[dlb]

The fanboys were looking for loyalty to the comics and all-around entertainment, not just 'cool explosions' dlb. You want cool explosions sans substance spend your ten bucks on a Michael Bay movie. I hear Transformers 2 will be boring audiences next year.

"Cool explosions sans substance" does not equal "boring." A good action flick (e.g. the original Terminator) is about building and releasing tension. I only need to know enough about Stark to care whether or not he gets killed.

The action there was was original, memorable, and perfectly directed.

I disagree. I thought the action sequences were staid (the breakout from the cave); lifeless (the encounter with the fighter planes); and silly (the final battle with Stane). They in no way justified all of the dull "substance" that ran between them.

Robert Downey Jr. was the exact right guy for that role.

Downey was good, but I think there are about a dozen actors who could have handled the role just as well.

I'd further add that the movie was effective at having an underlying point regarding the War on Terror. That only a small portion of American society, the volunteer US military, has been asked (well, forced) to sacrifice for the cause. And that America is at its best when all elements of her society, including the rich and comfortable like Tony Stark, are committed to both the sacrifice overseas and the debate at home. Hence the importance of that final line in the movie, where Tony admits to the planet that he, the world's most famous billionaire and military industrialist, is Iron Man. Its only partly an impulse of his own massive ego, its also out of a sincere desire to let the world know he shares in that sacrifice.

This is a real stretch.