Probably the best superhero movie

Rating: 10/10 (5 May 2008)

First of all, I'd like to state that although I'm a comic books fan, I'm not that big on Iron Man; however, going to this movie completely exceeded my expectations.
And what were they? Well, I looked forward to all the blockbuster trappings; big explosions, great special effects and since Robert Downey Jr. was in it (as well as some pretty decent actors) I assumed there'd be some _character_ in it as well. So far, even getting those things alone would have been worth the ticket price of admission.
But the Iron Man movie went quite a bit further than that. The script for example was excellent - it used the normally rather boring origin part of a superhero's powers to actually both tell a story and advance the characters' points of view. We got to know Tony Stark in the process of him getting his armor - while, for example, Peter Parker being bitten by that spider gave us no insights on him.
The humoristic elements similarly worked very well, dancing that line between slapstick and the movie taking itself too seriously. As bonus elements, 'real' (alright, for a comic book movie) engineering issues were more than referenced, they were true plot points - such as what portable power source could be adequate for such an energy-sucking armor, how extreme temperatures could affect its performance, or of course the obvious - how much does it weigh, and how could that be a problem in practical situations such as landing on a rooftop?
I'm really happy this movie did well. We NEED to reward projects put together with such obvious enthusiasm for the material, or the studios come to think they can put any ol' crap with some special effects and a hot babe (I'm looking at you, Transformers!) and we'll go see it regardless. 10/10 from me for the best superhero movie made so far. Looking forward for the now inevitable sequel.