Once back in the states, Stark takes to his workshop where he works on perfecting his armored suit. The womanizing, sarcastic, 'don't care about the consequences' version of Stark is being replaced by a man whose eyes have been opened to the atrocities that are being committed with the weapons that he helped devise. He has a desire to turn around and defend the innocents who have been endangered by his prior self. Of course, not everyone is happy to see this new Stark. At the top of that list is Stark's second in command Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). This builds towards an explosive finale that introduces a new hero to the world born from the ashes of a seriously flawed man.

On the surface, this is just another superhero origin tale, the likes of which we have seen time and time again, with the main difference being the costumes used in the end. In the past few years we have had Batman, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, X-Men, Hulk, and others. They all have the same basic structure, but Iron Man successfully stands out from the pack in much the same way Batman Begins. One of the reasons for this is the creative team understanding the heart of the character and tailoring a screenplay to the character without dumbing it down for the mass audience.

The screenplay by the teams of Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby (Children of Men) and Art Marcum & Dan Holloway understands what makes Stark tick. These two teams have crafted a screenplay that centers completely on the Stark character, laying the entire weight of the film on the shoulders of a single character. However, while it is a strong in the character department, it is also mature in its plot execution. There are the requisite action scenes, but the plot ties in nicely with current events as well as touches of corporate issues concerning his position as the head of Stark Industries. It is little touches like this that help the bigger picture feel more real.

This is easily the biggest film of Jon Favreau's career, and while his style is not flashy or even terribly distinctive, he does a fine of job of keeping it grounded in reality. Above everything else, Iron Man has fantastic pacing. This is not really an effects extravaganza that is filled with wall to wall action, no; the effects are definitely there and play an important role, but they emerge from the plot development. It is filled with plot and character, it is not always exciting, but the pacing keeps everything moving along briskly so that you do not realize that more than two hours have passed by the time it ends. I know I was left wanting more.