Along with Downey Jr, credit must go to Gwyneth Paltrow as Starks' assistant and all-around Girl Friday, Pepper Potts. I haven't been interested in anything the actress has done since 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums, and she usually comes off as unnecessarily cold. But in Iron Man, she exhibits a natural chemistry with Downey Jr while exhibiting a relaxed sexuality and intelligence, bringing more to the character than what I suspect was on the page. When the cast was announced, she was the principle I cared the least about, so I was pleasantly surprised when she turned out to be such an asset to the film. The love interest character is usually the weakest element of any superhero film (including the otherwise superb Batman Begins), so its a testament to Paltrow and the film as a whole that this isn't the case with Iron Man.

So comic book fans, let your geek flag fly and rejoice that after three years, a movie has come worthy of your obsessive devotion. My enthusiasm has now been restored, leaving me not only desperate to see The Dark Knight, but also more excited to see The Incredible Hulk, and especially excited at the prospect for a sequel to Iron Man (to that end, make sure you hang around until the end of the credits for a bonus scene). If Favreau, Downey Jr, and Marvel were able to generate this much excitement with an origin story, I can't wait to see what they'll can do with that out of the way.

Directed by: Jon Favreau

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Shaun Toub, Leslie Bibb, Faran Tahir, Sayed Badreya, Clark Gregg