Iron Man - a worthy start to the summer
Probably my favorite so far of the superhero genre. I think that I like that the superpowers are the result of technology, rather than genetic mutation. Seems more believable and less comic-booky (says the guy who collected comics for years as a kid). But I think that what I really liked was Robert Downey Jr. — he was already one of my favorite actors, but he is absolutely perfect in this role, and I can’t imagine that this movie would have been nearly as good without him. I was also very happy with the rest of the casting, although Gwyneth Paltrow eventually devolves into a pretty typical Girl Friday damsel-in-distress role that probably any decent actress could have played. But that may be the fault of the writing rather than her acting ability.
Definitely worth seeing in the theatre. I didn’t leave with the usual guilty feeling of self-disgust, dirtiness, and betrayal of “true cinema” that I typically feel after seeing popcorn fluff like Spider Man, X-Men, Transformers, etc. This felt like a real movie, not an amusement park ride. And I’m actually looking forward to the sequel. 4.5 / 5.0
