Afternoon Matinée

It pains me, but this is spoiler free!

I went to an afternoon matinée of Iron Man. It was a good choice since all the children were still in school. There were roughly 20 white men between the ages of 25-40 with a select few significant others who couldn't get out of it. Slick had confessed to me the other day that she was fine with waiting for DvD.

It was good. Yes, it still boiled down to your traditional superhero origin story. But, the effects were nice, the casting was superb & the pacing kept me from looking at my watch. All the essential elements of the character's origin & relationships are here for the true Iron Man fan. They've simply been updated for the modern stage. It was certainly better than the recent crop of superhero sequels. It was definitely worth the price of admission.

I am not really an Iron Man fan. He may be one of the elite all-star heroes of the Marvel Universe, but he's fairly low on my radar. Frankly, he always struck me as dull. When they flushed out the character in the last decade or so, I found him to be an arrogant, egotistical, alcoholic jerk. These personality defects may detract in the pages of comic books, but in the hands of Robert Downey Jr it really worked. I found myself liking Tony Stark for the first time.

I would say that this film is great for summer action-movie lovers & comic book fans. Everyone else can wait for DvD & internet release.

The following is technically spoiler. But I think I've left it vague enough. This warning is more to protect me from that one angry reader who gets it immediately. Most of you should be fine.



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Two Notes to Marvel Universe fans:


1) Try to convert the government agency acronyms as early as you can. This will make your l33t comic-book skillz feel superior later in the film.

2) Stay for the credits. There's a great character cameo scene. It was not the rumored one that involved General Ross of the Hulk books and it's tied directly into topic #1.