.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

As a comic book collector back in the 1980's, I am fairly familiar with the Tony Stark - Iron Man character. As I searched through my multiple boxes of comics for reference materials before the screening, I wasn't surprised to see that I had not one Iron Man comic in my collection. He does appear in my copies of Marvel's What if?.., Avengers and Secret Wars series, but Iron Man was never a favorite of mine when heroes such as Wolverine, Spider-Man and The Silver Surfer were available for purchase.

Granted, you didn't need to buy the comic to know the character. From Moon Knight to Dr. Strange, if someone wanted information on a character back in my collecting hey-day, I would have no problem rambling off back stories, best issues or character idiosyncrasies.

The Tony Stark - Iron Man story was an interesting one, but one lost on that of a young lad using his allowance quarters to buy that month's issues. Tony was a business man. An adult. When all the other superheroes seemed to be young people still battling young issues, Tony was addressing adult demons. He was a womanizer and had a drinking problem. You call him Iron Man. I call him 'Dad'.

Tony Stark came to Marvel pages in 1963 and was based on the playboy personality of Howard Hughes. Stark made weapons for Stark Enterprises and when he is injured and captured by the enemy he makes the suit of armor that becomes his staple.

The film Iron Man stays true to the story. Jon Favreau (Elf) directs Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark (Iron Man) in the first event film of the summer that is sure to delight and entice audiences worldwide. As the film opens, Tony Stark is captured after a weaponry demonstration in Afghanistan. During the melee, shrapnel is embedded in his chest and a device is inserted into his chest plate that keeps the pieces of metal from entering his heart and killing him.

While under capture, he is forced to build a weapon but uses the time instead to build a suit of armor complete with guns and flamethrowers. His escape is as exciting as it should have been expected. Encased in the armor shell, Tony Stark emerges from the hidden cave with a vengeance and fights, flames and flies his way through the terrorists like a warm knife through butter.

His resurfacing back in the western world gives Stark new meaning. First hand witnessing the atrocities to which his weapons were used when in captivity, Stark decides on a new direction for the company. One that doesn't involve weapons of mass destruction.

This comes to the great displeasure of his mentor Obadiah Stane (an unrecognizable, bald Jeff Bridges). Obadiah is driven by the company's success and a change in direction - and ultimate drop in stock price - is not something the Obadiah will endure.

This does nothing however to deflect Stark from his new moral direction and he begins to work secretly in his lab to perfect the Iron Man costume that he made from scrap in the desert.

When Stark finally takes his new red and gold metallic frame for a test ride, the audience screamed in excitement. As he flew through the skies and was pursued by two fighter jets, the glee on the faces of all the geeks sitting to the right and left of me would have made for a perfect toothpaste commercial.

And that was just the beginning.

Iron Man was a rollercoaster ride of fun and is on par with Batman Begins as being one of the best superhero films ever. Exciting, involving and action packed, Iron Man brought to life a character in a way I didn't think possible. From the first frame until the final confrontation battle between Iron Monger and our hero, I was engrossed in the story, the characters and the developments of the straight forward but well executed plot. Rarely have I sat through a film of two plus hours and wanted more, but the time whizzes by quicker than Iron Man hitting sonic speed and I bought into the whole event - hook, line and sinker.

Even in the more dramatic moments such as Starks awkward relationship with his executive assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), I was sold thanks largely in part to how committed Downey and the other actors seemed to be to their fictional characters. Downey, who was an odd choice when it was first announced he accepted the role, was perfect. By the end of the film you couldn't image anyone playing the role (unlike that of Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man that could have been played by many other young heartthrobs). And where comedy in superhero movies can bring a film into farcical territory (I'm calling you out Spider-Man 3), Iron Man probably spread the laughs and the action together like peanut butter and jelly.

The final battle scene between Obadiah's Iron Monger and Iron Man was exhilarating and filmed with a grace that I didn't think Jon Favreau had in him. After all, his directing experiences were not geared towards an action sequence of this magnitude (with all due respect to Zathura). But he handled it with such smooth elegance that Michael Bay should sit and watch this film repeatedly for days taking notes.

Iron Man starts the summer season like a Stark Enterprise launched rocket. It's going to be hard to match the action and adventure in efforts such as Speed Racer, Indiana Jones and even the second Batman which all come in its wake. Don't walk. Run to the theatre and see this one on the big screen.