"Fuckin' disgusting", to quote Riddick. Having had twenty four hours to digest it, those would be the two words I'd use to describe Iron Man.  This movie had so much potential and so much good about it, that it was disgusting what they did with the storyline. The blatant, offensive, irritating and just fucking disgusting racism in it was shocking to behold.  This is a movie that played ominous music whenever an Arab was shown on screen.  This is a movie where the "good guys" all work for or support the American military.  This is a movie where they showed the American flag and talked in terms of patriotism, winning the war in Iraq, and making better weapons to do so.  This is a movie where they lauded Stark's father, who helped create the atomic bomb.  Now, I have to add to all of this rant that this is how the comics were written originally.  At the time they would have been culturally relevant and not quite so politically incorrect.  Today however, it wouldn't work, and shouldn't have been made as it was.

The reason its such a pity is that taking out the blatant racism and American patriotism (difficult without changing the whole tenet of the story), Iron Man was indeed glorious.  The interplay between Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow was fantastic.  There were moments of pure frisson between the two of them that were just awesome to behold.  The suit was an incredible piece of special effects, being both completely believable and impossible at the same time.  Now, I'm not a great fan of the Iron Man comics, having read my last one about twenty five years ago, but from what I remember it all seems to have been fairly accurate.  If there hadn't been so much racism in it, then I would really have loved this movie.

As is it, I really cannot wait for the next one, so long as they lay off the blatant racism and silly patriotism.  I just can't tell you how much that spoiled it for me.