First, a confession. This is being written while sitting on the beach. For me, that’s a cool thing.

Then I feel compelled to ask… “Am I the only one on the planet who didn’t really fall in love with the new Iron Man movie?” Every review I’ve read pretty much pegs it as the second coming of Christ, and I’m pretty much “meh…” about the movie itself.

Props where they’re due. Robert Downey Jr. is PERFECTLY cast as a smug, arrogant Tony Stark. No matter what, he did a fantastic job with the role and I love watching him take on the big bad guys, no matter how contrived they may be… Hopefully we’ll get a few sequels to flesh everything out.

That being said, let’s address the rest of the cast, and storyline, because this is where the movie completely falls apart for me. Without knowing any of the history behind the movie, it’s almost as though it was written by two different writing teams who’d never met, then smashed together by director Jon Favreau (who also played Tony’s limo driver) into the movie that played out on the screen.

Tony’s leading lady, Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) seemed almost underplayed, which is unusual for ms. Paltrow considering her other roles. The “best buddy” Col Rhodes (played by Terrence Howard) came across — to me at least — as a “don’t ask, don’t tell” military guy, and the big evil bad guy (played by Jeff Bridges) came across is painfully one-dimensional.

In the end, Downey was phenomenal, the concept was great, the technology ideas were fantastic, but the movie as a whole left me feeling a bit flat and uninspired. This after watching it twice to make sure that I hadn’t missed anything the first time…

What sucks most to me, is that it was THE movie I was waiting for this season, even above the much hyped Indiana Jones.

In the end, here’s to hope for sequels, maybe they can fix the glaring problems I see before me. I almost dare you to tell me how you see it differently.

– Wayne