Iron Man

Herald rating: * * *

Verdict: You'll believe Robert Downey Jr can fly. Just not quite high enough.

Now
this one's out of the way, can't wait for the Iron Man movie. Because
despite the title, this isn't really an Iron Man movie - it's a Tony
Stark movie, one about the guy who through sheer technical bravura and
financial clout turns himself into a man of steel.

Well yes, so did Batman. But whereas that last Batman Begins reworked the superhero's origin story into something thrilling that
went beyond just how Bruce Wayne started working nights, this one makes
its inception of Iron Man nearly the whole point of the exercise.

Which,
for the most part, is fun enough, especially due to the unlikely
casting of Robert Downey Jr as Stark, the boozy engineering genius
arms-dealing playboy billionaire turned servo-powered robo-warrior.

Downey's manic wit is a special effect in itself and casting him as

that rare superhero alter-ego - one with an actual ego - proves

inspired.

So does the presence of Bridges as his duplicitous

partner in the Stark industrial empire and Paltrow, who brings some wry

dignity to the role of sexy secretary, despite being named Pepper Potts.

But

after Downey's Stark has got the hang of the flying suit thing, Iron

Man really doesn't have a lot to do. Sure there's some revenge to

wreak, the inevitable nemesis showdown and a springboard for the sequel

to bounce off.

But

Iron Man

is a movie of much set-up and hardly enough pay-off.

There

is, of course, an action sequence or two but most are over in a fairly

dull flash of CGI and panelbeating noises. Those start after Stark

heads to Afghanistan (in the original comic it was Vietnam) for a

weapons demonstration where he is captured by Talebanesque locals and

ordered to make them one of his new rocket systems despite having

acquired a dodgy ticker.

Despite his captors' video surveillance,

he knocks up a prototype Iron Man suit instead, uses it to escape and

has a change of heart about his place at the top of the military

industrial complex.

Bad move, as it turns out. Having swooped

back into Afghanistan's troubles in his finished outfit and done his

bit for the War on Terror, he returns to finds himself in a corporate

conflict with Bridges' treacherous Obidiah Stane, all of which

escalates to a clash of the robo-titans the likes of which haven't been

seen since ... well,

Transformers

last year, actually.

It's a lightweight story, but

Iron Man

still offers plenty to enjoy, especially as this particular Marvel

comics character hasn't already suffered through multiple screen

incarnations.

So it's a refreshing start to what is about to

become a very crowded superhero genre in 2008. But disappointingly, it

does only what's required of it - open the franchise - and not a lot

more.

Russell Bailie

Cast

: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terence Howard

Director

: Jon Favreau

Rating

: M (medium level violence)

Running time

: 126 mins

Screening

: SkyCity, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas