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Heroes aren’t born - they’re built.

Iron Man is Marvel’s latest addition to the line of comic-based superhero movies we’ve seen over the past few years, and it doesn’t let the fans down. Me, I’ve never been much of a comic book kind of girl, but the movies, the movies I have to go see.

The main character, Tony Stark (portrayed by Robert Downey Jr.) is a highly successful arms manufacturer. On a marketing tour in the Middle East to show off his latest weapon to the military, his convoy is attacked by terrorists, and he is hit by shrapnel while trying to escape, while the soldiers around him are dying. The terrorists capture him, and try to force him into using his skills to make his weapons for them, the very people he is trying to battle by manufacturing weapons. He instead uses his time (and limited resources) to first make a device to put in his chest to stop the shrapnel going into his heart, after which he moves on to making a suit to aid him and his new associate in their escape from the terrorists. And thus, Iron Man is born.

Once again, I was pleasantly surprised by a movie that I really had no high expectations for. Robert Downey Jr did a very good job as Tony Stark, being all snarky and self-obsessed for larger parts of the movie. Gwyneth Paltrow has to be mentioned as well, for her part as his administrative assistant, Pepper Potts.
The action is good, but not too overdone, the comedy is good as well, and you just walk out of the theatre feeling like you did NOT just waste a couple of hours of your life. Win!

“I’m sorry. This is the fun-vee. The hum-drum-vee is back there.” - Tony Stark

Originally published at Merilin.