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It’s summertime and this year the studios have selected Iron Man to be the sacrificial piggy to offer up to the summer movie gods. Let the roast begin…

Iron Man is director Jon Favreau’s first attempt at action and Robert Downey Jr. seems a somewhat unlikely, yet perfect candidate for the billionaire playboy, Tony Stark aka Iron Man. If you haven’t read the Iron Man comics, let me sum up why Downey presumably works for Tony Stark: Stark is basically Downey Jr. plus a couple billion dollars and I.Q. points and minus the cocaine and court appearances. The paparazzi, self-obsession, glitz and glam all remain the same in both men. And while Iron Man is no Batman Begins, the film shows glimpses of a superior superhero film even though it falls short about half way through, turning into a much too typical superhero film.

At its beginning, the immediate catch to Iron Man is Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. Stark and Downey Jr. can seemingly woo everyone from US military officers, terrorists, women, CEOs, the press and the audience with their charm, snappy one-liners and humor. Downey Jr. is amazing and dynamic in this film and no matter what you think of him in real life, he proves time and time again in countless roles why he is one of the great actors of the last 20 years.

Once Stark is taken captive by the way too stereotypical Middle Eastern terrorists, this image of the billionaire playboy selling weapons to keep Americans safe is proven false to the audience and to Stark, as the terrorists have been regularly buying weapons from his company. It is here where Iron Man becomes intense and interesting; Downey Jr.’s absolutely stellar acting really reflects a broken man seeing his family’s work and legacy tarnished by corruption and reality. Weapons kill and it’s easy to make them when you don’t have to look at their results. It even felt like director Favreau and writers Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway were giving a narrative and visual representation to a controversial topic many attribute to the US government. And so it would seem that Iron Man is an intelligent and deep take on current US foreign policy, but the film never gets this far or dares to go down such a risky and interesting road.

Instead, the terrorists are seemingly out of nowhere with no real cause except destruction for destruction’s sake; they are one-sided and flat. And the film quickly turns from interesting gray area subject matter to black and white fantasy, with Downey Jr. as Stark is the good guy, and the terrorists and (get this) Jeff Bridges as the head of Stark Industries are the bad guys. The film begins to turn cliché and flat as soon as Stark launches his escape scene in his prototype Iron Man suit (an awesome tribute to the look of the early Iron Man comics). Stark is cradling his dying cell mate who has been shot, the guy gives some cheesy last words, then cut to Iron Man ripping through the cave prison, guns-a-blazin’ accompanied by sound track music featuring shredding electric guitar over orchestral music. Ya.

The aforementioned shortcomings are not to be outdone by overuse of CGI at the end of the movie that just passes by the audience as we are all so used to seeing this stuff by now. It’s hard to wow us anymore, and Iron Man’s play-it-safe strategy doesn’t work. Also, and I just need to put this out there for sanity’s sake, who the hell was the genius-casting director that decided the Dude, Jeff Lebowski, Jeff Bridges would be good as the film’s super villain? It’s ridiculous. When it’s revealed that Bridges’ character, the CEO of Stark Industries, has been personally dealing with the terrorists, make sure you take notice at the patrons sitting next to you in the theater: most of them will still be smiling from the charm left over from Jeff Bridges performance as the gymnastics coach in Stick It. Even in the last scene of the film where he is about to kill Tony Stark with his big SUV of an Iron Man suit, I couldn’t help but think: “this is the same guy who wrote a check for a carton of milk in The Big Lebowski.”

All in all, there are some fun moments in Iron Man, watching him fly, build his suits, umm, what else, the references to War Machine and S.H.I.E.L.D. and his jokes are funny for a while. That’s pretty much it after the film falls into the stereotype superhero film. If that’s worth the price of a movie ticket, then go see it.