And still, it bored the hell out of me. Terrorists kidnap the mostbrilliant weapon manufacturer in the world? He escapes by building arobotic suit instead of the missile the terrorists wanted him to build?And the suit is powered by a battery that he just happened to createwhile in captivity? Was that the plot of the comic? Because usuallyeven the worst comics have a plot!

And then the casting. I like Robert Downey, even if he hasn't acted inanything decent lately. Jeff Bridges? A favourite of mine. GwynethPaltrow, yummy! I even like Terrence Howard. And what did they achieve?Absolutely nothing! NOTHING! Not that they played badly, but they justcouldn't do anything within the script!

What else is there to talk about? The special effects? Some flashylights and then lots of explosions. Oh, and a flying robotic suit.

Bottom line: lousy story to begin with, but scripted even worse. Avoid!

Maybe it would have helped if I had been an avid fan of the comic book– that seems to be necessary to accept the absurd back story. But Ifound the plot, story, characters, and cinematography to be unbearablypredictable and far-fetched. I realize the movie is supposed to providesome indulgent escapism. But setting it in Afghanistan ruined this forme, which forced me to think about the terrible realities there.Setting it in a fictitious city like Gotham would have helped.

Iron Man has a lot in common with Spiderman (not to mention the longlist of formula superhero adaptations before it), but I enjoyed thatmovie much more, as it had a much more plausible human side, and ahumble super hero main character is much more palatable to me than thesmarmy Robert Downey Jr. who acted like he needed a good paddling.

Despite a lot of dozing off and eye-rolling, the highlight in the moviefor me was Gwyneth Paltrow, who is not only cute but did a marvelousjob of acting the conflicted role of Stark's better half, and somehowdidn't look ridiculous walking over piles of broken glass in 4 inchheels.

Perhaps it is a comment on our culture that enormous sums of money arespent making and watching movies like this? Do we truly have nothingbetter to do with our collective time?

The film is a rip off of Batman- a billionaire playboy who is worthmillions, I can't remember his name, likes to build robots and sellthem to bad guys in places like Egypt. He is bored with his life andfancies a change so he turns himself into a half man half machine halfbird creature, and calls himself Iron Man. After his parents aremurdered he realises his purpose is revenge. He covers his body in thelatest weaponry- guns, lasers, big knifes, and learns to fly. After abrief training montage (running up hills, lifting cars, shootingtargets showing his skill and fitness progress) he flies to a terroristcountry and kills the bad guys. That's about it really. Quite shallow,but some good actions and graphics. I don't think anyone else famouswas in the movie though I was pretty drunk on whiskey while watchingit. I think it was an attempt to start a new franchise so maybe morethings will happen in the next film. The Man Of Steel will return to acinema near you next year or two! Best Scene: When Iron Man is learningto fly and he keeps zooming into the ceiling of his barn and whackinghis head. What a chump!