"Never wanted to be a superhero? .... You will after this!"

Making comic book superheroes cool is not an easy task. The image of the nerd sitting at home with his NHS glasses reading comics page by page is a hard one to shift. Slowly however, this stigma is wearing off as the characters get turned into Hollywood blockbusters, arguably beginning with the Blade series, and progressing through to the more well known characters – Spiderman, The X-Men to name but two.

Not many of you will have heard of Iron Man before watching this film, but you damn sure won’t forget him afterwards. This has to be THE coolest superhero film to date. Robert Downey Jr is simply awesome as Tony Stark aka Iron Man, and brings real depth to the role. If you leave the cinema not wanting to be Iron Man, then you need your head checking. So often in these comic bookadaptations actors are cast for their bankability, but in this case, the director Jon Favreau has got it bang on, and the film benefits hugely as a result.

The rest of the cast are no mugs either – Gwyneth Paltrow, Terence Howard and Jeff Bridges all contribute to a film with no weak links, which is especially important in making the whole thing believable. Speaking of being believable, the special effects are truly awesome. Not awesome in a “wow that’s a massive explosion awesome” but awesome in that you can hardly tell whenthey are being used. Yes come of the gadgets (especially the stupidly cool 3D computer screens) are a little far fetched, but the whole thing looks so damn convincing that you’re drawn in hook line and sinker.

Downsides? Well if I’m being uber critical I would have liked to have seen a bit more action, BUT that’s only cos the Iron Man suit looks so damn cool!!! Of all the superhero films I’ve seen this is, in my opinion, the best. The characters are so similar to the comics it’s uncanny. Its intelligent, quick witted and funny, as well as spectacularand action packed. It really is the whole package.