Moral behavior sometimes takes courage.

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 2008)

Excuse me while I recover from the shock and amazement caused by my extreme surprise that this is an excellent movie. I expected the usual vacuous Hollywood hokum with the usual Hollywoodish heavy handed combination of outlandish special effects masking a superficial story and two-dimensional characters and instead was treated to an actual well-acted, well-crafted science fiction story with actual character development within the framework of an interesting plot. Robert Downey gives a marvelous, surprisingly powerful performance as a hugely wealthy, arrogant arms merchant who undergoes a major personality transformation - for the better. This movie is entertaining from start to finish and is worth watching.
This movie is, for Hollywood, a rare combination of special effects extravaganza combined with a substantive story that actually has some dramatic content. This movie dramatizes the problems caused by industrial activity that gains profits through war and how special interests can completely drive and distort a country's foreign policy. That there are some in our society who reap huge profits off the suffering of others is a sad commentary, which is a theme of this movie. The Iron Man is representative of what happens when someone decides to take the high moral road. To survive, the main character has to literally wear a suit of hard metal to fend off the attacks from those whose profiteering schemes are now threatened.