Summer Begins

Judging by the $100 million opening weekend, many of you have already seen Iron Man by now. For those of you who haven't yet, my advice is this: adjust your expectations down a bit. It's not a bad movie; in fact, it's certainly an "above average" movie. But the overwhelmingly positive reviews it seems to have been getting might set you up for something more fantastic than I think it delivers.

In the plus column, Robert Downey Jr. is fantastic, as is the writing of his character. He's dark, sarcastic, and witty, but also charming and endearing at the same time. He's not a hero in any conventional sense of the word, but he really makes the movie fun to watch.

Gwyneth Paltrow is also really compelling, I think. Again, the writing does her a great service. Her character is neither the dumb airhead the hero of such films often has to to rescue, nor the "look how independent a woman I am!" overcompensating stereotype-unto-itself that many others of these films inject instead. Her scenes with Robert Downey are the best in the movie. They have a great and believable relationship.

The film moves along at a good pace, not dragging, but not throwing in too much action for action's sake. It has just the right dash of social commentary, while doing its proper duty as a "summer blockbuster."

However, in the minus column, there's Jeff Bridges' character. And this is no fault of the actor, who delivers an enjoyably over-the-top performance. But it feels like it's been spliced in from another movie. With the other two leads being such fully dimensional characters, his character looks all the more flat and one-note. And he really is. We're never given any motivations for his behavior -- not even a thin, implausible one. He looks the part, he mugs for the camera, but ultimately it all feels incredibly false for how human and real the rest of the movie feels.

And then there's the finale. Without spoiling anything, I think, let me just say that it's a CG-fest. It's a big brawl between two fighters that exist only on a series of hard drives somewhere. There's no heart in it. And to me, it once again feels dragged in from some other movie, given the more realistic build-up that led to it.

In short, major points for a more character-driven and emotional tale than either superhero or summer blockbuster movies tend to have. But points off for not staying true to that model all the way through the film. I rate it a B- overall.