> May 2 - Iron Man
>
> The first big summer movie usually gets a
>pretty decent turn-out from people who are
>starved for a big summer movie. But can any of
>you actually imagine Robert Downey Jr. making a
>good comic book hero?

Turns out, a big part of the reason the movie is as good as it is is because of RDJ. The character of Tony Stark is right in his wheelhouse: millionaire playboy industrialist, an amoral weapons dealer who decides to put his resources and genius to "better use" after realizing what he and his company have been doing all this time. But even after the "change of heart" he's still essentially the same character, he just happens to have found something he cares about more than money and sex.

I thought he was excellent in the role and his own public battles with addiction suit the Iron Man character perfectly (although this movie doesn't touch on it, Tony Stark battles alcoholism and is replaced in the Iron Man suit temporarily while he is recovering--I have no doubt this will come up in the various sequels.)

To me the flaws in this movie weren't with casting, which I felt was spot on, but with pacing and flow. After a great opening, the movie bogs down for quite awhile--then just when it's picking up again... it bogs down again. I realize the Iron Man suit went through several revisions in the comic before settling on the familiar red and yellow suit, but did we really need to see Tony painstakingly building every one of them?

Anyway, despite the flaws, I really enjoyed the movie. I'd rank it up there with any of the recent X-Men movie personally. It's not perfect, but it's not the train wreck I was partially anticipating.

-- Dave