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Iron Man (Jon Favreau, USA, 2008)

Dir. Jon Favreau; starring Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb

Iron Man, partly through sheer entertainment but more so through quality, highlights the deficiencies of Spiderman and its ilk. There is little hiding my dislike of Sam Raimi's Spiderman franchise, a set of films which, along with X-Men, Hulk, Ghost Rider, Superman Returns and a long list of others, have turned me away from Hollywood's penchant for the superhero. Small mercy's aside - Hellboy, Batman Begins/The Dark Knight, Fantastic Four, Unbreakable - the new breed of superhero lacks the sort of creative muscle Superman and Batman were brandishing back in the 1970s and 1980s. What Jon Favreau's Iron Man highlights is the fact superhero films can still be good movies under the merchandised gloss of their action set-pieces. It also examples the glaring flaws of the Spiderman franchise, a set of films only worthwhile to film students as how not to do teen romance.

John Stark is the genius inventor and owner of a military weapons manufacturing company. He's got everything he ever wanted - women, money, power. When the convoy he's travelling in is ambushed in Afghanistan, he's captured and forced to build weaponry for a violent insurgent group. Instead of building a weapon for the group holding him captive, he creates a device he can use to escape with. The device, a reinforced iron suit powered by a tiny nuclear reactor, provides the user with power, protection and ammunition. Finishing the suit, Stark escapes, heading home to perfect the design and add some innovative touches. But, when he thinks all is safe, the iron suit is put the test once again when he discovers the real reason why he was held captive in the Middle East.

Favreau's Iron Man stakes its claims in a grounded reality governed by technological advancement. This makes the titular character a more authentic proposition. But Favreau also underpins the fantastic with a very contemporary theme - how technology interacts with our lives, and the endless moral dilemma of military weaponry.

Some have criticized Favreau for taking the more realistic elements from the comic book for Iron Man's first cinematic endeavors but that's what makes his film so successful. Iron Man, far from being a superhero with supernatural powers, uses technology to dominate his enemies. This in turn highlights the film's theme of power and greed. If the world's most powerful weapons can be made,

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