Jim's "Go or Don't Go" - Iron Man

I've been waiting for five months to see Iron Man. The movie came out when we were in the middle of our move, so we were never able to actually get the the theater to see it. Not that I mind all that much - I think that I actually prefer sitting in our den and watching the Blu-Ray version. But I digress.

Iron Man is the film adaptation of the classic Marvel comic superhero, created in the 1960s. The movie is a fairly faithful re-telling of the character's origins. The story follows Tony Stark, (Robert Downey, Jr.) a multi-millionaire playboy/genius who is the CEO of Stark International, a weapons company. The primary exception is that it takes place in current times - Vietnam is now Afghanistan and the bad guys are Islamic extremists.

During a weapons-testing trip to Afghanistan, Stark is captured by the fore-mentioned terrorists. Once the evil-doers realize who they have kidnapped, they force him to build one his most advanced and powerful misslies. But in an effort that would make MacGyver proud, Tony manages to trick the terrorists and build a weapon that doubles as his plan for escape - the prototype Iron Man. Imagine the Tin Man meets the Terminator.

Well, Tony does escape, but emerges from this experience a changed man; conflicted about his roll and responsibility as a weapons dealer and concerned that he needs to make his life count for something. So what does he do? Build an even more powerful weapon, of course - the new and much-improved Iron Man.

The film is very well cast. I'm not a big fan of Downey, but he is perfect as Stark; a character that I want to see again in more Iron Man sequels. Gwnyeth Paltrow was a nice surprise as Pepper Potts, Tony's loyal personal assistant and will-they/won't-they love interest. Jeff Bridges is almost unrecognizable as Obadiah Stane, Stark's second in command at Stark Industries. And Terrance Howard is Rhodney, Tony's old buddy and military connection; I really believed that these two opposites could be friends.

The key to a great super hero movie is the relationships between the characters. If you don't care about the people on the screen, then all the explosions and super-villians are simply a colossal waste of two hours of your time. Iron Man is no Spiderman 2 (the standard by which all superhero movies are judged, BTW), but it's very good. I was a little disappointed in the villian - the final battle reminded me a little too much of RoboCop. Despite this, I'm looking forward to the certain Iron Man 2.

I say "Go."