ACTION; 2hr 6min
STARRING: Robert Downey Jr, Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow
All fired up: Downey
Weapons manufacturer Tony Stark (Downey) plays with big, brash, ballistic toys. His family biz has made him filthy rich, and his innate nous saves his bacon when he is shot up and captured on a business trip to Afghanistan. Stark is a playboy and a lush, but he is also no fool, devising a heavyweight suit of flame-shooting armour for an airborne escape straight out of Marvel Comics, which is where atypical superhero Iron Man originated.
Back on American soil, kept alive by an electronic gizmo in his chest, the remorseful tycoon turns his spectacular talent to zapping baddies while encased in mega-duty metal. He flies! He shoots! He scores! And I, for one, couldn’t be more stoked: Downey, an actor of great heart and craft, pours the lot into Stark’s reinvention (while looking a million bucks, which never hurts). And of course, any decent supe is nothing without crackerjack FX — which director Jon Favreau has up and firing — and a supporting cast (Howard, Paltrow, Jeff Bridges) as quick smart as he is. Or maybe not quite…
