Iron Man: Serious Fun

I just went to the movie for a good time and popcorn. I got that and more with the first big blockbuster of the summer, Iron Man. It gives Robert Downey, Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard,and Gwyneth Paltrow afun story, geek-friendly CGI, action, and even a message. Downey is back in top form which is great to see and Jeff Bridges makes a great villain. Paltrow underplays her role just right as the female assistant to Downey's Tony Stark.

But the message makes this movie darker and more serious than I expected. Tony Stark becomes Iron Man as the result of a terrorist attack on his trip to Afghanistan to sell a new, powerful weapon of destruction. But it raises the question of companies making such powerful weapons and becoming either heroes or "merchants of death." The international arms trade and black market is raised up for concern as well.

But under it all, as always in any comic book/graphic novel super hero, it is the story of good and evil in black and white with good winning, but only for the moment. The divide of good and evil is found within humans and you never know which ones. Which may be the only gray area in these stories.

My wife really liked this movie. She thought it was fun and a good way to spend a movie afternoon. I really liked the movie. It was fun and yet it raised questions to pnder. Obviously many others agree with this (it is 93% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer and it was a big #1 for two weeks.) But don't let the serious part scare you off from a fun movie. Enjoy.

And oh, yes. They had a trailer for Indiana Jones the next fun movie of the summer. Well, I'm reserving judgment on Prince Caspian. Although I'm looking forward to it, it is, by definition a more serious movie.