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Tony Stark makes you feel he's a cool exec with a heart of steel

Watched Iron Man last night. Possibly the most enjoyable super-hero movie Marvel has ever put out, and right up there in my top three super-hero movies, period, next to Superman II and Spider-Man 2. It does pretty much what I've always said about adapting comic books and icons to the screen — you don't have to be word-perfect faithful (and, in fact, you probably don't want to be... case in point, Daredevil), you just have to be able to get the character enough to show us what he's all about.

And Favreau did good. He hewed as close to the origin as he could and still make it up to date, and kept the action and big explosions going along at a good enough clip so that the two hours just flew by. Of course, the biggest credit has to go to Robert Downey, Jr., who played Stark with the right combination of arrogance, self-righteousness and vulnerability that is the essence of the comic book character. What helps of course is the good humour that permeates the script, allowing the audience much more empathy with Stark than, say, we had with Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, which wins points on awesome but loses to Iron Man in terms of heart (no pun intended, given Tony's condition). But then, that's always been one of the dividing lines between DC and Marvel.

Marvel Studios acquitted itself very nicely with this first foray. Here's hoping The Incredible Hulk will similarly measure up. Now, I want the toys.