyway, he is perfectly cast; he nails the part.

His counterparts are possibly correctly cast but do not bring much to their roles mostly because of lack of character development in the script. Gwyneth Paltrow plays a useless part as Tony Stark’s assistant. She is a typical ‘yes man’ who helps him near the end. Jeff Bridges plays Obadiah Stone, a partner in the company who may be interested in money more than morality. He has a significant part, but we have no idea why he is how he is. We also know he is the likely bad guy due to his comic look of being completely bald with a bushy beard. It reminds me of Bullseye in Daredevil. Terrence Howard plays a friend in the armed forces, but gets very little to work with the exception of providing one quote that secures a much bigger part in a future movie.

As with many big summer movies, they want you to sit through the entire credits to see a special clip at the end. Iron Man uses this as set up for the sequel, but as the movie becomes a bit forgetful by the end, and really has no need for a sequel, although setting itself up for one before the credits with Tony Stark’s final speech, the end of the credits give the viewers a surprise, which ends up creating the question, “I stayed through all those credits for that? Ugh.”  

Iron Man is good but it remains to be seen why we would want to follow this character further like we do in Batman. There does not seem to be too much more to tell, just like in this review.

Similar recommended titles: Spiderman, Batman and The Fantastic Four