Righteous Flight!

Rating: 9/10 (8 May 2008)

Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a modern day DaVinci, tinkering with his gadgets while his weapons company happily builds and supplies the most modern and devastating of killing machines to the highest bidder. And he is a playboy to boot, ignoring the ever faithful Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow), and flitting from babe to babe. Then the unthinkable happens - he is shot up with shrapnel, kidnapped, and confronted with the cost of his company's business ventures. He needs a battery powered magnetic device in his chest to keep the shrapnel from entering his heart and is forced by his kidnappers to build a destruction device. But what emerges is a breathtaking Iron Man!! Of course there are whys and buts when he gets back. And since he is a Marvel comics character he has to undo all the wrong his company had been doing. There is a baddie who is bigger than the Iron man. Many breathtaking flights and shoot-ups later, good does triumphs over evil and all is well with the world!
Iron Man works because of Robert Downey Jr. He injects just the right amount of wryness, urbanity and mischief into the role to make the Iron man much more than a mere superhero. Gwenyth is decent in a small and undetailed role. Jeff Bridges is very great in a larger than life role. After many a superhero film that failed to click we finally have a worthy successor to Batman Begins. Yet another superhero has arrived - welcome!