![\"3.5](\"\/image\/stars\/35o5.gif\")
\nThe season of Summer blockbuster action flicks is upon us, and the first one will probably prove to be one of the best of the lot.<\/p>\n
\nThe season of Summer blockbuster action flicks is upon us, and the first one will probably prove to be one of the best of the lot.<\/p>\n
Iron Man<\/a> is quite likely the original mecha<\/a> story from which the entire genre descends. (The original comic book was created by Stan Lee in 1963–though Lee may have been influenced by Robert Heinlein’s novel Starship Troopers<\/em> which was published in 1959.)<\/p>\n The film’s most notable feature is Robert Downey Jr.’s performance as Tony Stark. He is not your typical run-of-the-mill tormented, angst-ridden superhero. Stark starts out as a wise-cracking, irresponsible playboy (though a brilliant inventor), and that’s pretty much how he ends up too, though he does develop something of a social conscience after being held prisoner by Afghan terrorists. Downey manages to make a potentially unlikeable character seem sympathetic, as well as devilishly charming.<\/p>\n The other big star is the computer-generated gadgetry. Like all mecha shows this is largely about gadget porn, but it is gadget porn done right. The gadgets look cool and fun and at least vaguely plausible. I tend to have trouble with mecha shows because too often the technology is painfully, self-evidently absurd. This movie manages to pull it off. It’s a wild, fun ride, and no fair applying the refrigerator test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"