Iron Man is hard as nails

Iron…Iron Man Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow Directed by Jon Favreau Dark Blades Pictures

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To Hollywood, summer is about churning out movies at such a pace that audiences are barely distracted from the beer distributor long enough to see the next big flick. Thankfully, “Iron Man” is worth your cold hard cash in place of a cold brew.

The story starts with the brilliant, womanizing yet still likeable jerk, industrialist Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), on his way back from a successful pitch in the Middle East for his latest military missile, the Jericho. While schmoozing with his military escort, his convoy is attacked in a noisy battle. He gets caught in the crossfire of his own weapons and is subsequently captured by a terrorist group ordering him to make them a Jericho missile. Instead, he gives the terrorists a taste of his iron fist by constructing a metal suit of battle armor, which he dubs “Iron Man, Mk I.”

The rest of the film shows Stark’s transformation from merchant of death to hopeful hero, showing the evolution of his trademark suit from the piecemeal Mk I to the sleek red and gold seen in the comics.

First and foremost, props to Downey for a performance that is more golden than it is iron. He makes the transformation from likeable jerk-industrialist to likeable jerk-hero believable because he refuses to lose his sense of humor. Stark will do the right thing, but he’ll do it while delivering a laugh.

There’s no real sense of goody-goodyness in Stark, which works. It would’ve removed viewers from the film if he suddenly became the cliche penultimate nice guy.

Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges deserve shout outs as well, keeping up with Downey every step of the way. The oft-mousey Gwyneth Paltrow plays Pepper Potts, the obligatory love interest and damsel in distress, who comes off too much like a clone of Mary Jane from the Spider-Man movies. Still, Paltrow does her best considering the restrictions of her role in a male superhero movie.

And a straight-up superhero movie this is. Explosions are aplenty, which rattle the theater for nearly half of the movie’s running time. There were enough that a person standing outside the theater would probably ask, “What the hell was that noise?”

As for the special effects, they’re awesome. Using plenty of computer-generated imagery seemingly inspired by last year’s “Transformers,” watching each shifting part of Stark’s metal suit merge together to form the armor is not only interesting but gives a real sense of weight and power that a simple plastic prop suit would lack. Though there are only a handful of big fights, they’re all pretty badass.

Still, all the visual similarities to “Transformers” might be overwhelming – a cameo by Bumblebee or Optimus Prime would have been right at home in Stark’s world.

The pacing is the only noticeable problem in “Iron Man.” The story alternates between insane explosions and plodding exposition, leaving people going from “Whoa, awesome!” to “Where the hell’s Iron Man?” Walking out of the theater, two viewers commented on how accurately the movie followed the comics. Maybe it shouldn’t have – not all movies can pull it off like the ultra-faithful “No Country for Old Men.”

But that complaint was more of a nitpick. Mixing cutting-edge CGI, wonderful performances, well-placed humor and sparse but cool superhero fights, “Iron Man” is the summer blockbuster to beat this year. The rest of them will need luck competing with this iron-clad hero – he apparently doesn’t feel pain in that suit.