Yesterday, Ray was pretty busy. He had some errands to do so I was on my own. I decided to take advantage of the time off to grab a couple of movies that I have wanted to see. I chose movies that I know he would never want to see.

I started off with Iron Man. Iron Man is one of the oldest of the superheroes in the Marvel Universe. I had heard so many really good things about the movie so I had pretty high expectations. The movie definitely lived up to them. Tony Stark is expertly played by Robert Downey, Jr. Our soon-to-be hero/billionaire is exactly the arrogant, womanizing egotistist that he is supposed to be.

The movie's creators did a wonderful job of updating this story by tying the terrorists who kidnap him to Afghanistan. While visiting to show off some impressive new weapons Stark Indursties, his family's company, has designed, the caravan he is with is attacked. Stark is mortally wounded.

Forunately, the terrorists have an engineer/present who is able to rig something up that will save his live. The terrorists want Stark to create a weapon for them, but he uses the time to upgrade the mechanism and create a way to escape. In the process, he is able to create a way to escape in the form of metallic body armor. It is Iron Man 1.0.

The escape attempt works and Stark finds himself back in his world only to have his old perspective on business change because he has realized that the weapons Stark Industries create often find their way into the hands of the bad guys.

Along with his trusty personal assistant Pepper Potts, who is expertly played by Gwenyth Paltrow, Stark is out to change the company. The two of them have a wonderful connection that allows them to have many moments of humor and some awkward romantic moments that are not evident in the original comic series.

The mmovie is a nice balance of action and storyline with enough humor in it to prevent things from getting too dark. The special effects are wonderfully done so as to not overshadow the storytelling or the chracters. I would definitely recommend this one.