Iron Man

So a lot of people are going to see the new comic book superhero movie Iron Man, and loving the hell out of it. There's been a real excitement and undercurrent of heightened anticipation for a while, especially since the trailers hit. A lot of it has come from people familiar with the original comic books, so that probably makes sense, as it appears that they've faithfully re-created the characters.

But I've never read or even seen the comics, so I come to it cold. And as far as I can see, this is an overrated, decidedly average addition to the genre. I found it overwhelmingly predictable, embarrassingly low in plot development, with decent-but-unoriginal effects work. The actors and their characters were excellent entertainment, and there were a few good laughs throughout, but aside from that it was pretty much bog-standard. I found Batman Begins, the first two Spider-Man films, and the first two X-Men films, all to be far superior to this.

I appear to be very much a lone voice of dissent for this film. All I can conclude from this is that I no longer understand what I thought I knew. I am not a SF/Fantasy movie geek after all, because now I am at odds with the majority view.