This is the ultimate summer blockbuster. If you're like me, and you used to love Iron Man comics as a kid (and maybe still do today), you've probably already seen this movie. If you didn't come from a background of weekly superhero literature but are someone who just likes good movies, especially ones with great action and amazing special effects, Iron Man is still for you. Iron Man is a highly energetic piece of entertainment pushed forward with superb acting and reinforced with a lesson of responsibility.

The film follows rock star weapon-designing genius Tony Stark. The billionaire Stark goes off with the U.S. military to the Middle East in order to demonstrate the Jericho, a new weapon in his company's Freedom line of missiles. On their way back from the demo, their convoy is ambushed by terrorists, and Stark is kidnapped and forced to recreate a Jericho for his captors, who have somehow acquired many of his weapons, from which they know he can extract the parts needed to create the missile in question. Well, Stark is always using his brains, so instead of building the weapon, he pretends to build it but builds himself a super-powerful suit of armor instead. Then he takes them head-on, goes home, and perfects his creation into the greatest weapon ever: the iron man suit. Col. James Rhodes, an acquaintance of Stark, says it perfectly: "That's the coolest thing I have ever seen."

Robert Downey Jr. puts in a brilliant performance as Stark. He has a great script to work with, but he also executes every line to perfection with his timing and delivery. At the beginning of the film, even the soldiers Stark is riding with are intimidated by his persona. They consider him such a celebrity that, once he loosens them up, they ask for pictures with him. Whether he's chatting coolly with women (James Bond has nothing on this guy) or participating in a very funny ongoing banter with his overeager flame-extinguishing robot that understands colloquial voice commands, the character is just a blast to watch. Let me put it this way, Stark is every bit as entertaining out of the iron man suit as he is when in the suit. Now, that's good acting.

Director Jon Favreau and his writers do all they can to contribute to Stark's flamboyance. In maybe the most extreme example, Stark is in a private jet, talking business with Rhodes. After he rejects Stark's insistence that he have a drink, the film, as if to say, "Look at what this guy is capable of," cuts to a short time later in the flight. Not only are the two of them drinking with music playing, but even Stark's stewardesses are dancing around with their tops tied up, drinking champagne. The audacity of it is hilarious. Stark is constantly portrayed as the ultimate bachelor.

But you want to hear about the iron man suit, don't you? Even Stark's first, prototypical suit is as awesome as you can imagine (and it's not even shiny!). Who wouldn't want to watch someone in an immense, super-powerful, flamethrower-equipped, armored suit take on bad guys? When this first fight against the terrorists begins, it almost feels like a scene from a horror movie: dark caves, terrified people, an unstoppable force. The difference is that the people running away are the bad guys, and the unstoppable force is our main character. It doesn't get any more satisfying than that. Then, when Stark builds the real iron man suit, the red and gold one we all know and love, the action cranks up exponentially. It's even fun just watching him test it out. And when we see him spar with two F-22's, there is no longer a point in questioning what the movie is capable of. You want action? You got it here.

The theme of Iron Man is actually somewhat similar to that of Frankenstein, which is the idea that we are responsible for the things we create. At the beginning of the film, Stark is the ultimate realist. He is sorry that war exists, but he feels that peace is never fully possible, so he creates amazing new weapons for our military. Of course he does not want those weapons falling into the wrong hands, but if they do, that's just an inevitable part of the war game. The alternative is that we don't have such weapons at all, in which case our country will be militarily surpassed and potentially conquered. Stark is often questioned about the state of his conscience as the creator of such weaponry. His general response, and his genuine belief, is that he's accomplishing the greater good by making sure our military is always the one with the bigger stick. "That's how America does it. And it's worked pretty well so far," he says in a tellingly qualified assessment of the doctrine's success. Stark begins the film with few feelings of responsibility for the use of his products.

However, once Stark witnesses firsthand his weapons falling into the wrong hands, he learns the lesson that, yes, war may always be a fact of life, but we cannot merely accept the fact that the things we create may be obtained by evildoers. When we create something, we are responsible for both the good and bad that it causes. If its use is out of our control, that is no excuse; it is our responsibility to keep it under control in the first place, and if the mud does hit the fan, it is our responsibility to clean up the mess. Of course, if you have an iron man suit, cleaning up the mess can be pretty fun, even if it is a bit perilous.

With the creation of the iron man suit and the use of it to fight bad guys, Stark not only redeems himself but also becomes a human Superman. He was not born with any superhuman powers, but good old determination and hard work give him the smarts he needs to become a superman. Though conceivably he could have sold the plans for the suit to the U.S. military to make billions upon billions of dollars, he redeems his faults of responsibility by keeping it for himself and using it to fight bad guys. The lesson is that ingenuity can get you anywhere. Being a genius never looked so fun.

Save for a handful of scenes, I think Iron Man would be a good movie to show to a young kid. I couldn't imagine a boy watching this and not come out wanting to be a scientist; it's just so much fun. And at the same time, it teaches a good lesson. Inversely, it made me, as an adult, want to go back and read some Iron Man comics. In my book, that's a successful film.