Does not meet expectations.

Rating: 5/10 (2 May 2008)

Iron Man did not live up to my expectations. Most people in the theater seemed to feel the same. This is a solid 2-star movie, maybe two-1/2 stars (out of 4).
Perhaps my expectations were too high. The movie starts off an the wrong foot with a demonstration of a new weapon system in Afghanistan. Tony Stark is wearing a business suit, like he's at a board meeting. Companies do not demonstrate new weapons systems like this.
It's also difficult to believe that the terrorists expect Stark to build the missile system in a workshop in a cave.
In a better movie, I wouldn't ask myself how Iron Man flew from Malibu to Afghanistan. Were does he store the fuel? Would it be a 36-hour round-trip? Are there relief tubes in that suit? And the thing with the electromagnet keeping shrapnel out of his heart made no sense. Magnets attract metal, not repulse. Plus, the hole in Stark's chest where the device is inserted was way, way too big and too deep.
Like I said, in a better movie I would not have noticed these things.