Robert Downey Jr shines like a diamond in an otherwise rough movie
While few would consider Robert Downey Jr to be Hollywood's finest actor, it's hard to deny the man's effortless charm onscreen - a quality enhanced by his off-screen fiascos over the years.
In Iron Man, the latest superhero movie based on a Marvel Comics character, Downey has found his perfect role as Tony Stark, an inventor-cum-playboy billionaire who seems to care little about the world.
The movie opens as Stark is driven in a heavily armed military vehicle across the barren landscape of Afghanistan, joking with and showing off to a group of US soldiers.
Downey revels in scenes like that. This is a man who, in movies such as Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Zodiac, has been delivering lines like no one has ever done before, turning flippancy and smugness into an art form.
The military unit comes under attack, and Stark is injured - a piece of shrapnel gets embedded near his heart. He is then captured by a terrorist group that demands he build them a super weapon.
In the terrorists' workshop, Stark and another captured scientist defy their captors to create a bullet-proof iron suit that can fire missiles, project streams of fire and fly, then use it to escape.