IRON MAN

Before I went to see Iron Man last night, I was cautiously excited. I had high hopes for the movie, directed by Jon Favreau (writer and star of the classic Swingers) and Robert Downey Jr, but I recalled the many times those hopes were destroyed by terrible superhero movies (X3, Superman Returns, etc).

Well friends, Iron Man, did not disappoint at all. Downey Jr. was incredible as the super rich armsmaker/inventor Tony Stark. Gwyneth Paltrow was perfect as his assistant Pepper Potts, and had great chemistry with Downey Jr. Jeff Bridges' Obadiah Stane was hilarious and menacing. The only weak performance among the main cast was Terrence Howard as Air Force man Jim Rhodes. It seemed like he just didn't care at all.

The movie did a great job appealing to a mass audience while throwing in some great nods to the source material. The action scenes were great and, as I said above, most of the lead performances were brilliant. The humorous scenes strattled the "too corny" line without going over it, like Spider-man 3 did. From what I could tell, the theater I was in loved it. For the comic fans (indluding myself), the couple of references to S.H.I.E.L.D. needing a new acronym as well as the end credit sequence with Nick Fury were appreciated.

See Iron Man. You won't be disappointed, unless you are a curmudgeon.