Since Marvel Comics and CGI started their mystical marriage in the late 1990s, we've had superheroes galore. Hulks, Surfers, Spidermen, not to mention constantly renewed Batmans and Supermans. So what does Iron Man have to offer that's different?
Add to that some of the best features of Robocop, Batman Begins and Terminator II, and you have one of the more satisfying comic-books-turned-blockbuster that we've seen for a while.
Billionaire and genius Tony Stark -- with a personality vaguely based on Howard Hughes -- is a weapons inventor that gets captured by bad guys in Afghanistan. Forced to work for them, he has other plans. Stark, nicely played by Robert Downey Jr, fashions a hi-tech suit of armour - before going on to save the world in usual exemplary fashion.
This long build-up -- to explain how he becomes Iron Man -- is arguably the best part of the film. Ingenious special effects give Stark's futuristic Malibu mansion a sci-fi rather than fantasy feel. And the subtle build-up makes us more forgiving as the story slips slowly into comic-book reality.