Movie No. 8: "Iron Man"

There's a lesson to be learned from "Iron Man." You don't cast Paul Walker when you can get Robert Downey Jr. You don't cast Jessica Alba when you can get Gwyneth Paltrow. You don't cast Ice Cube when you can get Terrance Howard. Their performances, especially Downey in the title role, help make "Iron Man" into a very good summer blockbuster.


While the casting of Downey in a superhero film might have initially raised some eyebrows, the role fits him like a glove (as perhaps well it should, given the actor's past and the harder-living aspects of Tony Stark's personal life). He imbues Stark not only with a charisma and quick wit that the public persona need but also with a good deal of humanity. Downey makes the character's transformation moving and believable as the weapons dealer's eyes are opened to the destruction that his life's work has wrought.

Perhaps the only complaint is that the action scenes weren't all that inventive or exciting. A film like "Spider-Man 2" worked both in and out of costume, but nothing here even approaches that film's train showdown. Still, though, it is not a bad effort. Not by a long shot.

B+