Flying High

Iron Man rocked!

I'm excited to return to PB & Movies on this note after an extended hiatus where you have been subjected to P's X-Files countdowns and Anthony Edwards stalkings (please accept my humble apologies). I've been keeping busy on the movie-watching front and have a post brewing with all the random stuff I've seen over the past couple months, but Iron Man was too good to wait on.

With Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man) and crew have set the bar high for the slew of summer blockbusters to come, particularly those of the superhero variety. It nearly all of the key criteria:

Badass Superhero Protagonist: Check

Cheer Inducing Special Effects: Check

Alterego Nearly as Entertaining as the Superhero: Check

Cool Superhero Outfit and Gadgetry: Check+ (he builds the first Iron Man suit from scratch!)

Megalomaniacal Villain: Check (Jeff Bridges, aka "The Dude," hams it up nicely)

Entertaining Fight Scenes: Check

Adrenaline Pumping Soundtrack: Check

Unnecessary Sidekick: N/A (thankfully, Iron Man holds his own solo)

Humorous One-Liners: Check+ (RDJ is hilariously snarky)

Superhot Female Interest: Check- (Gwyneth Paltrow is great in her role, but does not satisfy the "babe" quotient, and neither does the annoying reporter who Tony Stark nails at the beginning of the movie)

But beyond checking off all the formulaic "musts," Iron Man also brought a surprising relevance to the table in a way few superhero fantasy shoot-em-up blockbusters do. At a time when the daily headlines are chock full of war and corporate greed, the story of Tony Stark does not seem very out of place. Iron Man is easily just as relevant a character today as he was when Stan Lee invented him in 1963. So, start your summer off right and check out Iron Man before the cineplexes are overrun with blockbuster wannabes. This one is the real deal.

3 PB Jars