(AP) - Much of the allure of "Iron Man" comes from the fact that we are indeed talking about a man ---a real man who has lived a life and made mistakes and experienced regret - not some scrawny, teenage boy who received his superhero powers through a bite from a radioactive spider.
No offense to Spidey, the other Marvel Comics hero who's already provided billion-dollar summer blockbuster fodder. But there's just something more relatable about Tony Stark, even though he's a playboy industrialist of staggering wealth and arrogance.
And in the hands of Robert Downey Jr., he's absolutely riveting. Downey may have seemed an unlikely casting choice at first, but it's difficult to imagine any other actor in the role; he's so quick-witted and he makes such inspired decisions with dialogue that, at times, might have seemed corny otherwise.
"Iron Man" is a blast, too - the perfect start to the summer with its shiny mix of visual effects, elaborate set pieces and plenty of humor within its intelligent script.
Stuff gets blown up real good, to the tune of AC/DC's "Back in Black" and, appropriately, Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," but beneath the requisite spectacle is an issue-laden storyline with heart to go along with its brains. Tony's weakened heart has always been his
Achilles heel, but it's also what gets him out of trouble and inspires his rebirth.
Stark is the brilliant and talented head of Stark Industries, the leading supplier of weapons to the U.S. military, and he banters comfortably with the soldiers who have been assigned to protect him during a trip to demonstrate his latest missile.
But things go awry when the Humvee is attacked by insurgents and Tony is abducted. While in captivity, with a battery attached to his heart to keep him alive, he's ordered to reconstruct the missile. Instead, with the help of the doctor who saved him (a graceful Shaun Toub), he's crafty enough to create a suit of armor and become a weapon himself to escape.
Tony returns home a changed man, and the changes he has welcomed to his life and company also bring enemies.
It's an anti-war argument in the multilayered script from the writing teams of Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and Art Marcum and Matt
Holloway, but the delivery is hardly heavy-handed.
The last line clearly sets up a sequel. But you knew that was ironclad from the beginning.
"Iron Man" is rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content. Running time is 2 hrs. and 6 mins.
