I am....Iron Man!

I grew up reading comics, so a great many of the current action flicks coming out initially appeal to me.

When the first Batman came out in 1989, I was excited, but a bit disappointed at the storyline. I liked it nonetheless, but in retrospect, was disappointed. The movies that followed were not much better, and it seemed that they would try even harder to get that "star" power to overcome the lack of substantial acting and writing.

Spider-man, at least the latest reincarnation, is better. Tobey Maguire's acting and the writing is such as to keep me interested. Most of the time. That, and Kirsten Dunst's presence. It wasn't bad, but the third one (as cool as the black suit was), left something to be desired. It seemed as if as any of these stories progress, we have to get more stars/heroes/villains and have them all battling and such. C'mon. What's next? Carnage kidnaps MJ and takes over the Daily Bugle? The Lizard goes on a rampage? And Venom threatens to put out Spidey's secret identity to the world? All in the same movie? Too much.

One movie (again, following the Marvel universe) that really did it right (almost at least) was The Punisher. No, not the nasty Dolph Lundren version, but the 2004 Thomas Jane version. Really nice, really dark. Left some bits out from the comics, but included some others. I don't know if they plan on making a sequel, but the movie itself was fairly complete. The characters really stayed true to who they are, and it wasn't overly complicated (for a movie). A great many parts of the movie I can tie back to my humble collection of Punisher: War Journal. Props to Jim Lee's master artistry on all that work.

Many others have come out, again from the Marvel-verse. Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Blade, X-Men, Ghost Rider, and even Hellboy have all come to receive interest varying from excitement to week-old oatmeal splendor. I've seen these, in addition to DC Comic's Batman and Superman installments. I really liked the newest Batman and anticipate the return of Joker in the upcoming movie. Superman Returns is a bit of a departure from the typical story lines, but I think the writer's stayed true to the overall character. I really liked that story, and it left it open without the obvious "expect a sequel now..." type ending.

What's all this about? My son and I took in Iron Man this past weekend. Eye candy galore. The storyline, albeit updated to 2008, followed Tony Stark's transformation into Iron Man. I can't say that there was one part I didn't like. Now, there were some parts being quite predictable. Formulas for action movies don't digress much, and in this case, it's still there. Doesn't take away from the movie. Most important for me was the on-screen savy of Robert Downey, Jr. For all his troubled past, he fits this role practically perfectly. Best moments? The on-screen chemistry between Downey's Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts. The not-so-sublteness of it really amped me up and kept me into those slower parts. The soundtrack really fits, driving the action and highlighting smaller funny moments.

Now, the ending. I'm an ending kind of guy. If you saw the movie Sliver, you know that endings can really f#%! up a movie. I've heard some rumblings about Iron Man's ending. When you see it, consider this: what would Tony Stark say in that situation? That should help you arrive at your answer.