I was sitting at Target, eating with my Grandfather. He opted for the $2 combo of a hot dog and drink. I went for the same price deal, only instead with nachos. He asked me how Iron Man was after I’d seen it the previous day.

Me:           Well Iron Man was a Marvel comic book character originally out of the 60s.

Gramps:    No kiddin’? Kinda like the Green Hornet?

Me:           Not really. He would be like the Green Hornet if he put on a robotic suit.

Gramps:    Oh. You mean like Robocop?

Me:           Yeah…. But not… dead.

Gramps:    Robocop was dead?

Me:           Didn’t you take me to see it when I was a kid?

Gramps:   I don’t remember. I must have fallen asleep.

Me.          Uh-huh. Okay. Well…

Iron Man is about a boy genius named Tony Stark who inherits his father’s fortune from the development of weapons to aid the military. The movie starts with Tony in the middle east demonstrating a new weapon – A missile that deploys a spread of smaller projectiles with some heavy firepower. But that doesn’t matter. After the demo he’s escorted back to base in a heavily guarded battalion of Hummers only to be attacked by terrorists who used Stark Industry weaponry – Used his weaponry against him. During the attack Stark was wounded and taken captive.

So while in captivity he was saved by a fellow scientist who hooked up an electromagnet to his chest to keep excess shrapnel from getting to his heart. And the magnet was powered by a 12v car battery which he had to lug around.

Gramps:    That’s kinda stupid. Ya know I got a battery hooked up to my pacemaker and it’s the size of pea.

Me:           I know, but consider that it’s a comic book movie and that they’re in a cave in a desert and they had to make use of whatever they had to power a 2 pound electromagnet….  Okay so it’s stupid! Long story short – The terrorists want him to recreate the weapon he was demonstrating and he had a week to do it or he would be killed. Stark knowing he would be killed anyway, instead develops a bullet proof suit of armor with bionics and believe it or not, jet propulsion. 

Gramps:    What?!

Me.           I know, I know. And it’s powered by a battery that he developed in a couple days that will sustain his electro-heart for years and/ or power the suit for a short period of time.

Gramps:     Right.

Me:            So yeah, he uses the suit to blast his way out of the enemy camp and escape. Then runs around in the desert and is eventually rescued by the USAF and flown back to the US where he changes his attitude on making weapons. The rest of the movie has him developing a far more advanced suit, his company struggling to survive the stock market and his best friend and company partner turns out to be the one supplying the terrorists. The movie ends with Stark as Iron Man, fighting his partner whose in a similarly designed armor suit. Of course Star wins.

Gramps:     Of course. So it sounds like I probably wouldn’t have been interested in it anyway.

Me:            Maybe not. But all in all, it was a lot better than I thought it would. It was heavily hyped and everyone seems to like it. I was reluctant to see it due to the lead actor playing Tony Stark--

Gramps:     Who was?

Me:            Robert Downey Jr.

Gramps:     Isn’t that the guy with the talk show that smokes a lot?

Me:            No, that’s Morton Downey Jr., this is Robert.

Gramps:     Oh. Are they related?

Me:            I don’t think so… have to google that one.  Downey was a more a comedic or dramatic actor and he did a decent job taking on an action role even pumping up a bit physically. In the comics and cartoons, Tony Stark was always quick witted and charming, like a millionaire playboy type with lots of one liners. Downey didn’t do bad.

What really helped was the CGI. If they didn’t have the tech available today, I don’t think it would have been as good or at least convincing to see a flashy flying-bionic-armor-suit in another format. It would have looked like Barbarella or Flash Gordon or something.

Gramps:     Barba-whats?

Me:            Nevermind. How’s the hot dog?

Gramps:     Not bad for two dollars - Could be better.

Me:            Yeah… that’s what I thought of Iron Man too.  [rd] - 5.27.2008