Key Ingredient Missing

Rating: 6/10 (2 May 2008)

DISappointing to say the least. Excellent acting, phenomenal ground-breaking special effects, but...there was one key ingredient left out: a cohesive story. ACT I - the setup, was promising, if a little bit preachy. Jeff Bridges was a pretty cool surprise. Overall excellent casting. There was one effect in the Afghan sequence that I found offensive, but that may have been intentional.
The middle of the story, ACT II was completely muddled. Iron Man's goal was not clear. What was his goal? What did he want? I got it that his "life" goals changed, but after seeing the light: "what did he want?" The antagonist's role swapped from character to character. Who was his enemy? Who or what was keeping him from getting whatever his goal was?
If the acting hadn't been so good, the whole film would have been an even bigger disappointment.