Kudos to Robert Downey, Jr. for getting his act together.  Married, sober, and making tons of good movies.  At 43 years of age, his body has been spared, at least on the outside, the ravages of his youth.  He commands the screen which can be good and bad.  In 'Iron Man', his strong stage presence and serious affect often overwhelm the other characters.  Also, since 'Iron Man' is less well known than many others of Stan Lee and associates, the writers spent too much time trying set up the origin of the Iron Man.  My rating:  $6.50 (1.-9.).

Tony Stark (Downey), we are told in great detail, was the genius child of a successful arms manufacturer.  He graduated from MIT at 17 and went on to take over the company after his parents' untimely death in a car crash.   The opening scene has Stark out premiering his latest deadly bomb for the military brass with the arrogance of brilliance and wealth.  For current event value, the setting in the movie is the war in the Middle East.   

Here's where I knew something was going to be off.  Stark's military escort, in the middle of the desert, is destroyed and he is taken prisoner.  First shot, he wakes up sitting in a chair, hood pulled off his head, staring at a video camera (what's with terrorists and Kodak?) while well armed militants stand around him shouting in Arabic. 

Suddenly the scene is like Dorothy's trip back from Oz.  Twirling camera angles, a blurred Stark screaming as somebody is performing crude surgery on him.  (I thought he was being tortured at first.) When the merry-go-round stops, Stark is covered to his neck and someone is sedating him into unconsciousness.  He wakes up in a cave (suspiciously to me) with another Arabic guy telling him that he saved his life by removing shards of shrapnel from around his heart and placing an electromagnet into his chest (attached to a car battery!!) that keeps the other shards from moving through his heart and shredding his organs. 

The terrorist captors are like the jailor who tries to hang the guy in "The Mummy" -- nitwits following orders.  Then, the brainy leader, bald, English-speaking, with nice features named Raza (Faran Tahir) comes along to give Stark his assignment -- build the same bomb for him that he was peddling to the US military.  He puts him and the other guy in a cave with fairly crude tools and Stark makes a compact energy source that can last for 50 years to replace the car battery.  Next, he builds an iron suit to escape with.  And you have to buy this premise.  Needless to say, he escapes and the bad guy gets away, too.

He gets back to civilization determined to stop making weapons that the evil terrorists can get to use against us.  He's going to do this and still have the money to build his sleek new suit in Titanium with Speed-of-sound capability.  About this time, you get to realize that the man who was his surrogate father after his parents' deaths, Obadiah Stane, is Jeff Bridges.  Being bald and with a full beard made him really different.  Great new look for him, I must say. 

Gweneth Paltrow plays Pepper Potts (Argh!), Starks right hand woman and perfect soulmate except he can't stop long enough to appreciate that.  She has RED hair and gets to wear tight but tasteful clothes with moderate heels as she meets his every business need.  There's a bit of flirting but it stays tame like in most comic books of the genre.  Paltrow is a nice accessory but was one of those overwhelmed characters beside Downey on screen. 

Terrence Howard plays his good friend and military liaison, Jim Rhodes.  I like Terrence Howard.  But he is relegated to supporting cast, totally.  In fact, the story has most everyone trying to keep the boy genius from imploding. 

Somewhere past half of the 126 minute movie, the action starts for real and I stopped finding myself dozing off.  There's a twist - back stabbing, if you will.  The bad guy is called "Iron Monger" -- what a hoot.  There's a great scene where Iron Man catches a car full of screaming kids and a Mom in mid-air after being thrown by the Monger.  He's holding them by the front end as his power fades, trying to slowly lower them to the ground.  He's groaning, they're screaming back and forth, back and forth until the Mom steps on the gas and runs Iron Man over taking off into traffic.  The two guys fight over buildings, highways, you name it.  Monger is causing havoc and Man is trying to stop him.  The action ending saves the whole movie. 

Talented comedian, actor, director, Jon Favreau (directed 'Elf'/'Zathura 2'), directed 'Iron Man'.  It may have been a little too large a project for him. On the other hand, it may be so big that the movie sails along on its own publicity. 

Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby get character development credit.  Screenwriters were Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway.  It's rated PG-13 so you can bring kids of all ages.  I think smaller kids will not appreciate the length or the talkiness of the long first half.  It might bother some when Pepper sticks her hand into Starks chest cavity, too. 

I'm fairly certain that 'Iron Man' and 'Made of Honor' will take the box office this weekend.  Which will come out on top?  I'd bet 'Iron Man' although I think 'Made' is better.  See ya at the movies!!