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Iron Man was awesome! This has got to be the most overall-enjoyable superhero movie I have seen in a long time — and there have been quite a few good ones in the last couple of years to measure it up against.

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But really — it was great. I had so much fun I want to go back and see it again. And again. And again.

Iron Man is an unusual superhero movie in a number of ways. For one thing, its main character isn't exactly super. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr. — who is just perfect for the role, by the way) doesn't have any special powers (unless you count being really smart and good at making stuff), and he definitely has his share of flaws. Nor is he a particularly sympathetic character, at least at the beginning. No mild-mannered reporter or millionaire philanthropist here — this guy runs a weapons company... and not a very responsible one, either. Besides which, he's kind of a conceited jerk.

Personally, my philosophy on weapons of any variety is that you should never use (or, for that matter, design) anything you would not want to be on the receiving end of, so (like most everybody else in the theatre) I wasn't too upset when Stark got blasted out of his Humvee (or "fun-vee," as he called it, as opposed to a "hum-drum-vee") and dragged off into an underground hide-out by scary Afghani bad guys. I couldn't think of anybody I would rather see captured by unscrupulous cave-dwelling guerilla terrorists.

Luckily, however, Stark gets a lot more likable as the movie goes on.

Actually, the fact that he's a long way from perfect is part of what makes him such a great main character. He's trying to be good — he really is — but sometimes he just can't help himself. Which, of course, makes him a lot easier to relate to.

And, just like the rest of us, he makes a lot of mistakes. Funny mistakes, mostly. Which brings me to the second thing that makes this superhero movie unusual — it's not afraid to laugh at itself. Many flicks in this genre are so serious and melodramatic they're agonizing to watch, while others are so busy trying to use comedy to offset the silliness of their subject matter that they end up being totally cheesy, like the Batman TV show from the 60s. Iron Man, however, has achieved a perfect balance. It's serious when it has to be (without lapsing into self-indulgent melodrama), and it has lots of great funny moments.

Genius though he may be, Stark doesn't get everything right on the first try, and his early attempts at building his cool battle suit are frustrating for him, I'm sure, but very entertaining for us. Really. You haven't lived until you've watched a superhero fly upside-down smack into the ceiling.

And grumble irritably about it afterwards to his two robot helpers.

I loved those robots, by the way. They weren't, you know, R2D2-type robots or anything — they're just the sort of robot arms you see in documentaries about automobile plants — but they had a lot of personality just the same, and we have them to thank for a lot of the comic relief. It was a good idea to put them in there.

I liked Stark's human assistant, Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow), too. She is an interesting character, and these two have a rather atypical (but still very cute) relationship.

Back to the suit for a second, that thing was seriously cool. I mean, I want one. Kudos to the special effects guys. And oh the vicarious satisfaction of watching Stark and his suit give those nasty bad guys their come-uppins (not to mention outflying the air force).

Although I did find myself wondering about one thing — if there is room in this compact battle suit for a missile launcher, a flame thrower, flight rockets and control surfaces, a G-suit, electronically-targeted machine guns, a built-in flare gun and an onboard computer with heads-up display and artificial intelligence, how, pray tell, is there any room left in there for Tony Stark? The man must be more petite than he looks. Oh, and is it possible that all evil villainous masterminds are bald? (like Jeff Bridges. Can you believe that's Jeff Bridges?) I'm sure bald men everywhere would protest that stereotype. Or maybe they wouldn't — who knows?

Oh, well — it's a superhero movie. You know going into it you're going to have to suspend your disbelief. And this one is more believable than many.

Now, granted, it's not a perfect movie in every way, and it's definitely no great artistic statement about the human condition, but it's fun. It's a lot of fun. You can watch it over and over, and talk about it with your friends, and compare which parts you liked best, and then watch it again. Especially the ending — the ending is great. If you don't leave the theatre feeling good, you're a lot grumpier than I am.

By the way, just don't leave the theatre too soon — stick around for that extra scene at the end of the credits. It's pretty cool, and it sets the stage for a sequel (or several) that will hopefully be as good as the first one.