I’m a fan of live-action movie interpretations of comic book characters. Well, I am as long as they’re finely-crafted. And in this case, I am definitely a fan.
It's difficult to imagine a better casting for the lead role of Tony Stark (aka, Iron Man) than Robert Downey, Jr. His real-life swagger, under-the-surface vulnerability and wry humor blend perfectly with the character he plays – a super-intelligent, flamboyant entrepreneur who’s corporation makes billions of dollars designing and supplying bleeding edge war toys to the good guys of the world. Downey keeps his character accurately grounded in the face of the disturbing revelation that his toys have fallen into the wrong hands.
Awesome special effects will always catch my attention, but you won’t hold that attention long if there’s no meat to the story. In this case, the story and the characters were more than sufficient to keep me riveted (be sure to stay all the way through the credits!). Downey’s performance is matched well by his supporting cast: Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane, Tony’s right-hand man; Terrence Howard as Lt. Col. James Rhodes, military liaison to Stark Industries and Tony’s best friend; and Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia “Pepper” Potts, Tony’s trusted executive assistant.
If you enjoy movies with state-of-the-art special effects, borders-of-reality story points and lots of things blowing up real good, go see this movie (in a big theater with a big sound system) - Roger Ebert saw it (if that means anything to you), and he liked it (if that means anything to you). Even if you don’t like all these things, see the movie anyway, if for no other reason than to enjoy what may be an academy award-nominating performance by Iron Ma-- er, Robert Downey, Jr.
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