He was turned to steel / in the great magnetic field

So Saturday, Marc, CK, Mel, and I went to see Iron Man, joining the throngs of people evidently also doing so, by the looks of this weekend's take.  I don't think Marc, Mel, or CK knew much about Iron Man at all prior to the movie, while I have a bit of knowledge about the character, mostly through osmosis from RPGnet (and I read a lot of comics when I was back in middle school).  For all of us, I think, the movie was definitely a hit out of the park; for me, Iron Man is now competing with Batman Begins as my favorite superhero movie of all time.  As Jeremy pointed out though, the two are so different in tone that it is hard to really compare them.

Robert Downey Jr. does an awesome job as Tony Stark (evidently alcoholic playboy is not a hard role for him to grasp), and he definitely nails the personality in each aspect -- Tony as the pre-epiphany playboy, Tony as ubergeek, and Tony as post-epiphany superhero.  The supporting cast is good too -- Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, and Jeff Bridges all do a good job, and the movie isn't overly crowded with villians or supporting cast like some recent movies have been (see the latest Spiderman outing, for instance).  There was plenty of stuff that was obviously for real fans of the comic book (I'll give some examples behind the cut), but you could definitely enjoy the movie without ever having read the comic.  The special effects, while impressive, never overshadow the rest of the movie, and "in helmet" shots of Stark keep Downey from being a glorified voice actor for much of the film, as can sometimes happen with movies heavy on the CGI.

This is a movie I'm definitely looking forward to getting on DVD, and I'll probably try to pick up the soundtrack as well, which was pretty good.