The Invincible Iron Man

Everyone loves comic books! Personally, I have a big cardboard box full of them (I think of them as "a valuable investment", undoubtedly to be cashed in someday at some mythical store for a vast amount of money). I don't have any Iron Man comics though. He was always kind of lame. A rich guy who buys himself a metal suit. Blah. Like Batman (no real super powers), but without the cool nasty attitude and even more insulated from the outside world. And Tony Stark is a much snobbier rich guy than Bruce Wayne to boot.
To top off the lameness, the new Iron Man movie stars Robert Downey Jr. as the lead actor. Blech! He's better known by some for his many drunken benders and stints in rehab (for cocaine and heroin addictions, which he claimed started at the age of 8) than his acting skills (though he has been nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy and is a Golden Globe winner). "It's like I have a loaded gun in my mouth and my finger's on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gunmetal" he once told a judge. Downey spent almost a year and a half in prison before hiring O.J. Simpson's lawyers. Funny to imagine that his first career role was voicing one of the Pound Puppies (long before his Saturday Night Live days)! And in an upcoming film he wears liberal face paint and portrays a black man. At least there's Jeff Bridges (Seabiscuit, The Big Lebowski, Tron, The Last Unicorn) to play the bad guy and Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love, Great Expectations, Emma, The Pallbearer, Se7en, Hook) as the love interest.
But Lo and Behold, Iron Man raked in an incredible $100 Million plus this weekend ($200MM+ worldwide- which is good, because the film reportedly cost $186 million to make). That's 65% of the box office, with the second-best film making a meager $15 Mil; Iron Man is only the second movie this year to break $100MM at the box office period (along with Horton Hears a Who). To compare, Batman Begins (perhaps the best comic book movie ever and the best film that year) only made $48MM it's opening weekend. Superman Returns made just $52MM. X-Men, X-Men 2, Spider-Man 2: All made less than $91MM. In fact, Iron Man made more money than any introductory comic book movie besides Spider-Man ($114MM), and is fourth overall in the comic category (Spiderman 3 leads the way with $151MM). Categories aside, it's good for 10th best of any movie opening. And ol' Robert sure seems happy!
But even terrible movies can make lots of money. Apparently, that is NOT the case with this one. Iron Man has gained some of the best reviews of the year, with a B+ from critics and an A- from Movie Go-ers. No other film from the past month has gained more than a B from either hard-to-please group. The Chicago Sun-Times says it's "one of the smartest superhero films to come down the pike in some time." E! Online says that "Downey has a great, manic energy about him, and it shines through even in the more casual moments." Rolling Stone says that "It's been years since a movie superhero was this fierce and this funny". And the New York Post adds that it is "One of the hippest, best-written and best-directed superhero movies ever." Plus Kain says it's worth seeing more than once. So I gotta go see it now, at least once. I'll take my girl with me though (Kain!).
Iron Man is the first movie produced by Marvel, as their other blockbuster hits (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, etc) were made before they had created their own studio. Next out from Marvel: "The Incredible Hulk", starring Edward Norton (The Illusionist, The Italian Job, Fight Club, American History X, Rounders), due out in June of 2008. And, yes, Downey will make a small appearance in the film as Iron Man. After that, Punisher 2, Wolverine, Thor (June 4, 2010), Captain America (May 6, 2011), The Avengers (July of 2011), and Ant-Man will hit the theatres (with the new Spectacular Spider-Man kids cartoon hitting the WB tv network). Iron Man 2 has already been announced and is set to open April 30, 2010.