"Afghanistan, you say?" I hear some of you asking. "Could Iron Man be the anti-jihadist film certain heavily-represented-in-the-blogosphere segments of America have been waiting for?"

Um, kinda sorta but not quite. First off, Raza's not what you'd call a jihadist, just a standard-issue power-mad Third-Worlder. Secondly, Stark's conversion has more to do with his being appalled at seeing his own weapons in the hands of such ruthless killers — just in case you miss the poignancy of this realization, check out the scene in which Iron Man prevents the ruthless killing of a humble Afghani family man — than with any, um, crusade. And third, as is unsurprising in such a picture, the real enemy is at home, in the form of Stark's older business partner, Obadiah Stane (Bridges, sporting gray beard and shaven head), who's been selling weapons to terrorists willy-nilly, both out of greed and of course jealousy of his younger and more brilliant and charming boss.

Seeing Downey and Bridges duel is one of the film's primary delights; at first, they're old friends who are necessarily cagey with each other, and their mutual hostility and mistrust comes to a slow boil. Of course, given the genre's prerequisites, the final confrontation between the two is more or less by CGI proxy, with Iron Man facing off against a somewhat Transformer-esque Stane concoction called Iron Monger. They do finish their battle masks off; if lesser actors had played the parts, I doubt the filmmakers would have bothered.

Terrence Howard is given somewhat less to do as Stark's Air Force brass buddy who has to cover for him quite a bit, but a single shot and a one-liner suggest he'll be called in for more active duty in a sequel. As for the unexpected Gwyneth Paltrow, she's red-haired, befreckled and quite delightful as Stark's seen-everything Girl Friday Pepper Potts. It's abundantly evident that Downey and Paltrow watched a lot of classic screwball comedies together before they laid down their banter, which crackles like crazy. The two clearly get off on each other, and I haven't seen Paltrow enjoy herself in a role so much since, well, Shakespeare in Love.

— Glenn Kenny