Movie Review: You'll believe a man can iron

Or something like that. As hinted in today's comic, Yesterday I went to see Iron Man, the new movie starring Robert Downey Jr. and directed by John Favreau.

Is it worth it? If you've endured Fantastic Four 2 and Spiderman 3, then Ironman is the reward for your pennance. It's a well crafted, superbly paced action film that pushes all your buttons at just the right moments. Robert Downey is excellent as the spoiled rich genius who finds himself thrust into circumstances beyond his control and has to reassess his priorities. But enough about that. Here's some trivia:

• The Iron Man Mark I armor weighed 90 pounds.
  
  
• An animatronic puppet of the Iron Monger was built for the film by Stan Winston Studios. It stood 10 feet tall and weighed 800 pounds, and was built on a set of gimbals to simulate walking. It required five operators to run it.
  
  
• Jon Favreau describes the film as "a kind of independent film-espionage thriller crossbreed; a Robert Altman-directed Superman (1978), with shades of Tom Clancy novels, James Bond films, RoboCop (1987), and Batman Begins (2005)."

There's a big hint about the sequel at the end of the film's credits. I'll say no more. What are you waiting for? Go see it.