Ironman Rocks!

I took our family plus a few boys from our soccer teams (10-12 years old) to see Ironman yesterday. Let's put aside the fact that it was rated PG-13 and I had a 3-year old plus boys 10-12 for a minute. I'll address that in a bit. It was a really, really great movie.

Robert Downey, Jr (Tony Stark/Ironman) really brought something fresh to the genre. Would he have been viewed as good if he didn't bring all of his own personal history and demons along for the ride? I'm not sure. Gwyneth Paltrow played a great, understated Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's long-time assistant. In fact, the movie was really packed with terrific actors in all of the roles. Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges brought depth to roles that could have been throwaway's, which I think really added to the movie.

One of the boys I brought was of Middle Eastern descent, and it was strange how uncomfortable I got at times watching some of the movie. Having him a few seats from me actually forced me to step away from the film a bit and look at how Marvel portrayed the different members of the cast who were Arabic. I actually think they did a nice job, with terrorists, an aid to Tony Stark, then innocent villagers all shown on the screen. I'm not sure if anyone else noticed all this, and I doubt I would have if not for the young boy who I've coached for close to six years now.

The previews actually were more disturbing than the movie itself for young boys, with much inappropriate sexual innuendos in a couple of trailers. The movie had one risque portion (a reporter who spends the night with Stark). The violence in the film wasn't too graphic, so it is more of a parental judgment of what is acceptable or not for boys at specific ages. It wasn't scary, so even our little guy made it through fine. He actually stayed tuned in for the entire movie, which is tough for him in a live-action film.

Definitely hit the movie.