Iron Man

Superhero, or comic book adaptations, aren't always as good as you think they'll be though the likes of Spiderman, Batman and X-Men have been outstanding.
The best place I can sit Iron Man is a rung or two below those benchmarks.
I won't bore you with background - I didn't know an awful lot about Iron Man but I did know enough to know what to expect and the film, as is the norm in any genesis of a franchise, spends some time explaining the how and why.
The casting - Robert Downey Jr is quite a good choice for Tony Stark/Iron Man and Gwenyth Paltrow is fine as Pepper Potts, his assistant. Others in the cast are good though I don't think acting performances will be what people remember.
Unfortunately there has been a lot of borrowing from films like Transformers and, the earlier Robocop films. Though it probably could be argued that Robocop came from the Iron Man idea.
I think in the end Iron Man is a couple of hours of pretty good entertainment. There are some nice one liners, some good action (though not quite enough) and impressive effects.
I think in one sense it would be a great idea to leave the cinema about two minutes before the credits roll because the end is pretty ordinary. That was the first thought anyway. Now, you MUST stay through the entire credits because there is a scene at the end that makes the other ending seem a little better - but only a little.
We all know there will be a sequel.
A 7 out of 10. Good, but not in the upper echelon of the genre by a long way.