Iron Man rocked my socks off

by Cadi Russell-Sauve

 

“That guy is totally a jerk. He shouldn’t be a superhero, he’s worse than Bruce Wayne,” I whispered into John’s ear. And then a huge explosion happened and people were shooting and dying, and I forgot my hatred of the douchie lead character.

Iron Man is a lot of fun. And a lot of fire, explosions, cool gadgets, and a robot that looks like it stumbled off the set of MST3000. And kind of acts like it, too. While the plot is typical coming-of-age story of the superhero type (an in this case, a kind of old guy – not your typical teenaged Peter Parker), the effects make up for it.

Gwyneth Paltrow played a pouty yet efficient secretary who must have had some amazing database/calendar/information retrieval system built into her lips, ‘cause she really held Mr. Stark’s life together. She was able to pull off amazing gigs with very little planning time. She kept up with a jet-setter’s life style. She always had time to do her hair. Unfortunately, her personal management device was never really revealed. This is a shame. I wouldn’t mind having what she has to organize my own life.

And speaking of user interfaces, Mr. Stark’s home computer system is pretty amazing, and even has a British accent. But it’s not too great at keeping out intruders. I mean, two people break in! The interfaces of Iron Man’s suit and IronCave computer are advanced, savvy, and pretty as well. It makes the iPhone look iDiotic! Touch screens that automatically start building titanium suits, put on clothes, and seem genuinely concerned when Mr. Stark is about to embark on another bad idea.