I have to say upfront that I haven't been a big fan of the Iron Man comic books growing up. I've always preferred Marvel over DC in the ongoing war for readers but I've always been picky over what I bought. I went with most of the mutant storylines (X-Men, X-Factor, etc.) and my favorite was Spider-Man. Something about Spidey always made it enjoyable to me.

I know the basics of the Iron Man character. He's a mechanical genius that made his money in the military hardware industry and who then later regrets his choices. He then builds his power armor to right the wrongs that he himself is partly at fault for. It all sounds good but one reason I never cared for the character is that he always seemed rather selfish and an outright jerk. Which fits since he's also an alcoholic.

Thankfully the movie only uses a little bit of the traits of the comic book version. The origin is roughly the same but he is portrayed better in that it does really seem like he's saddened by how his life's work has turned out differently than he had hoped. He truly builds his super suit to right the wrongs that he is partly responsible for.

But he's only a minor jerk in the beginning but soon grows out of that nonsense.

I heard a joke that Iron Man is fifty minutes of Robert Downey Jr. building a suit. Which is mostly true. But it is a good fifty minutes of him building a damn cool suit. The scenes of him testing the suit and figuring things out are interesting and sometimes downright funny. His admonishing one of his robots for spraying him with a fire extinguisher when he wasn't on fire is a favorite.

So, how was the movie overall? it was predictable, mostly relied on the over-the-top action scenes, some actors were mediocre in their performances and had technical problems throughout.

But it's a damn good comic book movie. My favorite comic book movie is Spider-Man 2. Previously it was X-Men 2 which is still number two but Iron Man would have to be number three at this point. Spider-Man 2 captures the essence of the comic to me. X-Men 2 gives you more of what the X-Men stories are about without trying too hard.

Iron Man is just a fun movie based on a comic book. It could almost stand as a near-future action movie on its own without the comic to fall back on.

But it was rather predictable. As soon as Jeff Bridges shows up with his bald head/beard combo and we learn that he was Tony's dad's best friend that ran the family business until Tony took over then we all should immediately realize that he's the villain of the story. Non-fans of the comic may have thought it was his best friend but comic geeks know the story behind him admiring the Mark II suit before running off to help. Obviously the Stark weapons were being sold to whomever would buy them because they make weapons for money and continuous warfare is in the company's best interest. As soon as we meet Stark's buddy in the cave that helps make the first suit so they can escape we should know he will not make it out alive, it's against the movie rules. Stark has an attractive assistant that's around him constantly and her name is Pepper Potts? Of course they're in love with each other. Each point of the movie is just predictable in its outcome. But it's still fun.

The whole point of the movie is, of course, the suit. Stark builds his super suit in record time out of technology that hadn't existed until he thought to build it. But the real fun begins when he finally decides to use it for real. The test run was ok but nothing too exciting. When he drops into the middle of the bad guys and starts waylaying into them like they're nothing things got really fun. I really appreciate the fact that they didn't hold back with him taking serious advantage of the seriously unfair advantage he had. He obviously kills these guys without much of a second thought. None of the "six metal claws a foot long going through both lungs and into the fridge behind the bad guy with said lungs might have survived" crap we got from the producers of X-Men 2. These guys are goners for sure. It's about time someone realized that there's nothing wrong with the good guy killing bad guys who were just moments before having fun killing defenseless men, women and children. They've done it in westerns for years. Maybe something bad about kids realizing there's evil in the world and sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to fight it?

Then there's the big fight scene between Iron Man and Iron Monger which I'll get to in a moment because I have nothing but complaints about that.

I have to say that I was rather impressed with Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. When I first heard of the casting I was dubious but he did rather well. I now think he was the perfect choice. Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow were on camera but did not impress me in any way. The robots had more character than the red-headed Paltrow. Terrence Howard did not get enough screen time.

So, my problems.

Why in the world did Stark have to go to Afghanistan in the first place for just a ten minute weapons demo when the Nevada desert would have sufficed? I understand Bridges sent him there to be killed but it would have been nice if Stark had actually asked on camera why it was necessary for him to travel to the other side of the world for something any sales guy could have done.

After escaping from the cave, how come Stark never tried to actually find out how the bad guys got his weapons in the first place since they are supposed to only be sold to the US military? Even after the second time he finds out about the weapons making their way to the bad guys he does not bother to find out how.

How in the world does a tank shoot down a flying man?

Now for my biggest complaint. So, Stark is the smartest mechanical engineer in the world (which the movie pushes on us several times) and he creates this little device that creates almost limitless energy, which is the center of my big complaint. Most of this device is inside his chest where one cannot see any of it except for the front. Three people on Earth know what the back side of this device looks like. Stark, Pepper and the dead guy in the cave. But somehow, somehow the villain creates his own device that perfectly removes it from Stark's chest with absolutely no problem whatsoever. And he has the fancy device to do this even though the Stark's pacemaker apparently screws in like a light bulb.

Then the villain takes this device that has never been seen outside of Stark's chest before and plugs it into his Iron Monger suit. It fits perfectly! It pops in there and twists into place just like it does in Stark's chest. Apparently there is a universal connector of some sort that's required by law to be used on all small near-limitless energy devices yet to be invented that plug into a guy's chest. I would have been deeply pleased if the movie showed Bridges looking the device over and then making modifications to his suit so that the connection would work. Nope, it plugs in like a AA battery.

The final fight between Iron Man and Iron Monger offered so much opportunity. But they had to do the same thing that ruined the fight scenes in Transformers. The camera had to be in tight and then shake around like crazy as if you were there! I'm not there you idiot nor do I wish to be! I'm watching it in a movie theater. I understand you're trying to make us believe we are really there while the impossible-to-build super suits are fighting each other but come on. I wanted to actually see what was going on during the fight, not get snippets of it. The camera could have been twenty feet away and we would have gotten a much better fight scene. They didn't do this during the first or second big action scene so I'm mystified why they did it in the final fight. But it's the typical American director's idea of how to film a fight scene that has ruined many of what should have been really awesome fight scenes. It's why Hong Kong movies have the best fight scenes, they can't afford the steadycam device so they lock the freaking camera down! Watch a Jackie Chan movie for cripes sake to see how it's done!

All in all, it is still a damn good movie. I plan to buy it on DVD so hopefully they offer some really good extras. And a deserved sequel is apparently already being planned as the movie did make more than $100 million dollars opening weekend despite the release of GTA4. I guess the Halo myth has been put to rest.

If you haven't seen it, go see it while in theaters. It will be worth it. Even if you aren't a comic book fan.

And that last extra scene at the end of the credits? I say blah.