Iron Man

Alright folks, the Summer 2008 movie season has now begun! Not only that, but it has started off with a highly entertaining bang with the long awaited release of "Iron Man" which stars Robert Downey Jr. as the egocentric weapons maker turned world protector Tony Stark. Here's hoping the rest of this summer's releases can keep up with this movie which has now set the bar high for the rest of the blockbusters. It makes me remember how much fun a movie like this can be, and it also makes me realize just how much "Daredevil" sucked. I thought it was okay when I first saw it a while ago. I now stand corrected.

The movie starts with Tony Stark traveling along the Afghanistan desert with a military convoy which is soon attacked by terrorists. Tony flees the hummer transporting him, and almost gets killed by one of the missiles he designed. When he comes to, he is held captive in a cave, kept alive by an electromagnet attached to his torso which keeps whatever shrapnel in his body from going into his heart. The terrorists, led by Raza (Faran Tahir) force Tony to build them one of his most destructive missiles on pain of death. Of course, the terrorists will end up killing Stark when he is finished, so he instead takes the parts they give him, and he creates a suit that is bulletproof and which allows him to escape his captors in spectacular fashion.

When he gets back home in America, he has a press conference where he says that he will turn his company from a weapons making factory into something that doesn't promote endless destruction. Having seen what his weapons of mass destruction have done to others, he has had a change of heart and works to protect those from the weapons he has created. Having saved himself with his iron suit, he works at perfecting it into something strong and seemingly indestructible. It gives him the ability to fly, and to get back at all of those who foolishly took advantage of his destructive creations.