Iron Man

Title: Iron Man
Year: 2008
Director: Jon Favreau
Writers: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum & Matt Holloway, based on characters by Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow
Music: Ramin Djawadi
Distinctions: Oscar nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing; formerly on IMDb's Top 250
Synopsis: an amoral weapons manufacturer builds a super suit
Length: 126 minutes
How I saw it: in the theater, May 2008; on video (rented from Netflix), November 2008
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for cinematography, special effects/design and music) c. 2.9/4 (Good).

I'm kind of torn. I was crazy about this movie after seeing it in the theater. The second time around, knowing that it wasn't going anywhere took a lot of the fun out of it. It's a great origin story, but he never really gets around to any superheroing. The good guys are all great characters, but there is no villain worth mentioning. The build up to the action scenes is great, but the action itself is cartoon robots punching each other. The music... is fitting for a character with a Black Sabbath song named after him.