Reviewed by Max Foizey.

Release Date: May 2, 2008
Directed By: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow
Rating: PG-13

Attention filmmakers: THIS is how you bring a comic book to the big screen. Is "Iron Man" flawless? No, but it's damn close.

This is the first film in which Marvel Comics has been in control, and it's a huge benefit to the finished product. I didn't feel like I was watching something grounded completely in our reality (like Nolan's Batman films try to do) but instead felt like I was in Marvel's world. (Earth 616, baby!)

Tony Stark is a billionaire weapons designer/manufacturer, an eccentric genius/alcoholic womanizer. Not exactly your typical make-up of a superhero. On location in Afghanistan demonstrating the awesome might of Stark Industries' new "Jericho Missile," Tony is captured by terrorists who want him to forge the weapon for them.

Instead, Tones constructs a crude amour that allows his escape. The near-death experience and the realization of just where his weapons end up change Stark, and he dedicates his life to the construction of a new, more powerful amour, so he can start righting wrongs.

This does not go over well with Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), a money man in Stark Industries, who would rather keep the focus on mo' money, mo' money, mo' money. Bridges is damn near unrecognizable as Stane, and gives him so much personality I found myself wanting to see a whole movie about him. His speech which includes the line "Tony, we're Iron Mongers" is classic.

And so the tension in this film comes not from a super villain trying to take over the world (I'm looking at you, Lex Luthor), but from corporate greed. It's a nice, adult change of pace for the genre.

This is one of the best casts in history for a superhero film. You've got Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow alongside Oscar nominees Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges, and they're all turning in spectacular work. (Although what kind of a world do we live in where Paltrow has won a little golden man and Bridges has not? But I digress.)

While it's not a very meaty role, Paltrow has more to do here as the smartly sexy Pepper Potts than Katie Holmes had to work with as the boring babe Rachel Dawes in "Batman Begins." I'm not much of a Paltrow fan (her best work is in "The Royal Tenenbaums"), but as Stark's personal assistant/babysitter/confidant, Gwen does a good job being alternately knowing, mousy, and sarcastic.

Terrence Howard is note-perfect as Tony's pal Jim Rhodes, who we should expect to see more of in the can't-get-here-fast-enough sequel, and Leslie Bibb looks FANTASTIC in her bookend cameo as a reporter who 'gets to know' Stark rather well. There are a ton of nods to the larger Marvel universe to boot, such as character actor Clark Gregg who shows up as Phil Coulson, an agent from a little organization I like to call S.H.I.E.L.D. (aww yeah.)

It cannot be overstated how much the casting of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark means for this film. Remember, this isn't your typical teenage golly-gee-whiz superhero. Tony is in his forties, he's rich, and he likes to screw girls and blow things up real good. As soon as he is introduced on screen, Downey is completely believable. He simply IS Tony Stark. Downey's background lends instant credibility and insight to Stark's weaknesses and bravado.

Comics legend Stan Lee based Stark on Howard Hughes, giving him the same flawed brilliance. Kudos to Downey for believing in the role, for committing to it fully. He's said he would do fifteen of these movies, and I hope he does. It's no surprise the special effects are stellar, but it's a huge credit to Downey that I always pictured him behind Iron Man's cold visage.

"Iron Man" is the most enjoyable film I've seen this year to date, and raises the bar for the cinema superhero genre.

Ready for a new kind of radio? Check out the award winning Max On Movies, every Saturday from 2-4pm on 97.1 FM Talk. You'll hear breaking news about upcoming films, reviews of the latest theatrical and DVD releases, and interviews with your favorite actors, directors, and writers. Max On Movies was awarded a Certificate of Merit in the Special Program category from the Missouri Broadcasters Association in 2007. A member of the Saint Louis Gateway Film Critics Association, Max has written about film for various print and Web media, and appeared as guest critic on nationally syndicated radio shows. Paul McCartney wrote a song called "Magneto and Titanium Man." Just think about that for a second. Why couldn't John Lennon have written "Puny Parker" instead? That would have been awesome. I can hear it now: "Puny Parker's just a man. Doing things the best he can. He can't pay his rent, he can't get a date, he's tired all day because he stays up late / as the Spectacular Spider-Man / Parker's a better man / but when will he find, that it's all in his mind, and spectacular is who puny really is." Or something. We miss you John Lennon. E-mail Max at mfoizey@stl.emmis.com