Iron Man: Superhero with a Heart of Electromagnets

In a time of multiple superhero movies being done with too much haste and ill-fated ideas, Iron Man came off as a breath of fresh air. It was not Spider-Man (nor Spider-Man 2 for that matter), but it had a quality most superhero movies miss (both Fantastic Four, Catwoman, Superman Returns). Iron Man rests its quality not in action or the necessary - and therefore unimpressive - romance, but in a degree of depth and steady change in its main character, wonderfully played by Robert Downey, Jr.

Iron Man starts off with alcoholic, notorious playboy Tony Stark, a genius who inherited his father's weapon-making company and it the Howard Hughes of weapons. He rides back from a weapons demonstration in a humvee, flirting with the female driver as they drive through an Afghan desert. They are attacked, severely under-armored, and easily taken as Stark is blown away by a missile with his name on it.

In captivity, he is given a small electro-magnet generator to keep his heart from breaking apart (don't ask me how) and is demanded to build a weapon for terrorists. Instead, he puts his time towards a suit of iron armor, complete with rocket launchers and flamethrowers and escapes, determined to turn his company around and help the people hurt by the terrorists obtaining his weapons. This leads him to building a more advanced suit.

The movie rests on rounded performances. Downey, himself a rehabilitated drug-addict, pulls off the reforming alcoholic effectively. Stark is driven by guilt and the movie reminds us of this by making his construction of a suit an obsession instead of a hobby. Peter Parker (Spider-Man) might have needed his girlfriend in the crowd or a flashback of his uncle to give him motivation to save the day, Downey only needs to put on a ****ed-off look and focus more on saving lives to see his reasons.

The rest of the cast is well-rounded too. Terence Howard is the military friend who is there largely to show the promise of a sidekick for the sequel, but proves his amusement when he calls Stark while Iron Man is pursued by F-16s. Gywneth Paltrow is the love interested and personal assistant to the bazillionaire, which is more to reflect Stark's isolation and loneliness and playboy status. The romance is there out of necessity (who else would the villain kidnap?), but it does its part without making the characters go cliche.

For the iron hero himself, three parts made him a step above. The first is Downey's eyes. We spend as much time in the suit, Downey giving the look of those big brown eyes highlighted with the electrical-blue glow. He's accompanied by the voice of his computer-butler, Jarvis (perfectly voiced by Paul Bettany) to say the suit's statistics, power-left, etc. Between Jarvis' voice and Downey's eyes, the action is clear and complimented to make humor, tension, and danger. The second is the slow development. Instead of

The third is scene set. The comic-books focus on frames, single images giving a strong look. Iron Man uses strong colors and sets. The other armored villain has a blue, alien glow to him, particularly from the shadows. Stark's glow comes from his electro-magnet heart. The weapons' industry has a sci-fi feel, billionaire house is cartoon-colorful, the night flights over the city has stars and city lights with a space-like white light. The caves of Afghanistan are rough, a contrast to the smooth image the later designs of the Man of Iron.

My only complaint is the villains are dated and too simple. Spider-Man's villains have split personalities, which gave them depth (this is excluding Spider-Man 3). Batman has the crazed Joker and the romancing Catwoman. Iron Man's villain is evil enough to rip the heart out of your chest, but there's nothing to make him special. He's there to mostly have a battle between armored heroes rather than to make a statement or add to the hero or movie as a whole.

Is it entertaining? Very much so. There's character development, action, and humor, a well-rounded moive.

Is it for everyone? YES! CGI gives the fan-boys what they want, character development and Downey's performance will keep critics like me, the action will be there for the kids, and the humor of watching learning how to fly with anything-but-graceful jet-thrusters on his feet. Learning how to fly was worth the cost of admission.

Is it memorable? Mostly. I don't want to give it a full yes because it is over-shadowed by Spider-Man 2 and Batman Begins. Iron Man isn't likely to be the first name to be thought of when the word "superhero movie" comes into conversation, but it is definitely a standard for the movies that follow.