Iron Man
Iron Man is not the story of a guy who presses his own laundry. It does involve a billionaire genius in a metal with the iron irony being that not much of it could possibly be iron but probably some other ultra bullet proof alloy. Iron just wouldn’t survive the ordinance he faces in this getup (with even more irony) against sophisticated munitions also of his invention. The suit comes to light when Tony Stark played with perfect cocky hedonistic charm by Robert Downey Jr. is taken prisoner in Afghanistan by a group of high end gun runners. He’s there to hype the US army on the “Jericho missile” his newest doomsday creation but his convoy is attacked. This he barely survives only to be forced by his captors to reproduce the weapon for them. While pretending to assemble a Jericho missile he’s actually putting together his new brainchild, the armour that he uses to escape their clutches. The experience proves cathartic as he does a 180 reversal of his former hawkish self. He takes his company out of the blow up biz and channels his energy into perfecting the capabilities of his suit with the platonic help of Pepper Potts a woman with an impossible name and equally impossible stiletto heels played with subtle intelligence by Gwyneth Paltrow. His new lease on life doesn’t sit well with business partner Obadiah Stane played with dubious motives by an unrecognizable Jeff Bridges. Meantime the fragments of the destroyed original suit salvaged from the Afghan desert come back to haunt Stark and set the stage for a final mortal combat. The many plusses (Terence Howard being one) outweigh the few minuses of Iron Man which opens the summer blockbuster season with a bang - and the unrequited sparks between Stark and Potts set the stage for the inevitable sequel.