It's been a while since Robert Downey Jr. made anything worth watching, and here he makes a return to the big screen. Downey Jr. plays brilliant industrialist and hi-tech billionaire inventor Tony Stark who travels to war-torn Afghanistan to demonstrate his latest weapon 'Jericho'. Stark and his entourage are then ambushed by the most devestating of means. Stark finds himself at the mercy of Middle Eastern terrorists and a power crazed self-appointed extremist general, no doubt, hellbent on bringing America and her allies to their knees. Stark is ordered to build the very weapon he created to protect America and her interests. He uses his 3 months incarceration to build himself a get out clause - a powered exoskeleton - although a little rustic in appearance at first, we watch as the billionaire turned vigillante unleashes his wrath upon his captors, in the most astonishing way.

Director Jon Favreau treats us to a visual tour-de-force with startling imagery of a high tech billionaire's dream and a plethora of playboy vices such as fast cars, exotic hillside mansions, fantastic gadgetry and the obligatory love interest Miss Pepper Potts, wonderfully portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow. She plays Tony Stark's trusted assistant and potential girlfriend who together with Stark face the maniacle and twisted Stark Industries executive Obadiah Stane (the outstanding Jeff Bridges).

Marvel put the project in production as their first self-financed film. The result is an outstanding sequence of events and astonishingly detailed account of the birth of the technologically advanced superhero, Iron Man. This is one of the best, if not THE best of the superhero movies that have somewhat tarnished the movie world, only this time we have a film worth its weight in Stark Industries steel. The heart thumping score, futuristic CGI visuals and comic book fantasy world have forged the making of a legend in a spectacular way.