i must admit that the primary reason why this movie caught my eye was because it had gwyneth paltrow in it. i got even more interested after seeing the glosssy red carpet images of gwyneth p. — it seemed like a nice comeback vehicle for her and robert downey certainly deserves this huge break.

frankly, i wasn’t all that impressed when the early Iron Man trailers hit the screen, so when the intial reviews came out i was pleasantly suprised (last i checked it had a whooping 95% approval rating over @ RottenTomatoes). naturally i had to check it out for myself.

and boy, am i glad i did. robert downey fits this role to a T (right age, experience, looks). and he gels well with gwyneth paltrow. their sparkling banter and understated attraction has a way of pulling you in despite the loud explosive action that undertandably fills the screen every now and then. and there’s jeff bridges, who — except for his voice — is almost unrecognizable as the sleek bald baddie obadiah stane and terrence howard who plays tony stark’s pal and military attache

you have to hand it to robert downey though. he’s the main reason why this movie works. aside from his rapid-fire ironic (no intended) quips — his one-sided conversations with his helper robots are quite funny — he’s entirely convincing as this billionaire playboy-inventor who lives hard and plays hard, until he receives his epiphany courtesy of his 3-month incarceration in the hands of his Afghan captors. he also does a pretty bang-up job of acquainting himself with his new costume (sorry, i just had to add that).

and that last line of his! i think it’s a brilliant move on the part of the screenwriters. it was certainly the last thing i expected him to say — i was floored, to say the least.

boxoffice-wise, i think Iron Man will do well. i am seriously expecting a trilogy out of this.