I'll admit that normally I'm not much of a marvel guy, finding X-men to be largely pointless and Spiderman to be an angrst, whiney nuisance. Iron Man, however, has always been something of an exception to this rule, as he conforms to the whole 'batman' group of heroes who aren't truly Super, but rather rely on their innate human coolness to save the world/city/girl. Of course, the power core that allows Iron Man to function as a hero is an integrated part of Tony Stark, and so it is all too easy to make the argument that, since Stark cannot be separated from his "powers" without dying, he is, technically, still a superhero. It is for that reason that I always favoured the dark-knight (batman for the uninitiated), with his brooding exterior and tormented past, whose only power is being rich enough to afford a tank and a gym in the basement, over Iron Man's more 'enhanced' abilities (though they are equally, if not more, dependent on him having access to a huge pile of cash).
My experiences of the last twenty four hours have forced me, however, to question my long-held faith in Bruce Wayne. Firstly, whilst I'm an undoubted fan of Christian Bale (particularly in American Psycho), I have, since his appearence on popular-if-rubbish-legal-drama Ally McBeal, always liked the warmth that Robert Downey Jr brings to the screen, and this is never more true than in Iron Man; where Batman has his nice friendly relationship with the hired-help in the form of his Butler Alfred, and a love interest in not-so-catholic-anymore Katie Holmes, Iron Man has his hired-help (Assistant Pepper Potts proving that Marvel are truly rubbish at names), as both his trusted confidant and his love interest, and still finds time to sleep with a Vanity Fair Journalist (the publication is significant, there being a hierarchy as to how many points you get for sleeping with a journalist from any given publication. In case anyone was wondering, Reading Online News is at the top), and be friends with the abitrary ethnic minority.
Further, while Wayne and Alfred draw up designs from the all too crude tools of the trade used in Batman Begins and then construct them themselves, with hammers and whatnot, the significantly flashier Iron-Man Suit (complete with auto-targeting system of the kind you've always wanted while playing arcade games), was designed by Stark himself, with help from his surprisingly British AI Computer System, on, (and this is important, readers) his Mac.
To sum up, Iron Man's superior sense of humour and more expensive toys make Iron Man every bit as enjoyable for me, a die-hard batman fan, as Batman Begins; this may not be the best review you'll ever read of the film, but hell, go and watch it anyway.
Oh, and the moral of this film: Just because you're a billionaire who has dedicated his/her life to fighting crimes and writing wrongs, doesn't mean you can't occasionally crack jokes or sleep with journalists: I think there's a lot we can all learn from this.
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