Iron Man

Zade Rosenthal/Paramont Pictures

Review in a Hurry:  He doesn't really even need the suit: Robert Downey Jr. is the Man in this comic-book adaptation that finds a nice balance between the heavy-metal heroics and that elusive flesh and blood under the armor.

The Bigger Picture:  It's fitting that someone as magnetic as Downey Jr. would end up playing the titular Iron Man—aka Tony Stark, a caustic genius who's spent his life partying and making bombs for Uncle Sam.

After an uncomfortable close encounter with his own product—and a quite literal change of heart—Stark decides to focus on building something that will save lives. Which of course turns out to be a hypersonic, gold-plated battle suit that shoots rockets and plasma and who knows what else.

Downey has a great, manic energy about him, and it shines through even in the more casual moments. He even elevates solo origin-story laboratory sequences that might have been unbearable mugfests, making them into somehow exciting comedy routines. The effects are no less thrilling—bone-jarring action with pristine, only occasionally unreal CGI.

Anyone in the movie who's not playing Tony Stark, however, feels a little under-utilized. Only Gwyneth Paltrow, as Stark's sparky, long-suffering assistant, gets enough play to be much of a character, and while Jeff Bridges' bearish, sharp-eyed turn as the heavy is interesting, the role itself is unmemorable.

But that seems like picking nits. This is a film about a guy with a superpowered suit, and in this case both the suit and the guy are golden.

The 180—a Second Opinion:  It'd be fair to say the film is one smash-bang set piece short of action greatness. At times Iron Man seems more like a proof-of-concept for the sequels, than a film in its own right.