Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

IRON MAN (that's two words) is the latest incarnation of a Marvel Comics superhero.   And it also suggests something about its star, Robert Downey Jr.  So it's a story on two levels.

Slightly modernized from its comic book original, who was in the Vietnam War, we start this saga in the Afghan War.  Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is the youthful billionaire playboy genius of the weaponry equivalent of MicroSoft.  His company, Stark Industries, makes all the advanced artillary used by the US forces in Afghanistan.  Under the tutelage of his mentor, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges),  Tony is the primary inventive genius behind the Jericho missile, capable of wrecking an entire mountain, as well as the "arc reactor", a dynamo based on entirely new scientific principles.  How he does this is something of a mystery considering that he is an ultra-hedonist who makes Hugh Hefner look like one of the Puritan Fathers.

Anyway, our story begins with Tony demonstrating the Jericho missile to a bunch of US commanders in the middle of nowhere in Afghanistan.  But before this crowd can return to base they're attacked by the bad guys, a bunch of Arabic types who have somehow gotten their hands on quite a bit of Stark Industries weaponry and who take Stark hostage.  They're not religious zealots, they crave power like James Bond villains.  Their boss-man (Faran Tahir) wants Tony to build the Jericho missile for them so they can rule this part of the world.  Tony is befriended and assisted in this by another hostage inventor, Yinsen (Shaun Toub), who has saved Tony's life;  it turned out that, in the attack that took Tony hostage, Tony was hit with a lot of iron splinters that are now being drawn straight into his heart, and Yinsen contrived an electro-magnet wired to a car battery that keeps those splinters from killing Tony.

Instead of building the Jericho, Tony uses the very considerable supply of parts in this terrorist camp to build himself, first, a better minature and extremely portable electro-magnet for his heart, essentially a miniaturized arc reactor, and, then, a robotic suit of armor, running on the same miniature arc reactor, that enables him to escape.

Back in the good ol' US of A, Tony is concerned about how his munitions came into the hands of the baddies.  This is coupled with news reports that Stark Industries rockets utterly destroyed an inoffensive village.  Tony determines to change his company's direction - from weapons to humanitarian and defensive purposes.  He builds a better miniature arc reactor for his heart, and sets out to refine that robotic suit of armor.  In the meantime, Obadiah Stane has to wrestle with the company's board of directors because Tony's public renunciation of weapons-making has caused the company's stock to plummet.

Tony succeeds in building his deluxe suit of armor.  He now closely resembles Robo-Cop.  He saves an Afghan village from the bad guys and even plays hide-and-seek with US fighter jets who think he is some enemy drone.  Tony lets his Pentagon liaison, Colonel Rhodey (Terence Howard), in on his invention to avoid any future misunderstandings with US forces.  He also starts to pay attention to his factotum, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow, gorgeous as ever).  He definitely becomes less hedonistic.

But the bad guys are not taking this lying down.  They find in the desert the wreckage of the very first suit, the one that enabled Tony to escape their camp.  They will put it back together and then they will make arrangements with the snake in Tony's grass who provided them with Stark weaponry and plotted Tony's capture. 

Bits of this movie resemble, in a vague way, other movies: Robo-Cop 2 comes to mind real fast, but there are also bits of Batman and even Buckaroo Banzai  and Jonathon Power and others.  No matter;  there's enough originality and depth here to make this a better movie.  And Robert Downey Jr. does it really well.  We all know that Downey had a terrible drug problem that got him into repeated trouble and looked as if it had killed his Hollywood career;  just as the missile attack seemed certain to kill Tony Stark.  But Downey finally got cleaned up - inspired, he said, by an impulsive visit to a burger stand; and here Tony cleans up his own act once he's back in the USA and gotten a cheeseburger under his belt.  So this story is about redemption, trust, courage, and other good stuff.

The special effects are truly special, the production values are all up on the screen to see.  Everyone does well and this movie looks to be very entertaining.  It was nominated for a shelfful of awards.

Two hours and a few minutes.  And make a point of sitting through the closing credits;  first they're very inventive, and then there's a little surprise at the very end - a hint of things to come.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older