Next Time, Baby!

Been a while, sorry! But now for your reading pleasure is my review of Iron Man!

This is one of those movies that made me feel like a kid again. I remember being real little and going to see Superman II in theaters. As soon as we got out I begged my mom for a costume. I got home put a towel around my neck and ran around, arms outstretched, "flying" from couch to couch, bed to floor. It's one of my earliest memories and I swear it's what sparked my love of movies, comic books and everything super heroic.

Iron Man took me back and made me feel like that little boy again. There's so much fun in that movie it's hard not to want to run out to the nearest costume shop and then go home and practice your repulsor blasts. See Tony Stark isn't a nerd who's been picked on his whole life, or a mild mannered reporter or a dark, brooding man whose fate has been shaped by tragedy. He's a big kid.

Imagine that you're a genius, raised in incredible wealth, the world at your fingertips. Your money allows you to do whatever you want and your intellect allows you to dream up and do anything. Literally anything. You have women, cars, planes, friends and booze. Lots and lots of booze. This guy never had to grow up and Robert Downey Jr. plays him perfectly. He believes that by building weapons more powerful than the next guy's he's keeping America safe. Except his weapons don't just end up in our hands, they end up anywhere they're wanted. Sound familiar?

This isn't really a political movie at all but it could be. It could be a metaphor for the way America has failed to adjust from a Cold War policy of Mutual Assured Destruction to one addressing an enemy that is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Where there are no rules and our weapons are useless because these guys have no embassies or royal palaces, no weapons installations or bases. Instead the movie makes it about one man: Tony Stark.

Tony believes he can make the world a better place by giving America the biggest stick. Maybe he never really thought about it or maybe he was really that naive but when he's captured by terrorists in Afghanistan his outlook changes. The first thing he sees during the attack to capture him is that the soldiers he was goofing around with, joking with, had dedicated his life's work to protecting were being blown to bits by his weapons. Missiles marked "Stark Industries" rain all around him. Once he's captured it gets worse as he's asked to build a superweapon out of the huge stockpile of his weapons the terrorists have.

This isn't how it was supposed to be and in the first 20 minutes of the movie you see a man transformed from a cavalier and staunch believer of "how dad did it" to someone who recognizes it's not enough. And it's time to change.

Enter the Mark I. As a comic book geek you have no idea how happy it made me to see this clunky, rickety, noisy ass robot clank his way down a cave blowing up everything in its path. To see Tony struggling to control it, its defects. This is a true origin story. We have a man, one without superpowers or years of discipline and training walking around in a giant suit of metal learning as he goes.

When the Mark I gets shot at you really think it's not as invincible as it looks. Gears exposed and grinding the suit itself becomes an object of suspense. Is it gonna hold up?

And that's how Iron Man unfolds. Will Tony learn how to fly? Will he solve the icing problem? Can he take down the Iron Monger?

I came out of that theater feeling more exhilarated and overjoyed than I have in a long time. Since the first Spider Man, actually. Because this wasn't a superhero movie it was a comic book movie. And yes, there is a difference. Jon Favreau has always been a favorite of mine and I couldn't be happier this is his entry into the upper echelon of directors. Gwyneth Paltrow redeems herself for years of mediocre parts in this. And Robert Downey Jr. is finally what he should have been for years; a movie star.

I'll be seeing this a few more times, count on it. And between this, Indiana Jones, The Dark Knight and Wall*e it's going to be a great summer for those who want to feel like a kid again at the movies.

5 stars out of 5.