Iron Man: A Clunker

Now I'm the first to admit that I prefer indie films to blockbuster hits, but I was really, really looking forward to Iron Man when it came out.

(Robert Downey Jr. is one of my favorite actors since forever.)

However, at the time it was in the theaters, our social life kicked into high gear and I completely missed it while it was in its first run. Then, the last month has been pretty hectic, and movies fell off my radar altogether.

But on Halloween, I was watching the Iconoclasts episode with Jon Favreaux and Tony Hawk interviewing each other. After seeing Favreaux tootle around in the souped-up car that was in the movie, I was even more jazzed to see it on DVD.

In a weird clairvoyant moment, while I was watching the DVR'd episode of Iconoclasts, I spotted the mail that had just arrived. "I really hope that Iron Man is in that Netflix envelope," I thought to myself as I pawed through the pile.

I tore it open, and saw that it was!

Sadly, the movie lived up to neither the hype nor my expectations. And before you think, "Oh, she's got girly-girl tastes in movies," let me inform you that Mr. Spandrel himself hated it. We agreed that it was both too long, too short on details to make it interesting and involved way too many leaps of faith, even for a superhero movie.

Although, does he really count as a superhero, when he doesn't really have some kind of unique, innate power that he draws from? It's really more of a costume that he puts on, which provides the super powers. I mean, I could have hopped up and become Iron Man if that were the case.

I have to agree, though, being able to fly like it does would make for some exciting times.