The cool superhero is here

Rating: 9/10 (1 June 2008)

Is it Superman? Is it Spider-Man? No, it's Iron Man! Welcome the newest superhero in town, born out of iron scraps in a cave in Afghanistan. Welcome a comic-book saviour more fun than fantastic. Welcome a franchise which is all set for a long, long flight. Welcome back Robert Downey Jr.
Iron Man is a deceptive, a la kiev-style recipe that comes wrapped in a crumb-fried superhero coating but hides a lot more inside. It has all the trappings of an action summer blockbuster but at heart, it's a smartly-written coming-of-age story. It has the steam to blow you off with its hi-tech gadgetry but it also has the soul to make you smile.
In spirit, Jon Favreau's Iron Man is very much a prequel, coming closest to the best superhero film made in recent years, Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins. It tells the story of how weapons manufacturing tycoon, playboy billionaire and mechanical magician Tony Stark (Downey Jr) becomes Iron Man. In very un-superhero style, the film closes with a close-up of Tony telling a packed media conference: "I'm Iron Man".
This is a superhero born out of necessity rather than a miracle at the lab or a childhood trauma or an extraterrestrial aberration. Captured and held in a lost mountain in Afghanistan by a Taliban-like outfit, Tony builds himself a monstrous bullets-and-bombs-popping iron suit and manages to escape. His heart may now be pumped by an electrical device but his brain realises the futility of manufacturing weapons of war.
As Tony wants to close down shop, his business partner Obadiah Stane (Bridges) takes rearguard action, prompting the resurrection of Iron Man. Only now, it's slicker, the suit's got a maroon-and-gold coating (now you know where Shaktiman got his colours) and it doesn't disintegrate on crashing to the ground. Tony's electrically-charged heart has more work to do as his girl Pepper Potts (Paltrow) is tugging at its receptors.
If the Iron Man script is meaty, it is the acting which takes proceedings to level next. Robert Downey Jr hasn't been in this impressive form for a long time. He was very good in Good Night, and Good Luck and Zodiac, but here he takes off. He even manages to make a superhero sound cool, though this was never going to be very difficult for an actor who can inject cool into just about anything. The scenes in which he is fine-tuning his suit, talking to his robots in his gadget studio, are testimony to the talent of the man who has unfortunately lost out in the star stakes due to a rocky personal life.
Jeff Bridges as the bad guy is a lovely bit of oddball casting. His Stane is played with an old-school wickedness evil enough to demand his elimination. Terrence Howard has played the good friend many a time and he does his bit here too. Paltrow shows what can be done in just three scenes. Her moments with Downey Jr are the most endearing few minutes in the film, demonstrating that a superhero flick can be so much more.
The suit's not made of iron. It's made of a gold-titanium alloy. But that shouldn't stop you from catching Iron Man.