As we all know, there is a big trend right now to turn any comic book whatsoever into a mvoie in the hopes that it will spawn sequels and lots of money for everyone involved.

Some of these projects are better than others, and I won't mention the worst ones...(oh, all right, Constantine, The Fountain and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen actually leap to mind in this context, although two of them were from truly awful print sources.)

But I digress. I love graphic novels, but am not much of a superhero fan. I know who Iron Man and his not-so-secret identity millionaire Tony Stark is, but that's about it.

But several people told me it was worth seeing and good explodo, so when Maid of Awesome said, let's go, I'd love to see it again, she didn't have to ask me twice.

And I was not disappointed. Robert Downey Jr. is always worth seeing, in almost anything. Gwyneth Paltrow was not annoying, and Jeff Bridges chewed scenery with the best of them. The plot was good, the one-liners apropos and funny, and the special effects were AWESOME.

Ah, Jeff Bridges. Time was when you were a big contender for Serious Honey...but no longer.

Fun, and well worth seeing. Stay to the end of the (INCREDIBLY LONG) credits, there's a good bit of bonus film...which I will disclose here for those who DON'T want to sit through the credits. Even to listen to Black Sabbath play Iron Man...which was great.