First there were whispers and rumours, then an unauthorised trailer was leaked onto the Internet — the lengths comic book nerds would go to plug a film they had no stake in was mindblowing.
But once again it proved that grassroots support is more effective than any PR exercise as audiences scrabbled for their seats in the opening weekend.
It is the story of billionaire phillantropist Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), who owns an innovative weapons company established by his father.
This allows for a clever little play on America’s domination of the world and its contradictory idea that stockpiling weapons of mass destruction creates a more peaceful world.
Stark lives the playboy lifestyle but things go awry when he demonstrates a Jericho missile to the US Air Force in Afghanistan (updated from Vietnam in the original comic).
After his vehicle is attacked, Stark is taken into captivity to construct the Jericho for terrorists.
Knowing his life is on the line he designs a metal suit for himself and escapes in a blaze of destruction.
A changed man with a renewed sense of morality he bids to design a better suit and return to Afghanistan to destroy the weapons that have fallen into wrong hands.
Like Batman’s Bruce Wayne, Stark is a super hero with no special powers which means we can relate to him (sort of) and Robert Downey Jr brings a wealth of charm to the character.
It is high octane blockbuster material throughout and is only let down by some poor pacing here and there and a cheesy final battle.
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