From what I can see of Iron Man, he's different from other superheroes in two respects. First he's quite the vulnerable one and second he's put together with extreme, but very human intelligence. Nobody came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond mortal men. No one got their DNA mixed up with some animal to give them some extra-sapien traits. No Iron Man is put together in a laboratory after a prototype is done while in captivity in a cave.

That's probably both the strength and weakness of this film. Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and most of all Jeff Bridges look like they're having a great old time putting flesh and bone on comic strip characters. I'm glad they enjoyed it, I didn't enjoy it as much as I normally do these kind of films.

Iron Man is updated to today's world situation, but with some Thirties flashbacks because it's an arms dealer who is the chief villain here. Downey is like Bruce Wayne, a multimillionaire heir to an armaments fortune who likes to have a good time as well as work while Bridges minds the company day to day.

But that MIT education did not go for naught as those Afghan terrorists found out. Downey proves as resourceful as B.A. Baracus of the A-Team in developing the Iron Man first to escape captors and then to defeat bad guys. And these bad guys are quite in league.

But while the special effects are nice and the players are having a good time, Iron Man reminded me of a Popeye cartoon. Downey and Bridges looked Popeye and Bluto in the best two out of three falls. All that Downey needed to do was reach for that can of Spinach.

I half expected he would.

When it comes to ranking the Marvel superhero(live action) films, Iron Man is for me up there with the better ones. It looks fabulous, the whole film is very slickly made with top-notch special effects(which look like time and effort was really put into it),awesome-looking futuristic gadgets and Iron Man's suit will be a guaranteed delight to anybody who is familiar or loves anything to do with the superhero. There is a pulsating soundtrack that adds much to the tension of the first half of the story and the enormously fun action sequences, which are exciting and tense with expertly choreography. The script crackles with smart humour that doesn't go overload, all of which is laugh-out-loud funny, yet the hostage plotting that takes up the first part of the film is intelligently written and somehow avoids being over-serious or over-familiar. The story has enough to allow you to emotionally connect with Iron Man(who I've always considered one of Marvel's most interesting and multi-faceted characters) and has a clever mix of the comic's 1960s origins and the effects of contemporary war, which will provide plenty of nostalgia while also feeling relevant. Jon Favreau does a great job directing, he never loses control of the story and he doesn't do anything too fussy. Robert Downey Jnr's performance as Tony Stark/Iron Man is a power-house and one of his best, doing much with the smart dialogue while making the emotional side of the characters wholly believable. Gwyneth Paltrow is a good, loyal side-kick with wise-cracks that don't come across as annoying and Jeff Bridges is surprisingly very good in an against-type role. Personally, the only disappointments were the useless character of Christine Everheart and the somewhat rushed and over-blown finale that wasn't quite as thrilling as it could have been, other than that Iron Man was a classy addition to the Marvel cannon and a great film on its own. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I finally saw this movie last night on DVD. Despite doing exceptionally well at the box office, I just never was that interested in seeing IRON MAN and only watched it after a friend gave me the DVD. In hindsight, I am glad I saw it, but think you should know at the onset that I am not a huge fan of superheros and comic books. This means that the film did manage to win me over but also that I have no knowledge of the story nor do I have the devotion to it that a typical fan might have. Take this for what you will.

Since there have been a bazillion reviews for this film already, mine will be rather short and I won't even bother discussing the plot--others have already done this very well. Instead, let's first talk about what I liked. The film was very slickly made and I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of the film. The Iron Man character and how he came to be was original. Also, I was thrilled that Gwynneth Paltrow's character was NOT like the one she played in SKY CAPTAIN (uggh)--having a tiny bit more depth and not behaving as stupidly. Robert Downey was very good as a world-weary jerk who grows as a result of his near death. What I didn't particularly like was Jeff Bridge's character--it just wasn't interesting and Bridges seemed awfully one-dimensional. Additionally, while I am sure fans loved the final portion of the film, it was a let down for me because it was all action. The previous 3/4 of the film was bolstered by good writing and dialog, but the end was all special effects. Still, I must admit that they were very, very good special effects.

Final verdict--A very good comic book film but not quite as well made or as interesting as THE DARK KNIGHT.

FYI--The character "Pepper Potts" appears to be a homage to the ladies played by the Monty Python actors in their series. Series regular, Graham Chapman, coined the term "Pepperpot" to refer to these dowdy and severely unattractive middle-aged "ladies".

UPDATE 7/2010--I just re-saw this film and the second time I was even more impressed with it. Robert Downey's great performance, the terrific soundtrack and the wonderful plot--it's simply an amazing film.